China’s military is tapping into EU-funded research

In May, the bloc adopted guidelines for EU countries and universities to shield researchers and universities from foreign interference — notably from China — for fear of seeing intellectual property leaking and its know-how being used against its interests.

China experts have warned that the Seven Sons group has “known links to military research.” The universities are under the management of China’s Industry and Information Technology Ministry and “play an important part in the Chinese defense industry,” a recent study by Datenna, a data intelligence platform focused on China, said.

All members of the Seven Sons club are categorized as a “very high” risk partner by the China Defence Universities Tracker of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a widely used instrument by universities to decide on research collaborations.

Just last March, five European universities kicked off an EU-funded project on decarbonization that got almost €2 million in EU funding and included the Beijing Institute of Technology, a Seven Sons club member, as a project partner, POLITICO’s analysis of a database of EU-funded research shows.

The bloc’s flagship research and development program, Horizon Europe, also funds a project on heat transfer technology, which has Beihang University as a partner — also one of the group of seven — and runs until 2027.

Many more projects with Seven Sons Members happened under Horizon Europe’s predecessor, Horizon 2020, since 2015: At least 13 projects, of which 7 are still ongoing.