Amidst the handwringing over the effect of Brexit on the UK’s universities, we need to contemplate our place in a future global economy driven by technology and innovation. From where will the most important discoveries of the coming decades emerge? Which countries and cities will give birth to the technologies, cures and ideas that will shape our future?

China spends five times that of the UK on R&D each year. For universities hoping to build or maintain their position as global leaders in innovation and enterprise, China is hard to overlook as an option.



The UK enjoys a significant reputational foothold in the middle kingdom

Not too long ago it would have been safe to assume that the UK would be at the centre of the action. In 1996, research and development activities were firmly rooted in the big four innovation economies, with the US, Japan, the UK and Germany accounting for half of the world’s research publications. But times have changed: by 2015 their share had dropped to 39%. Meanwhile, the big four’s collective share of global R&D spending slipped from two-thirds to 43%, according to Unesco figures.



Conversely, the same data shows that China’s annual research publication output ballooned more than 14 times, with its global share of publications rising from just 2 per cent in 1996 to 16 per cent in 2015.



Cultural appeal

Luckily, the UK has a tremendous head start in partnerships with China, beginning with the nearly 100,000 mainland Chinese students currently enrolled in our universities. Recent research conducted at the British Council suggests that the UK enjoys a significant reputational foothold in the middle kingdom. Our survey of 5,000 respondents and analysis of 9m social media posts showed that the UK ranked as the third-most preferred foreign culture and its education system received the highest proportion of positive buzz on the microblogging website Sina Weibo.

On the ground in China, we have seen many UK universities successfully forge bilateral research links with Chinese counterparts, but more impactful partnerships that weave together industry and government funding streams have proved elusive.

Our survey suggested that UK universities may struggle to stand out in the increasingly crowded field of China’s potential suitors. While respondents often cited technology and innovation as one of the UK’s top strengths, they tended to see the US and Germany as relatively stronger in these areas.



Understanding how China works

China is a difficult market to crack for foreign universities, but there are three guiding principles that can help UK universities secure more productive partnerships in research and innovation that will put them in a good position as the Asian century unfolds.

Government policy outweighs market forces

In China, the state remains firmly embedded in industry. While China has tinkered with reform of its vast state-owned enterprises in recent years, their total assets actually grew by 46% in the 2013 to 2016 period, according to Ministry of Finance figures. The dominance of the state coupled with rising government investment in innovation mean that even fully private enterprises tend to conduct business in policy jargon, which is disorienting to outsiders.

Foreign partners must match China’s depth of ambition with their breadth of collaboration

Fortunately, however, the central government’s targets for science and innovation are clearly spelled out in its five-year plan documents. The Made in China 2025 strategy, which aims to transform the economy into a global leader in advanced manufacturing, also highlights automotive, aviation, robotics and healthcare technologies. Activities that dovetail with these priorities are more likely to gain traction with key stakeholders in local universities, industry and government.

Direction is from central government, but action happens locally

Provinces and major cities are assigned more specific research and innovation priorities and often seek to carve out niches in specialist industries. Guizhou, for example, is a historically poor province in south-western China that has recently emerged as a hub for big data, with preferential policies drawing in domestic tech giants Huawei, Foxconn and China Mobile, as well as foreign firms such as Hewlett-Packard and Hyundai. These local governments are often more open to collaboration with foreign entities.

Universities want to become global leaders

Foreign partners must match China’s depth of ambition with their breadth of collaboration. A bilateral partnership is unlikely to capture their full attention and energy, since the country’s best universities are looking beyond the domestic market. Their resources are vast and their suitors are many.

To get the most out of opportunities in China, UK institutions will need to embrace a new model of collaboration that involves interacting with more players than they usually work with, including government, industry and even other universities that have traditionally been viewed as competitors. This will most likely entail thorny issues around equality and diversity, IP protection and how to share credit for research findings. But in the end, the choice is a relatively simple one: would we rather be on the side lines or the front lines of scientific discovery?



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