#Huawei Europe showcases EU science

To mark its 20th year in Europe, the Chinese global leader in mobile technology, Huawei, is opening a worldwide audience to share knowledge. More than 20 European science teams will be invited to shoot videos about their work, writes Colin Stevens.

It will then be shown on Guokr.com – the official partner of the Huawei initiative in China - which has more than 30 million users across several platforms.

Huawei Chief Content Officer Eric Cui,  in Brussels, said: “By broadcasting science stories to China and around the world, we are seizing the opportunities offered by social media as a powerful tool for asserting influence and exerting soft power.”

Eric Cui, Chief Content Officer of Huawei in Brussels

He added: “Soft power is the ability to use common interests to achieve common goals.

“Scientific leadership is a vital resource for building Europe’s soft power by combining strengths across borders to get the message out.”

The videos will be shown on Huawei’s YouTube channel “What makes it tick”? and Chinese social media platforms.

Cui said: “ Europe remains the leading economy in terms of public investment in R&D and its number of researchers.

However, the sector faces unprecedented challenges.

A scarcity of public funding, and pressure on educational and research institutions to help solve societal challenges, places these organisations at risk - undermining academic independence and further eroding trust in facts and science”

Cui said: “While it is essential to protect the sensitive areas of European research against any form of meddling, it is just as important to work together to combine knowledge and share advances with the largest possible number.

“Social media has quickly risen through the ranks in recent years to become one of the largest sources of global news and information.

“In popular science, this has created unprecedented opportunities.

“For example, the Germany-based YouTube channel Kurzgesagt, which specialises in explaining science simply, has more than 11 million subscribers with each video receiving millions of hits.”

Science is usually explained in classrooms and conferences offline rather than online.

However, this traditional approach has its limitations.

While Kurzgesagt has millions of viewers the recent Berlin Science Week – which attracted 20,000 people on site - had a mere 11 subscribers to its YouTube channel.

Cui added: “Europe needs to look beyond its borders.

“We need a unique partnership between Europe and China to disseminate the results of European science and reinforce Europe’s ascending soft power.

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