New Zealand-China Scientist Exchange Programme 2024

The exchange programme supports the development of research linkages with New Zealand enabling Chinese researchers to visit New Zealand research organisations. 

Ten researchers will be hosted around the motu for 6 weeks at various universities and Crown Research Institutes.

As H.E. Wang from the Chinese Embassy in Wellington said, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the New Zealand – China Climate Change Cooperation Arrangement, where the two sides engage on issues such as green finance and the Emissions Trading Scheme.

In addition to the researchers, members of China Science & Technology Exchange Center (CSTEC) and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) also joined for the orientation day.

The programme is funded by Catalyst: Leaders, administered by Royal Society Te Apārangi on behalf of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Welcoming mihi whakatau

At the welcoming mihi whakatau for the orientation day, Hugo Bussell said a few words on behalf of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment:

“Scientific exchanges and international mobility programmes are an essential part of building a strong global research system that can effectively tackle shared challenges.”

"China is one of New Zealand’s most important science and innovation partners. Our partnership has come a long way since formal collaboration between our two countries began nearly forty years ago."

"Over that time, scientific collaborations between us have grown significantly. When our two countries signed the bilateral science treaty in 1987, the annual number of joint scientific publications between New Zealand and China was less than ten; today it’s almost 3000 per year."

“New Zealand and Chinese researchers now work together across almost all disciplines, but collaboration is especially strong in our government-agreed bilateral priority areas of food science, environment science, and health and biomedical sciences. These collaborations have yielded, and continue to yield, significant and tangible benefits for both of our nations. For example, the MBIE funded China-Maurice Wilkins Centre Collaborative Research Programme has in recent years supported New Zealand researchers in the biomedical sciences to work closely with Chinese partners to produce ground-breaking scientific results and innovative cancer therapies, which have the capacity to change people’s lives for the better. Some of these are now entering clinical trials, which is a hugely exciting development. The remarkable progress in the New Zealand - China science relationship is evident."

Benefits of international collaboration

According to data from SciVal, China is now New Zealand's fourth-largest research partner in terms of co-authoring scholarly publications, following Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Since 2021, authors from China and New Zealand have co-authored 7,986 papers, involving 4,586 authors from New Zealand and 19,126 authors from China. These collaborative papers achieved a Field-Weighted Citation Impact (1) of 2.77, significantly higher than that for either New Zealand (1.52) or China (1.11) papers, respectively. The two countries share multiple areas of interest in disciplines such as Engineering, Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Computer Science, Medicine, and Environmental Science.

International collaboration yields a multitude of benefits. It enables researchers to access resources beyond their own institutions, encompassing funding, talent, and equipment. Moreover, it facilitates the sharing of knowledge and the integration of diverse perspectives to solve increasingly complex, cross-disciplinary problems. This collaborative approach maximises research outputs, leading to a stronger impact and ultimately enhancing research outcomes.

^1. Note on Field-Weighted Citation Impact: An FWCI of 1 means that the output performs just as expected against the global average. More than 1 means that the output is more cited than expected according to the global average; for example, 2.77 means 177% more cited than expected.