“For LMICs, they argued, the cultivation of scientific capacity – a slow and expensive process – would consume resources that should be allocated to pressing needs like poverty reduction, food security, and infrastructure; they are thus better off importing technologies and solutions from abroad. But this logic has been upended in recent years. A series of developments – including the COVID-19 pandemic, intensifying climate shocks, and proliferating barriers to trade and technology transfers – has exposed the risks of dependence on imported science.”