Sino-Eu Personalised Medicine Trip
I joined the Sino-Eu PerMed project’s Expert Task Force for ELSI at the beginning of this year. Following two online meetings, together with colleagues in Denmark, Italy, Germany, France and the UK, we were able to meet in person this April in China and visited a few research institutions and pharmaceutical companies. It was an … Continue reading
Why I worry (differently) about China’s biobanks
I wrote a commentary piece for the Progress Educational Trust last November. Below is an excerpt: China’s fast rise in the biobanking sector has spurred international concerns. One prominent example is the Chinese company BGI Group, which manages China National GeneBank. In 2021, Reuters warned that BGI might be accumulating data for military advantages from millions of women … Continue reading
BBC The World Tonight Interview
I’m a fan of Radio 4’s ‘The World Tonight’, as when I was doing my PhD, this used to be the programme that I fell asleep with! (But nowadays, I listen to almost everything through Pocket Casts which blurs the timeline of all programmes). It was great to be interviewed on this programme and to have a … Continue reading
BBC Documentary: China’s Great Science Leap
At the end of August, BBC Radio 4 launched a 2-episode programme on China’s science. Wohoo! I was so happy to see (or rather hear) it being broadcasted, for its editor Melanie Brown first got in touch with me about this idea in the summer of 2019. The original idea was to conduct interviews and … Continue reading
Covid-19 media engagement
Shortly after China lock-downed Wuhan, I was contacted by Apoorva Mandavilli for a piece originally intended for the New York Time. That piece was cancelled due to the fast progressing of events. Fortunately Apoorva saved part of our conversation in this opinion piece in the Undark Magazine on if China can prevent the next epidemic. The fragmented … Continue reading
Dec 2019 – Royal Society SPEAC Discussion
It was a real pleasure to give a short talk at the Royal Society’s Science Policy Expert Advisory Committee (SPEAC) Christmas dinner. Charles Parton (OBE) and I each provided our views on how to promote accountable and productive international science collaborations, especially in relation to China. It was a rare opportunity to discuss transnational research … Continue reading
Oct 2019 – World Conference on Scientific Literacy
Delighted to give a presentation at the World Conference on Scientific Literacy in Beijing this October at the invitation of China’s Research Institute for Science Popularisation. Hosting these international events may be the best way to speed up the creation of a more transparent and engaging research culture in China. At the end of the … Continue reading
Oct 2019 – Newton Workshop
In October, the six of us (see below) pulled off a very successful interdisciplinary and cross-cultural workshop on ‘Promoting Social Embeddedness of New Biotechnologies:Co-Developing Public Engagement in and with China’ , funded by the Newton Fund. – No modesty reserved, as we had a group of wonderful delegates from China and the UK. I’m confident … Continue reading
July 2019- Shandong University Summer School
It was a real pleasure to teach at Shandong University’s 2019 summer school on ‘China in global governance’ along with Yves Tiberghien, Tim Niblock and of course Michael Barr. My lectures were, not surprisingly, focused on global science governance. It was a novel area to most of the students. But I was really impressed by their … Continue reading
Policy Impact in China
I’m really delighted to share the news that on 3 January 2019, Ministry of Science and Technology in China has officially accepted a set of policy recommendations on increasing transparency and public accountability of Chinese science and have circulated these recommendations in their Neican. ‘Neican’ refers to valued policy submissions which are put forward to ministers and other … Continue reading
Joy Zhang 