Finanziamento UE – NextGenerationEU PRIN 2022 "Italy-China 2030: meeting the “upgrading China knowledge in Europe” challenge. An assessment of critical issue-areas in Sino-Italian relations and of the strategic capacity gap for responsible engagement" PNRR M4C2 investimento 1.1 Avviso 104/2022

This PRIN proposal aims to provide a timely Italian contribution to the European research efforts tackling Pillar 2 of the Horizon Europe framework 2021-27: “Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness”. Specifically, this project responds to the need to “upgrade independent knowledge on China”: a strategic goal in the policy agenda of STI ministries of EU member states (European Commission 2020). In such context, the mission of this 2-year project is to pool the best expertise available in the country to investigate three key issue-areas: the appraisal of existing capacity in Italy for the sustainable and responsible development of Italy-China relations; the mapping of China’s deepening engagement in the Mediterranean region; and the reconstruction of the institutional network of Chinese diaspora governance inside Italy. These issue areas are those in which Italian research efforts may generate unique added value for the wider European epistemic communities across a number of disciplines: International Relations, International Political Economy, Entangled Histories of China and the Mediterranean region, Chinese Diaspora Studies, and Chinese Media Studies. On the one hand, the assessment of the existing knowledge base is a preliminary task mandated by the European Commission that Italy has yet to implement. On the other, Italy is home to the largest community of PRC passport holders in Europe, it is the pivotal EU country in the Mediterranean, and it is as yet the sole G7 country to have signed the MoU for cooperation on China's Belt and Road Initiative. This research project aims to produce innovative science while integrating hitherto fragmented policy-relevant expertise on contemporary China, generating actionable knowledge and expanding awareness to ensure that adequate responses – at the governmental as well as societal level - are given to the generational challenge represented by an increasingly authoritarian and assertive China. Three Research Units (RUs) have been specifically assembled to pursue this research mission through an interdisciplinary portfolio of actions encompassing (1) cutting-edge scientific research, (2) policy-relevant analysis, (3) public engagement for open science promotion, and (4) stakeholders-oriented capacity-building. In pursuit of the research mission - whose outcomes include fostering Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca MUR - BANDO 2022 the diffusion of open science, generating research opportunities for young scholars, and providing policy-relevant knowledge tools for public benefit - the RUs will leverage their rich portfolios of partnerships in Europe, the Mediterranean region, China and globally. In so doing, they will be benefit from the P.I.’s and Substitute P.I.'s pioneering scientific work in the field of contemporary Italy-China relations and from their track-record of applicable knowledge co-generation in partnership with key stakeholders in Italy-China relations across government, R&I hubs, and the corporate and non-profit sectors.