The WIKOOP-INFRA project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), came to a successful conclusion on 29 February after running for two and a half years. The project, whose acronym stands for "Action and Orientation Security in Scientific Cooperations with China - Studies on Analytical Research Infrastructures", is one of the first projects to deal with the contemporary topic of research security. WIKOOP-INFRA has always focussed on strengthening researchers' ability to act and facilitating international scientific cooperation in challenging times. To this end, the team members from the DESY Directorate Office, the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at Universität Hamburg (IFSH) and the Helmholtz Beijing Office worked together with a large number of stakeholders from science, science administration, think tanks and authorities. The results of the project are summarised on the project homepage.

The last official act of WIKOOP-INFRA was a workshop with almost 40 experts, which took place in the Magnus-Haus in Berlin on 13 February with the support of the German Physical Society (DPG). In his opening address, DPG President Joachim Ullrich pointed out that German science cannot ignore China and that refusing cooperation is therefore not a viable option. Several participants reported on the advantages of cooperation with Chinese partners, but at the same time pointed out that the framework conditions for cooperation had deteriorated in recent months, especially from the Chinese side. Against the backdrop of this mixed situation, the participants discussed the specific fields, principles and approaches as well as the prerequisites for favourable cooperation with China.

The discussion was based on the project results, which are published on the homepage. Of particular note are the presentations, including a summary report, from the two WIKOOP-Helmholtz-CAS workshops organised in cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in September 2022 and June 2023. The workshops form the starting point for the three Helmholtz-CAS working groups currently being formed on the topics of open science, research ethics and intellectual property. Another report summarises the results of the survey conducted as part of the project on the attitudes and experiences of researchers from the natural and technical sciences regarding scientific cooperation with China. A further report on the expert interviews conducted with regard to questions on the fields of foreign science policy, dual use, technology sovereignty and China competence will be added shortly. A central concern of the final workshop was the discussion of recommendations for action. The WIKOOP-INFRA project emphasised this with four policy briefs, which can also be found on the homepage.

Although WIKOOP-INFRA has now come to an end, the topic of operational security (or research security) will remain on the agenda at DESY and Helmholtz - not least through the RESIDE project (Research Security in International Cooperations at DESY), which was launched in October 2022. "With RESIDE, we want to establish and consolidate structures and processes that will ensure that both the research departments and the administrative side of the laboratory can organise and implement collaborations in an international environment with even greater confidence and responsibility. We are happy to incorporate the preliminary work and results of WIKOOP-INFRA into this," says project manager Jana Wolfram.