From February 25 to March 4, 2019, president of the National Academy of Innovation Strategy (NAIS) Prof. Ren Fujun led a delegation to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in the UK and the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL) in Portugal for academic exchanges on subjects including international collaboration, publication of English language journal, and co-organization of international academic events.

From February 25 to March 1, the Chinese delegation led by Prof. Ren met and exchanged with international peers including Prof. Martin Bauer’s team at the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at LSE, Prof. Guo Yike at Imperial College London, Mei Jianjun, director of the Needham Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, Prof. Bernard Schiele at University of Quebec, and Prof. Michel Claessens, Policy Officer at ITER on scientific culture research.

The four days of intensive academic discussion saw a dozen of international scholars including Prof. Martin Bauer, Prof. Ahmet Suredem, Dr. Lucia Garcia, Dr. Chris Tennant and Dr. Bankole Falade at LSE, NAIS associate research fellow Liu Xuan, Dr. Marta Entradas at ISCTE-IUL, Dr. Ingrid Schoon at University College London, Prof. Guo Yike at Imperial College London, and Mei Jianjun, director of the Needham Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, give keynote presentations and have full exchanges and discussions on areas of cooperation in scientific culture.

Prof. Ren gave an academic presentation entitled “China’s Science Dissemination in 40 Years”, in which he shared from the perspective of scientific culture the historical process of science dissemination in China, main experience and challenges, and outlook, and then had lively discussions with the attendees at LSE. His presentation further increased the international academic community’s awareness and knowledge of China’s science dissemination endeavor and painted a bright outlook of the endeavor. On the morning of March 1, Prof. Michel Claessens at ITER gave a presentation on the plan of the international conference on scientific culture, in which he shared suggestions regarding the “World Investigation of Science culture (WISE)” project, holding of international academic symposiums, and the joint launch, when conditions are ripe, of an international academic organization that focuses on science culture. The parties concerned at the meeting reached preliminary consensus and agreed to have more exchange and cooperation in more areas in the future.

Group photo of NAIS delegation members and LSE professors

On February 27, the Chinese delegation led by Prof. Ren met with Caroline Lock, SAGE Journals representative and publisher of humanities journals, and the two sides reached preliminary consensus on cooperation regarding the Cultures of Science journal and agreed on further exchanges to create an action plan.

Group photo of NAIS delegation members and ISCTE-IULLSE vice-rector

The visits were fruitful by not only reaching preliminary consensus with LSE, SAGE Journals and ISCTE-IUL on collaborative research, publication and exchange of visiting scholars and deepened friendly relations with many scholars and research institutions including Martin Bauer, Bernard Schiele, Michel Claessens, Guo Yike, and Mei Jianjun, but in particular making important breakthroughs regarding participation in the WISE project and joint launch of an international academic organization. The visits also secured consensus on the topics of special issues and future publication of Cultures of Science, and also on the research collaboration, which laid a solid foundation for the specific implementation of subsequent work.