Knowledge Dynamics in Scientific and Technological Collaboration: The Case of Greece and China

Abstract This paper seeks to understand the knowledge dynamics of the bilateral R&D project between Greek and Chinese researchers initiated in 2018. Our research involves a two-part empirical approach: first, we distributed a structured questionnaire to the researchers involved, and second, we examined bibliometric and technometric databases to independently verify their responses. Despite the collaborative nature of the project, findings reveal that publications resulting from this initiative were primarily authored by Greek or Chinese researchers alone, with minimal involvement from the collaborating partners. This trend is even more pronounced in technology outputs, where Chinese researchers filed patents independently. These important findings are contextualized within the debates on global science collaboration and the wider issues pertaining to geopolitical competitions and intentional and unwanted knowledge transfer. Lastly, we argue in favor of our method being employed in future evaluation and monitoring exercises.