Shanghai: Several of Europe’s biggest funders of scientific collaboration with China, in fields such as viruses and air quality, have put bilateral research programmes on hold due to concerns over Chinese data protection laws, funding agencies said.
The suspension, which Reuters is reporting for the first time following queries to the agencies on funding, highlights the widening impact of a Chinese data protection law that has already impeded some business projects, as international institutions and companies assess how to navigate the regulations.
While many countries require various protections and privacy safeguards for research involving their citizens, one of China’s most recent laws – known as the Data Security Law – makes it illegal to share any “important data” with overseas partners without approval.
Three European funding agencies – the German Research Foundation, Swedish Research Council and Swiss National Science Foundation – told Reuters that they had not offered new co-funding for projects with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) since 2021, the year the law took effect.
They said they would not jointly fund new research projects with the NSFC due to concerns over access to data, potential conflict with local data law, or legal liabilities for themselves or research institutes for breaches of the law’s vaguely-defined provisions.
What constitutes “important data”, a designation requiring security clearance from the Cyberspace Administration of China to export, is of particular concern.
“It is not clear what the definition of ‘important data’ is,” the Swiss National Science Foundation told Reuters. “It is therefore difficult for the Swiss research community to assess when and under what circumstances a research collaboration could be subject to sanctions or even penalties.”
China had defined “important data” as data that poses a threat to national and economic interests or affects the rights of individuals or organisations, and has not provided further details.
A dataset classified as “important data” means “it will be extremely difficult (if not virtually impossible) to export these data from China to another country,” the German Research Foundation told Reuters.
The suspension could potentially delay research in the health sector – one area of joint collaboration funders had previously supported – at the same time as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump moves to freeze billions of dollars in U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, cut 1,200 of that agency’s staff and withdraw from the World Health Organization.
It could also influence other research institutes’ perceptions about the Data Security Law and similar laws in China.
“The concerns about how the data laws are being applied exist, and are very real,” said Jan Palmowski, secretary-general of the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities.
“We saw that responding to the COVID pandemic effectively required global sharing of data on a massive scale; but we have also seen national sensitivities around data relating to the origin of COVID,” Palmowski added.
“If we want to be agile in responding to future pandemics and address other key health challenges, we need to find ways to share data responsibly, safely, and according to common ethical rules.”
In their last projects with the NSFC, the Swedish Research Council provided about 36 million Swedish crowns ($3.7 million) in funding, the Swiss National Science Foundation 4.8 million Swiss francs ($5.8 million) and German Research Foundation 6.6 million euros ($7.51 million), according to statistics the European funders provided.
“They (China’s science ministry) don’t understand why (the problem) needs to be clarified on a government to government level,” said a European government official who is discussing the data security law with the ministry.
The European official said China’s science ministry has recommended researchers sort out any issues themselves. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order not to jeopardise its discussions with the ministry.
China’s science ministry and the Cyberspace Administration of China did not reply to requests for comment.
The three funders were among the top 50 overseas co-funding agencies with the NSFC, China’s top funder on scientific publications, in documents registered to the Web of Science publication database between 2015 and 2024, data Clarivate provided to Reuters showed.
They have previously accepted proposals for jointly-funded research projects in subjects including the airborne spread of antibiotic resistance and the virus that causes COVID-19.
CONCERNED
Other countries have also expressed concerns including the U.S. which has previously said what China considers “important data” in the data security law is broad and vaguely defined.
Kei Koizumi, a former White House science policy official, told Reuters that U.S. agencies including the NIH, National Science Foundation, and Department of Energy expressed concerns about data access and researcher protections and they were incorporated into a U.S.-China science deal announced in December. He did not elaborate further.
According to the agreement, which Reuters obtained from the US State Department via a Freedom of Information request, the two countries agreed to carry out a complete and timely exchange of data from cooperation activities and meet about differences in data management and access plans within 60 days of a dispute mechanism being triggered.
UK Research and Innovation also told Reuters it was “actively engaged in discussions with Chinese research funders” about China data laws. It said it would “share guidance” to its research grant applicants “where necessary and appropriate”.
Some observers are hopeful of change. “In the present ongoing approach between the EU and China, due to the US situation, there is an opportunity for pushing China to relax its rules,” Kurt Deketelaere, Secretary-General of the League of European Research Universities, told Reuters.
($1 = 9.5814 Swedish crowns)
($1 = 0.8255 Swiss francs)
($1 = 0.8790 euros)
(Reporting by Andrew Silver; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Kate Mayberry)
