Strengthening basic research to achieve high-level technological self-reliance and self-improvement
Strengthen basic research to achieve high-level technological self-reliance and self-improvement ※
Xi Jinping
Today, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee conducted its third collective learning, which focused on strengthening basic research. The purpose of arranging this collective learning is to analyze the current situation and challenges of basic research in China, understand the main practices of strengthening basic research abroad, and explore measures to accelerate the development of basic research in China.
Strengthening basic research is an urgent requirement for achieving high-level technological self-reliance and self-improvement, and is the only way to build a world science and technology powerhouse. The Party and the state have always attached great importance to basic research work. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a call to "advance towards science". The vast number of scientific and technological workers relied on themselves and worked hard, achieving significant basic research results such as the key scientific issues of "two bombs and one satellite", artificial synthesis of bovine insulin, breakthroughs in multiple complex function theory, and proof of Goldbach's conjecture. After the reform and opening up, China has ushered in a "scientific spring", and has successively implemented the "863 Plan", "Climbing Plan", and "973 Plan", significantly enhancing the overall research strength and academic level of basic research. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee has placed a more prominent position on enhancing original innovation capabilities, successfully organizing a number of major basic research tasks, building a number of major scientific and technological infrastructure, and continuously emerging major original achievements in the forefront of basic research.
At present, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is deepening, interdisciplinary integration is constantly advancing, scientific research paradigms are undergoing profound changes, science and technology and economic and social development are accelerating penetration and integration, basic research transformation cycle is significantly shortened, and international scientific and technological competition is moving towards the forefront of the foundation. To cope with international technological competition, achieve high-level technological self-reliance and self-improvement, promote the construction of a new development pattern, and achieve high-quality development, it is urgent for us to strengthen basic research and solve key technological problems from the source and bottom. Therefore, the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasizes the need to strengthen basic research, highlight originality, encourage free exploration, make strategic arrangements, and effectively implement them.
On May 28, 2021, the 20th Academician Conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the 15th Academician Conference of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the 10th National Congress of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology were held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Xiang
Firstly, strengthen the forward-looking, strategic, and systematic layout of basic research. Basic research is at the beginning of the scientific research chain from research to application, and then to production. Only with a solid foundation can the science and technology industry building be built high. Strengthening basic research should highlight foresight and strategic demand orientation, optimize resource allocation and layout structure, and provide basic theoretical support and technological source supply for innovative development.
We must adhere to the "four orientations", adhere to goal orientation and explore freely on two legs, combine the forefront of world science and technology with major national strategic needs and economic and social development goals, coordinate and follow the cutting-edge issues proposed by the laws of scientific development and theoretical problems extracted from major applied research, and condense key scientific issues in basic research. We need to grasp the trend of technological development and national strategic needs, strengthen the feasibility study and selection evaluation of major basic research projects, fully respect the opinions of scientists, grasp the overall trend, and play the "first move" well. To strengthen the national strategic scientific and technological strength, we need to organize and promote systematic basic research with strategic orientation, exploratory basic research with cutting-edge orientation, and market-oriented applied basic research. We should pay attention to the leading role of national laboratories, the organizational role of national scientific research institutions, the main force of high-level research universities, and the role of technology leading enterprises as "question setters", "answer takers", and "examiners". We need to optimize the layout of basic discipline construction, support the development of key disciplines, emerging disciplines, unpopular disciplines, and weak disciplines, promote interdisciplinary integration and research, and build a high-quality discipline system with comprehensive and balanced development.
Secondly, deepen the reform of the basic research system and mechanism. The world has entered the era of big science, and the degree of organization in basic research is increasing. Institutional guarantees and policy guidance have a greater impact on the output of basic research. The institutional mechanisms supporting basic research and original innovation in our country have been basically established but are not yet perfect. It is necessary to optimize and refine the reform plan, and give full play to the value driven and strategic driving role of institutions and policies.
We need to steadily increase financial investment in basic research, incentivize enterprises to increase investment through various means such as tax incentives, encourage social forces to establish scientific funds, scientific donations, and other diversified investments, improve the funding efficiency of the National Natural Science Foundation and its joint funds, and establish and improve a basic research investment mechanism that combines competitive support and stable support. We need to optimize the support system for basic research in the national science and technology plan, improve the organization, application, evaluation, and decision-making mechanisms for basic research projects, implement differentiated classification management and international and domestic peer review, organize collaborative research on major scientific issues, and encourage free exploratory research and non consensus innovative research. We need to handle the relationship between the new national system and market mechanisms, improve the system of science and technology evaluation incentives, achievement application and transformation, and scientific and technological personnel compensation that match the long-term basic research cycle, and provide long-term stable support for a number of basic research innovation bases, advantageous teams, and key directions, creating the original source of innovation and the vanguard force of basic research. Increasing investment in basic research is a major trend, while considering national financial resources, maintaining a reasonable investment intensity, strengthening performance evaluation of the implementation process, and ensuring that "good steel is used on the cutting edge".
Thirdly, build a high-level support platform for basic research. For a long time in the past, there was a problem in China's basic research, where topics were found in foreign academic journals, instruments and equipment were imported from abroad, and results were obtained and then paid for publication in foreign journals and platforms. In recent years, China has made great progress in building world-class scientific and technological journals, building a number of important tools for major countries, and building basic research support platforms. However, fundamentally solving the problem of "two ends outside" still has a long way to go.
