By Becky Chambers Hennessy

Collaboration is among the flagship strategies of innovation for research scientists, engineers and technical professionals. Here, three R&D experts weigh in on China as it rises to become the world’s top R&D investor. They also address some of the benefits and challenges of openness in research, and the inclusion of foreign researchers in the U.S. and other countries.

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Vicki A. Barbur, Ph.D., is senior director, partnerships and technology commercialization, at Battelle. She brings expertise in science and business, as well as broad technical and other experience to her role as a growth leader in technology commercialization and IP management. Her key areas of focus include streamlining processes for securing intellectual property and licensing, as well as developing collaborative and strategic partnerships through universities and other academic institutions, innovation bridges, tech hubs, accelerators and incubators.

R&DW: China is close to becoming the top global R&D investor, forecast to surpass total U.S. spending by 2025. What do you see as significant drivers of this trend?

Barbur: China’s overall aim in dominating R&D spending is designed to reposition the country’s image. This spending delivers an ability to drive the country’s innovation, and thereby provide attractive opportunities for global investors. There is also evidently a country strategy in place to increase spending at the rate of 10% per year, and to support this target the government has put in place a number of key measures, namely, expanding the talent pools and offering subsidies and tax reductions to those pursuing such “entrepreneurial” efforts.

The overarching objective with the R&D spend is to enable China to transform from its current perception as a manufacturing hub to one seen as an innovation powerhouse — the ultimate goal being to position China favorably as a top-ranked innovation nation with a pioneering global influence in the future.

R&DW: What is a good example of global collaboration with R&D innovators that has succeeded in delivering solutions beneficial to customers?

Barbur: We need to look no further than what is happening in our current environment with collaborative efforts directed towards solving the diagnosis, treatment and cure of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as it ravages through the world’s population. The speed with which the pathogen sequence was extracted, and then selflessly and rapidly shared, was due in part to digital transformation-enabling information sharing across the world within minutes. This outcome was quickly followed by the declaration of an international emergency of public health concern, and the subsequent convening of a global R&D forum, all of which are designed to galvanize global collaboration with private and public sectors for timely development of vaccines and treatments.

For example, as a result of this pandemic, the National Museum of Natural History is sponsoring an exhibition that focuses on “one health” and features a collaborative approach to solving world health problems. The aim is to effect improvements in human health as it is recognized now, an endeavor that should include the ecosystems in which individuals live and work.

R&DW: What are some challenges and benefits of openness in research, and inclusion of foreign researchers training and working in the U.S. and other countries? 

Barbur: Scientific knowledge and expertise are widespread in relatively few advanced countries. Hence, collaboration between scientists working in these countries and those in developing countries provides an important channel for broader access to the knowledge and expertise, which can then be applied to local issues. Furthermore, for the U.S., working with foreign scientists — especially those from more scientifically advanced countries — provides a good way to enhance local scientific capabilities through the exchange of knowledge and experience.

Lastly, collaborative research can provide access to scientific facilities that may not be available locally. That includes large computing facilities, or “hard science” facilities, such as particle accelerators, radio-telescopes and oceanographic research vessels — many of which are located within a country’s national laboratory system. However, by engaging in such collaborations, in which there is a clear need and goal to openly share information, there also is a strong requirement for trust and integrity to be an underlying norm. Under these circumstances, it is frequently necessary to limit collaborative partners to like-minded entities, individuals and those who will abide by this code of practice.

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Bill Cockayne, Ph.D., is a longtime lecturer at Stanford University’s School of Engineering and member of Stanford Design. He leads the Stanford Foresight research program, the university’s Silicon Valley Innovation Academy, the Moonshot Garage, and teaches an award-winning course series, ME410ABC Foresight & Innovation. The focus across these programs: the conversion of long-range, technology-enabled inventions into today’s radical innovations. This work has been scaled from a small emerging technology research focus to become the long-running ME410 course series.

R&DW: China is close to becoming the top global R&D investor, forecast to surpass total U.S. spending by 2025. What do you see as significant drivers of this trend?

Cockayne: Continuing the trajectory of China’s modernization, science and technology funding has been accelerating alongside the rise of globally competitive researchers in universities and the emergence of product market leaders. Looking forward, we should map existing and potential investments by innovation horizon; new products (horizon 1) through new technologies (horizon 2) into fundamental science (horizon 3) and onto the search for almost-impossible ideas (horizon 4).

