Abstract:The Belt and Road Initiative, which reflects the shared vision and common interests of countries along the Belt of the Silk Road and the 21^st Century Maritime Silk Road, has provided new opportunities for deepening international cooperation and achieving win-win development based on complementarities of comparative advantages. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has pioneered in taking a series of innovative actions to implement this Initiative in an attempt to enhance research and innovation capacity building and thus promote shared development of countries involved by working closely with its international partner institutions in South and Southeast Asia along the 21^st Century Maritime Silk Road. The paper takes the establishment of the China-Sri Lanka Science & Education Cooperation Center as an example.