Rising tensions between the US and China threaten to sever a 45-year-old science and technology pact due for renewal later this month, hindering the superpowers’ collaboration in critical areas.

Researchers are attempting to work round the strained inter-governmental relationship, with some focusing on less contentious possible areas of co-operation, such as climate change and diseases related to ageing.

The struggle to strike a comprehensive multiyear extension to the science and technology accord is a sign of how political problems can undermine frontier research work. The bilateral agreement, signed by US president Jimmy Carter and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, has underpinned work in fields including energy, agriculture, civil-industrial technology and disaster management.