Oxford Events, the new replacement for OxTalks, will launch on 16th March. From now until the launch of Oxford Events, new events cannot be published or edited on OxTalks while all existing records are migrated to the new platform. The existing OxTalks site will remain available to view during this period.
From 16th, Oxford Events will launch on a new website: events.ox.ac.uk, and event submissions will resume. You will need a Halo login to submit events. Full details are available on the Staff Gateway.
In recent years, escalating geopolitical tensions and the rise of neo-nationalism have posed significant obstacles to international research collaboration between China and the West (Marginson, 2022a; Rizvi, 2022). As China’s advancements in science and technology are increasingly perceived as a strategic threat, newly coined and redefined concepts—such as knowledge security, trusted research, containment, and foreign interference in research and innovation—have become prevalent in Western policy discourse (European Commission, 2019; White House, 2025; Shih et al., 2025). The challenges are particularly pronounced in STEM disciplines, where barriers to cooperation are significantly higher than in the humanities and social sciences. Shifting geopolitical dynamics, coupled with the emergence of state-driven research policies such as “organized science,” have inevitably prompted Chinese STEM scientists to modify their collaboration partners, research focus, modes of cooperation, and strategic approaches. This study investigates how Chinese STEM scientists navigate geopolitical challenges in their international scientific collaborations. Specifically, it addresses the following research questions: How do geopolitical influences affect Chinese scientists’ international research collaborations? What strategies have Chinese universities and scientists adopted to mitigate geopolitical constraints? What resources, cultural factors, and organizational conditions are necessary to facilitate these strategies?
