On 18 October 2026, the CAS-TWAS Centres of Excellence (CTCE) Discussion Meeting was held at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing. Prof. Marcelo Knobel, Executive Director of The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (UNESCO-TWAS), delivered a presentation titled “Equity, Capacity, and Opportunity: Rethinking scientific cooperation with the global South”.

In his presentation, Prof. Knobel reviewed the profound transformations reshaping human society and stressed the rapid rise of the global South — in population, age structure and research potential — which has made it a key focus of South-South cooperation and global development. He noted that the geography of knowledge production is expanding: in 2024, 60% of scientific articles included authors from low- and middle-income countries, up from only 13% three decades ago. He also reviewed TWAS’s long collaboration with China, which since 2004 has awarded more than 1,200 PhD fellowships to researchers from over 70 countries and helped more than 700 developing-world scientists obtain their PhDs.

Prof. Knobel also introduced the new CAST-TWAS cooperation agreement, whose short-term academic exchange component supports young scientists of the TWAS Young Affiliates Network (TYAN) in conducting interdisciplinary research visits at Chinese research institutes and in jointly organizing academic seminars, workshops and training programmes.

Participants then discussed the broad prospects for CAST-TWAS cooperation. In the internal discussion, representatives of the CTCEs proposed broadening publicity channels and increasing the social-media exposure of important meetings and project information, so as to raise public awareness of CAS-TWAS cooperation. They also exchanged views on the opportunities and challenges of South-South scientific research cooperation.

The meeting was attended by Marcelo Knobel (TWAS); Dongyao Wang (Bureau of International Cooperation, CAS); Pan Gu (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences); Zhaohui Lin, Chenglai Wu and Bo Hao (CTCE for Climate and Environment Sciences); Lei Wang (CTCE on Space Technology for Disaster Mitigation); Baiwen Ma (CTCE for Water and Environment); Junhao Zhu, Deputy Director of CEEID; Yuhong Huang (CTCE for Green Technology); and Liu He (CTCE for Biotechnology).