News Broadcast +｜Building an innovative talent team Xi Jinping first proposed this mechanism

Cultivating innovative talents is a major plan for the long-term development of the country and the nation.

From "accelerating the establishment of a strategic layout for talent-priority development" to "firmly establishing the strategic position of talent in leading development", and then to "making the construction of strategic talent force a top priority", General Secretary Xi Jinping has always attached great importance to talent cultivation.

On the morning of June 24, the National Science and Technology Conference, the National Science and Technology Awards Conference, the 21st General Assembly of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the 17th General Assembly of the Chinese Academy of Engineering were held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. General Secretary Xi Jinping presented awards to the winners of the National Highest Science and Technology Award and delivered an important speech.

The General Secretary pointed out that it is necessary to deepen the integrated reform of the education, science and technology talent system and mechanism, improve the mechanism of collaborative education between science and education, and accelerate the cultivation and creation of a team of innovative talents with a large scale, reasonable structure and excellent quality.

For national development, science and technology are the primary productive force, talent is the primary resource, and innovation is the primary driving force. The three complement each other.

Scientific and technological innovation requires the support of talents, and talent cultivation depends on the development of education. Only when education, science and technology, and talent cultivation are coordinated and promoted as a whole can we produce the effect of exerting force in the same direction and resonating at the same frequency, and form a powerful synergy to promote national development. This is exactly what is emphasized in "improving the mechanism of collaborative education between science and education".

At the beginning of 2020, my country launched a pilot reform of basic subject admissions in some universities, breaking down the barriers between higher education and basic education in subject teaching, training models, etc., and providing a channel for selecting and training students who are willing to serve the country's major strategic needs or excel in basic disciplines.

Today, the number of pilot universities for the "Strengthening Basics Plan" has expanded to 39. Tongji University, Xiamen University, and Ocean University of China have added marine science majors, while the University of Science and Technology of China and Wuhan University have added geophysics majors. At the end of last year, the first batch of students enrolled in the "Strengthening Basics Plan" had completed the transition from undergraduate to postgraduate study and entered the direct doctoral or master's degree stage.

In May 2023, the Ministry of Education and 18 other departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Strengthening Scientific Education in Primary and Secondary Schools in the New Era", systematically deploying various measures to promote the high-quality development of education, science and technology, and talents.

A series of measures focus on the reform direction of serving the country's major strategic needs, aiming at cultivating top innovative talents to meet the requirements of the times, and laying a solid talent foundation for the country to solve the "bottleneck" problem. This is exactly the goal orientation of collaborative education between science and education.

In 2023, the Science and Technology Achievements Promotion Conference of Colleges and Universities in Southern Beijing was held at the Daxing Campus of Beijing University of Architecture. The picture shows college teachers and students showing the achievements of the pipeline full-position welding robot system.

In this speech, General Secretary Xi Jinping also pointed out that scientific and technological innovation relies on talents, talent cultivation relies on education, and education, science and technology, and talents are inherently consistent and mutually supportive. To improve the mechanism of collaborative education between science and education and give full play to the "support" role, it is also necessary to clear the pain points and bottlenecks that affect the virtuous cycle of the three.

At present, the size of my country's scientific and technological team ranks first in the world, but the structural shortage of innovative scientific and technological talents is prominent, and China faces a series of practical problems such as the disconnection between the training of engineering and technical talents and production and innovation practices.

Continuously improving the mechanism of collaborative education between science and education, and insisting on the integrated promotion of education development, scientific and technological innovation, and talent training are the keys to resolving this structural contradiction.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, my country has successively issued a series of policy documents and reform measures, including "Several Opinions on Further Improving the Central Government's Scientific Research Project Funding Management and Other Policies" and "Notice on Several Measures to Optimize Scientific Research Management and Improve Scientific Research Performance", to remove obstacles and barriers, and continuously clear the bottlenecks in the transformation of educational and scientific research results into innovative practices.

Beijing has promulgated the "Beijing Regulations on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements", which is the first empowerment clause in local legislation nationwide. It clarifies that those who complete scientific and technological achievements can target market directions and deepen cooperation with enterprises, which has mobilized the enthusiasm of scientific researchers and promoted the transformation of scientific research results.

The education system of Shaanxi Province has accelerated the transformation of scientific and technological achievements of colleges and universities, and supported researchers to invest the surplus funds of horizontal scientific research projects in cash into technology companies, forming an investment portfolio of "technology investment and cash investment", solving the problem of "lack of money to transfer" scientific research results. In 2023, the transaction volume of technology contracts of colleges and universities in Shaanxi Province reached 11.489 billion yuan.

Education breeds the future, science and technology demonstrate strength, and talents lead development. The three are organically connected, deeply integrated, and mutually supportive. This is not only an objective requirement for cultivating a large-scale, well-structured, and high-quality innovative talent team, but also the deep logic of building a strong country in science and technology.

Proofreading｜Liu Zhen, Sun Jie, Song Chunyan, Yan Tiantian, Mao Changzhi