To date, one narrative has China’s R&D rise investing primarily in deploying existing manufacturing and technologies to create new products (so, wholly in horizon 1). At the same time, technology breakthroughs (horizon 2) are already being delivered by the likes of DJI in civilian drones, to mention just one example. Similar stories can be found in technology development and fundamental sciences (horizon 3) across many fields. While China’s most recent exports include science fiction books and movies that present a better future for all of humanity (horizon 4).

R&DW: What is a good example of global collaboration with R&D innovators that has succeeded in delivering solutions beneficial to customers?

Cockayne: One of the top R&D investments measured by ROI-across-time is young people. America’s rise as an R&D leader was built alongside an investment in “tomorrow’s science, technology, and business leaders” via universities, corporate partnerships, investment by government (grants, challenge grants and education funding) and investors (venture capital). In the last two decades the internationalization of Research 1 universities has delivered a new generation of young leaders.

One concrete example is the engineering design community that grew out of Stanford University’s ME310 course. This 50-year-old project- and team-based course began with nearby companies sponsoring nine-month challenges to Stanford students. In the late 1990s, the course began partnering with universities around the globe to bring new corporate partners with new challenges to the student teams. A team with students located in Kyoto, Japan, and St. Gallen, Switzerland, could now work together on a challenge from a company in Finland. This network expanded beyond Stanford a decade ago and continues to graduate new global innovators.

R&DW: What are some challenges and benefits of openness in research, and inclusion of foreign researchers training and working in the U.S. and other countries?

Cockayne: Speaking from personal experience as an engineer and entrepreneur, the benefits of an open, inclusive research and development ecosystem offset most challenges. Whether we’re talking about Silicon Valley CEOs and founders, the history of foundational breakthroughs and world-changing inventions, the faculty and researchers with whom I have been lucky enough to work, or the teams I have hired, I cannot imagine a world where “the best” talent is unable to collaborate. Turning to recent experience, globalization has challenged teams to use web-based collaborative tools, which have accelerated the discussion of amazing new ideas and breakthroughs, technologies and inventions, and products and services.

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Yao Weiguang, Ph.D., is global R&D director and Asia Pacific chief technology officer for The Dow Company, where he represents Dow R&D in the Asia-Pacific (AP) region. Weiguang joined Dow in 2007 as senior R&D director for Dow Core R&D in the AP. He led the development of AP core and business-aligned research capability and strategy at Dow where he oversaw and accelerated AP core R&D innovation, and was instrumental in driving collaborative innovation across the value chain. Weiguang is based in Shanghai, China.

R&DW: China is close to becoming the top global R&D investor, forecast to surpass total U.S. spending by 2025. What do you see as significant drivers of this trend?

Weiguang: Chinese industries have grown both their appetite and capability to drive R&D as the country’s economy simultaneously grew to become the world’s second largest. In parallel, the Chinese government has provided fuel by making grants, tax credits and loans available to the industrial champions among them. Corporations have contributed the bulk of China’s R&D investment each year with their innovation-fueled growth strategy.

In 2018, the business sector accounted for approximately three-quarters of China’s R&D spend. Chinese companies are striving to lead globally in areas such as home appliances, e-commerce, EV batteries, 5G, artificial intelligence and industrial networks. Innovation is the only avenue toward achieving this leadership. Strong investment in R&D continues to propel them forward on the global stage.

Though China is closing the gap with the U.S. on R&D investment, it still has a long way to go to be the world’s innovation superpower. The nation’s total R&D expenditure in 2019 was RMB $2.174 trillion, about 2.2% of China’s GDP — a humble percentage compared with the U.S., Germany and Japan. And if you look at R&D expenditure per capita, it is apparent that while China has made progress, it still has room to grow.

R&DW: What are some challenges and benefits of openness in research, and inclusion of foreign researchers training and working in the U.S. and other countries?

Weiguang: At Dow, we value inclusion and diversity as a source of competitive advantage. Openness allows great minds to work together, which is particularly critical for R&D, as different cultural backgrounds and experiences bring richer perspectives and market insights to fuel innovation.

We advocate for international training and exchange programs, as well as cross-disciplinary interactions.

Nations and institutions need to seek effective measures to promote and protect intellectual property, but this doesn’t mean we close the door to collaboration. China has been structurally addressing IP challenges and is moving from having strong legislation to the implementation phase. In the long run, this should increase collaborations. A lot of the opportunities we are working on — for example, in sustainability — require a massive amount of resources, collaborations and diverse expertise.

We hope governments will continue to appreciate the value of international collaboration, promote and protect intellectual property, and make it easy for scientists and engineers to exchange ideas and solutions within a predictable and transparent regulatory environment.

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