• Three European funding groups say no new funding with Chinese agency since 2021
• Funders concerned about risks from China's Data Security Law
• U.S., Britain also concerned about way law could affect collaboration
• Funding suspension could hamper research into global health issues

Several of Europe’s biggest funders of scientific collaboration with China, in fields such as viruses and air quality, have put bilateral research programmes on hold due to concerns over Chinese data protection laws, funding agencies said.

The suspension, which Reuters is reporting for the first time following queries to the agencies on funding, highlights the widening impact of a Chinese data protection law that has already impeded some business projects, as international institutions and companies assess how to navigate the regulations.

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While many countries require various protections and privacy safeguards for research involving their citizens, one of China’s most recent laws – known as the Data Security Law – makes it illegal to share any "important data" with overseas partners without approval.

Three European funding agencies - the German Research Foundation, Swedish Research Council and Swiss National Science Foundation - told Reuters that they had not offered new co-funding for projects with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) since 2021, the year the law took effect.

They said they would not jointly fund new research projects with the NSFC due to concerns over access to data, potential conflict with local data law, or legal liabilities for themselves or research institutes for breaches of the law's vaguely-defined provisions.

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"It is not clear what the definition of 'important data' is," the Swiss National Science Foundation told Reuters. "It is therefore difficult for the Swiss research community to assess when and under what circumstances a research collaboration could be subject to sanctions or even penalties."

China had defined "important data" as data that poses a threat to national and economic interests or affects the rights of individuals or organisations, and has not provided further details.

A dataset classified as "important data" means "it will be extremely difficult (if not virtually impossible) to export these data from China to another country," the German Research Foundation [said].

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The suspension could potentially delay research in the health sector - one area of joint collaboration funders had previously supported - at the same time as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump moves to freeze billions of dollars in U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, cut 1,200 of that agency's staff and withdraw from the World Health Organization.

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"The concerns about how the data laws are being applied exist, and are very real," said Jan Palmowski, secretary-general of the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities.

"We saw that responding to the COVID pandemic effectively required global sharing of data on a massive scale; but we have also seen national sensitivities around data relating to the origin of COVID," Palmowski added. "If we want to be agile in responding to future pandemics and address other key health challenges, we need to find ways to share data responsibly, safely, and according to common ethical rules."

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