Since 2013, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has conducted early and visionary planning in its institutional building for sci-tech cooperation integrated with platforms, projects and talents under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), taken the lead in the establishment of the Alliance of International Science Organizations (ANSO), and fully leveraged the strategic and supporting roles of sci-tech innovation and cooperation in advancing the sustainable development of the BRI. CAS has become a pioneer and the main force in bolstering cooperation and innovation in countries and regions involved in the BRI.

Over the past decade, CAS has built ten overseas scientific and educational collaboration centers or innovation cooperation platforms in Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America. They have targeted key problems affecting living standards and common challenges in the regions, facilitated in-depth sci-tech innovation, and made tremendous contributions to fostering talents, improving the well-being of local residents, and promoting the sustainable development of involved countries and regions, earning high international acclaim.

Under the support of its three affiliated universities and over 100 research institutions, CAS has set up the CAS-TWAS President’s Fellowship Programme and the “Belt and Road” Master Fellowship Programme (ANSO Scholarship) to provide foreign students with financial aid in their studies at CAS. Additionally, CAS has annually convened a series of technical training sessions for developing countries, and many foreign trainees have served as a bridge in the implementation of the BRI in their respective countries after returning home from China.

CAS has fully leveraged The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) to address the key concerns of developing countries and founded six CAS-TWAS centers of excellence on space technology for disaster mitigation in the fields of global climate change, water security, disaster prevention and relief work, as well as green and biological technologies. CAS has continuously strengthened its sci-tech cooperation with BRI countries through the CAS-TWAS centers and delivered outcomes for developing countries with Chinese sci-tech achievements.

Over the past few years, CAS has launched over 100 sci-tech cooperation projects, which aim to promote the green, healthy, safe and sustainable development of more than 40 countries along the Belt and Road. They cover a wide range of scopes like bio-medicine, disease and health, biological technology, water treatment technology, clean energy technology, disaster prevention and control, climate change and impact, and environmental and ecological conservation, having achieved a number of fruitful cooperation results with noteworthy influence, and facilitating the green, healthy, safe and sustainable development of the BRI.

In 2018, CAS worked together with the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to launch the ANSO to further increase policy communication, strengthen the bond between peoples, and promote connectivity, integration, and the opening and sharing of scientific resources between BRI countries in the midst of sci-tech innovation. It was the first new-type international sci-tech cooperation organization established by the Chinese scientific community to serve the green, inclusive and sustainable development of the BRI.