Nature – An American physicist, a Japanese mathematician and a German cosmologist walk into a lab; what do you get? Based on recent outcomes, you’ll get ground-breaking science. And lately, governments have begun paying heed to evidence¹ that suggests international, multidisciplinary collaborations such as these will yield high-impact results.

Policymakers from diverse countries, including China, Japan, Australia, Chile and Germany, have sought to foster excellent science and technological innovation — and reap the associated economic benefits — by promoting collaboration across borders and disciplines, and setting up specialist centres with the necessary resources (see ‘Conduits to collaboration’).