Interview: Global problems need global collaboration, says British academic

LONDON, June 9 (Xinhua) -- It is vitally important for scientists from different countries to work together on major global issues, a leading British academic told Xinhua in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

"I'm a scientist," said Professor Andy Schofield, vice chancellor of Lancaster University, "and I'm going to believe in the notion that talent and scientific achievement are not confined to the boundaries between nations, and that we tend to do better by bringing people together and combining and collaborating."

"For any global problem it's going to be necessary to do things in a global fashion," he noted.

"I do think the challenges we face, we will have to face together. I don't think any one country will produce the solution to a sustainable supply of energy, a sustainable food source that allows the population to thrive, and to do so in a way that doesn't cause disruption elsewhere on the planet. I'm optimistic that science can provide some of those answers. But it will not be easy," he said.

International cooperation is not only important, but necessary, he said, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as one example of global collaboration.

"We've seen a lot of benefits in countries working together: the development of vaccines at a speed that no vaccines had been developed before and supplying those vaccines to the rest of the world; the development and step changing genomic sequencing and being able to study variants and map them..."

"That has been a very strong point," said Schofield: "That's been a global effort."

"Some of the lessons of previous pandemics where, you know, we didn't have that same level of openness," he added, saying: "we are all learning lessons of this pandemic."

He also cited climate change as probably the greatest challenge being faced by the world.

"Climate change is an even bigger risk to us. It's a slower (risk), we don't see the same dangers and risks as we've done in the pandemic, when tragically, we've seen lives lost immediately, but the risks are if anything higher," he said, "The challenge of how we develop as a planet, and do so in a way that sustainable, is one that no one country can solve on its own."

Among the "great developments happening," he recalled Lancaster University's partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong province, which he described as another world-renowned institution.

Commenting on the prospects of academic collaboration between universities in Britain and China, Schofield said that he was optimistic.

"That's a great strength of scientific collaboration between the UK and China, that our strengths can be funneled together to try and tackle some of these particular challenges," he said.

Schofield, a theoretical physicist who works on experimental projects, told Xinhua that "I've had very positive engagement with Chinese colleagues. My first academic paper was co-written with a Chinese collaborator, who taught me a lot about theoretical physics and how to do it. "

"What we're doing in universities is about building bridges, not building walls," Schofield said, "It's about ensuring we're not afraid to ask difficult questions. And to do those difficult questions in a way of scientific inquiry and open inquiry to come up with the best answers for how we're going to progress as a planet."