On November 27, 2024, the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion (SGC) organized the “NSFC-DFG Workshop on Research Assessment and Publishing” which was held in hybrid format in Beijing and Bonn.

This event is the latest in a series of Strategic Events aimed at the exchange on current developments in areas relevant to international research and research funding between the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

The SGC’s Directors Yin Wenxuan and Ingrid Krüßmann welcomed the participants, before representatives of both agencies giving short presentations on topics ranging from research assessment, open access funding, the NSFC’s efforts regarding the development of research culture and scientific integrity and an introduction to the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) and the DFG’s involvement in its working groups.

The first presentation gave an outline of the NSFC’s review process for international cooperation projects. Next, the DFG’s recent steps to support a broad-based and qualitative mode of research assessment were presented.

In the ensuing discussion, it emerged that NSFC and DFG share some important understandings regarding fair and scientifically adequate research assessment.

Workshop on November 27, 2024 in Beijing/Bonn

The next set of presentations began with an introduction to the NSFC’s Open Access Repository (OAR) and Basic Research ID (BRID). A representative of the DFG reported on recent developments in the German and European Diamond Open Access landscape. Diamond Open Access emerged as an important vehicle to ensure that scientific publishing does what it is supposed to do: spread scientific information to maximize its intra- and extra-scientific impact. Before this is fully realized, Green Open Access measures can be an important tool to ensure broad access.

This last session addressed important current topics of research culture. A representative of the NSFC’s Division of Academic Atmosphere Improvement presented the measures taken by the NSFC’s Research Integrity Office regarding the development of research culture and scientific integrity. Finally, two representatives of the Division Research Culture (DFG) introduced the state of the play in some CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) working groups.

In their closing remarks Yin Wenxuan, Chinese Director of the SGC and Executive Deputy Director General of the Department of International Programs (NSFC), and Matthias Kiesselbach, Programme Director in the Division of Research Culture (DFG), stressed the importance of taking research culture seriously as an overarching topic in research management, as well as the importance of international exchange on this crucial topic.

Participants from both sides expressed their hopes to keep in touch with their counterparts and are looking forward to future strategic events of this format.