We need to collaborate to build a national laboratory system with Chinese characteristics, layout and construct basic discipline research centers, accelerate the construction of basic research special zones, deploy new scientific research informationization basic platforms in advance, and form a strong backbone network of basic research. We need to scientifically plan and layout major scientific and technological infrastructure that is forward-looking, strategic oriented, and application supported. We need to strengthen supervision during and after the construction of facilities, improve full lifecycle management, and comprehensively enhance the level of openness and sharing as well as operational efficiency. We must fight the battle for the localization of scientific and technological instruments, operating systems, and basic software, encourage research institutions, universities, and enterprises to carry out joint research and development, improve the level of localization substitution and application scale, and strive to achieve the early use of China's independent research platforms and instruments to solve major basic research problems. We need to accelerate the cultivation of world-class scientific and technological journals, build technology literature and data platforms with international influence, initiate high-level international academic conferences, and encourage major basic research achievements to be published and developed in Chinese journals and platforms.
Reporter Ju Peng from Xinhua News Agency/Photo taken
Fourthly, strengthen the construction of the talent team for basic research. Strengthening basic research ultimately relies on high-level talents. In recent years, China has deeply implemented the strategy of building a strong talent country and deepened the reform of the talent system and mechanism, achieving significant results. However, there are still obvious shortcomings in the basic research talent team. We must make efforts to build a systematic and high-level platform for cultivating basic research talents, so that more basic research talents can emerge in competition.
We need to increase the support for basic research talents through various talent programs, cultivate and utilize strategic scientists, support young scientific and technological talents to shoulder major responsibilities, actively introduce outstanding overseas talents, and continuously strengthen the leading scientific and technological talent team and first-class innovation team. We need to clarify the evaluation methods and standards for how to "establish" after breaking the "four only", improve the differentiated evaluation and long-term support mechanism for basic research talents, endow science and technology leaders with greater control over human, financial, and technological routes, and build an evaluation system that conforms to the laws of basic research and talent growth. We need to strengthen the construction of scientific research and academic style, adhere to the combination of scientific supervision and integrity education, deepen the governance of scientific research and academic style, guide scientific and technological personnel to abandon exaggeration and impetuosity, and sit firmly on the "cold bench". We must adhere to the path of independent training of basic research talents, deeply implement the "High School Student Talent Plan", "Strong Foundation Plan", and "Top notch Basic Subject Student Training Plan", optimize the basic subject education system, give full play to the main role of universities, especially "Double First Class" universities, in cultivating basic research talents, strengthen the urgent need for high-level talent training in the country, and continuously cultivate a large-scale reserve force for basic research.
Reporter Ju Peng from Xinhua News Agency/Photo taken
Fifth, extensively carry out international cooperation in basic research. Currently, international scientific and technological cooperation is facing the impact and challenges of unilateralism and protectionism from a few countries. To solve the problem of common development, humanity needs international cooperation and open sharing more than ever before. No country can become an independent innovation center or enjoy the fruits of innovation alone. China should adhere to a more open mindset and measures to expand international exchanges and cooperation in basic research, and create an open innovation ecosystem with global competitiveness.
We need to build an international platform for basic research cooperation, take the lead in implementing international big science plans and projects, establish a global scientific research fund, increase the openness of national science and technology plans to the outside world, and expand and deepen joint scientific research between China and foreign countries around global issues such as climate change, energy security, biosecurity, and outer space utilization. To proactively plan and deeply participate in global science and technology governance, participate in or initiate the establishment of international science and technology organizations, support domestic universities, research institutes, and technology organizations to connect with the international community, improve laws and regulations, ethical review rules, and regulatory frameworks. We must be brave and adept at struggle, strive to enhance the openness, trust, and cooperation of the international scientific and technological community, make new and greater contributions to the progress of human civilization with more major original innovations and breakthroughs in key core technologies, and effectively safeguard China's scientific and technological security interests.
Sixth, shape an innovative ecosystem that is conducive to basic research. Conducting basic research requires both material security and spiritual motivation. The spirit of "Two Bombs and One Satellite", the spirit of westward migration, the spirit of manned spaceflight, the spirit of scientists, the spirit of exploring the moon, and the spirit of the Beidou in the new era, which have been forged by several generations of scientific and technological workers in China through continuous struggle, have jointly shaped the innovative ecology with Chinese characteristics and become an inexhaustible driving force to support the development of basic research.
We must vigorously promote the scientific spirit of pursuing truth and climbing new heights in the whole society, widely publicize advanced models and deeds emerging in basic research and other scientific and technological fields, educate and guide science and technology workers to inherit the glorious tradition of the older generation of scientists dedicating themselves to the country and caring for the people, write papers on the land of our motherland, and apply scientific research achievements to the great cause of building a socialist modernized country in all respects. We need to strengthen the construction of national science popularization capacity, deeply implement the action of improving the scientific literacy of the whole population, disseminate scientific knowledge and showcase scientific achievements through multiple channels online and offline, and establish a social trend of loving and advocating science. To effectively promote the integration of science and education, we should do a good job in science education addition in the "double reduction" of education, sow the seeds of science, stimulate the curiosity, imagination, and exploratory desire of young people, and cultivate a group of young people with the potential of scientists who are willing to devote themselves to scientific research.
Party committees and governments at all levels should include strengthening basic research in the important agenda of scientific and technological work, strengthen overall coordination, increase policy support, and promote the high-quality development of basic research. Leaders and cadres at all levels should learn scientific and technological knowledge, carry forward the spirit of science, take the initiative to help scientific and technological workers solve problems, loosen ties and reduce burdens, cheer and encourage, and implement a series of strategic deployments of the Party Central Committee on scientific and technological innovation.
※ this is General Secretary Xi Jinping's speech during the third collective study of the 20th Political Bureau of the Central Committee on February 21, 2023.
