Survey data on knowledge exchange experience of both Chinese and British scientists working on critical zone and more broadly on geoscience. Data are drawn from questionnaire surveys to explore the knowledge management methods used in their environmental research. Data are anonymised social survey data from questionnaires. The data were generated during the NERC grant 'The transmissive critical zone: understanding the karst hydrology-biogeochemical interface for sustainable management' reference NE/N007425/1 undertaken as part of the NERC Using Critical Zone Science to Understand Sustaining the Ecosystem Service of Soil & Water (CZO) programme. Full details about this nonGeographicDataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/71fc5250-727b-42ec-85ba-a45770e464b1