On December 8th and 9th, 2021, policy workshops on Interdisciplinary Research and Research Assessment were successfully co-organized by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and Science Europe (SE). Nearly 140 representatives from 21 countries, including China, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, etc., attended the virtual events.

Prof. Xincheng Xie, Vice President of NSFC, and Prof. Ángeles Gómez Borrego, Vice President of SE, attended the opening ceremony and delivered opening speeches. Prof. Xie pointed out in his opening remarks that interdisciplinary research has become an inevitable trend of science and an important driving force to accelerate scientific and technological innovation. Keenly aware of its importance, policy makers and research communities have grown common interest in developing instruments and programs to foster and encourage interdisciplinary research. Through the policy workshops, NSFC hopes to work together with SE in pushing forward the advancement of the interdisciplinary research. Prof. Jiarui Wu from Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. Yanyi Huang and Prof. Wei Sun from Peking University, and Prof. Yafei Dai from NSFC Department of Interdisciplinary Research (DIS) shared their work and insight about relevant topics related to interdisciplinary research. Prof. Qing Pan, Deputy Director General of DIS also attended the workshop.

During the Workshop on Research Assessment, Prof. Zhi Liu from Shanghai Tech University and Prof. Xiaowei Chen from Peking University shared their perspectives and experience of as reviewers, and Prof. Chunxia Wang and Prof. Dong Li from NSFC gave reports on the progress of the category-specific review mechanism and the AI-assisted reviewer recommendation system of NSFC. Prof. Wenxuan Yin, Deputy Director General of Bureau of International Cooperation also addressed the meeting.

The policy workshops, with excellent reports and heated discussions, have delivered desirable results which draw the attention of both Chinese and European sides. The outcomes of the workshops will be presented at the Second High-level Strategic and Policy Dialogue between the NSFC and SE in January 2022.