Int'l initiative launched to promote sci-tech access

China, Brazil, South Africa and the African Union have jointly launched the Initiative on International Cooperation in Open Science with the goal to promote the Global South's access to global scientific and technological innovation achievements, the Ministry of Science and Technology announced on Thursday.

The initiative was one of the eight actions outlined by President Xi Jinping to support global development during the 19th G20 Summit on Monday.

According to the ministry, the initiative aims to promote global cooperation on science, technology and innovation, work to achieve an open, fair, impartial and nondiscriminatory environment for global science and technology development, and advance the sound development of open science globally.

The countries involved in the initiative support the G20 strategy to promote open innovation cooperation, and encourage the G20 to carry out more exchanges and cooperation on open science, the initiative said.

"All stakeholders including governments, scientific communities, enterprises and nongovernmental organizations should uphold the cooperation principle of mutual benefit, as well as the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, in line with the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science," the initiative said.

It proposes that governments, scientific communities, enterprises, nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders should support the free flow of sci-tech innovation personnel and resources on a global scale, and ensure that different stakeholders can equitably participate in and are treated fairly in the open science cause.

"We should strengthen scientific and technological co-construction with and technology transfer to developing countries, strengthening capacity-building on science and technology for the Global South," the initiative said.

Governments should also increase investment in open science, create a favorable policy and investment environment for open science, promote joint building of and open access to major research infrastructure, foster a culture of open science, build up human resources, and explore paths to open science suited to their national or regional conditions, it added.

Experts said that more scientific and cultural exchanges could build a bridge for research collaboration between countries.

Alexander W.A. Kellner, an academician at the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, said scientific and cultural exchanges over the past 20 years have fostered a deep friendship between the scientific communities of Brazil and China.

"There is broad cooperation potential between the two countries in fields like the economy, science and technology, and climate change response. I believe that continued deepening of cooperation in various fields will bring more benefits to the people of both countries," he added.