The institutes of science and development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the national science library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Clarivate jointly released “2025 Research Fronts” and “Research Fronts 2025: Active Fields, Leading Countries/Regions” at a forum held on December 3 in Beijing. The event, which attracted over 300 in-person attendees and garnered nearly 300,000 online viewers through live streaming, highlighted key global scientific trends and the escalating integration of Artificial Intelligence across research disciplines. The “2025 Research Fronts” report identifies 128 research areas, including 110 “hot” fronts and 18 “emerging” fronts, spanning 11 broad scientific domains that range from agricultural science to economics, psychology and multiple social science areas.
CASISD president Pan Jiaofeng said the report raises new questions and challenges for the integrated development of science and technology, the economy, society, and other fields, adding that a new wave of scientific and technological revolution is reshaping research frontiers. He pointed to high-throughput single-cell technologies, dark matter detection, and the profound integration of Artificial Intelligence into scientific research and engineering practices as areas drawing strong global interest. Artificial Intelligence is a prominent theme in this year’s findings, with Artificial Intelligence related advancements featuring in over half of the 18 emerging research fronts, including the use of Artificial Intelligence language models like ChatGPT in medical and health fields, Artificial Intelligence driven breakthroughs in structural prediction and design of biomolecular complexes, and exploration of generative Artificial Intelligence applications and risk management in business and social sciences.
Analysis from “Research Fronts 2025: Active Fields, Leading Countries/Regions” shows a global landscape led by the United States, which ranks first in over 50 percent of the identified research fronts, followed by China, which leads in more than 40 percent of the research areas. China demonstrates distinct leadership in six fields, including agricultural, plant and animal sciences, ecology and environmental sciences, chemistry and materials science, physics, information science, and economics, psychology, and other social sciences, while ranking second in geosciences, biological sciences, and mathematics, and placing among the world’s top five in clinical medicine and astronomy and astrophysics. The report concludes that the research gap between China and the United States is narrowing, with both countries dominating the global research landscape and the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada rounding out the top five, and it notes that the research fronts series, launched in 2014, has become a key resource for tracking worldwide scientific and technological development trends.
