What exactly is it?, "Non consensus" RMB for Shanghai's Science and Technology Innovation Needs | Society | Shanghai
On July 17th, the fifth "Science Exploration Award" was announced, and each winner will receive a total of 3 million yuan in prize money within 5 years, and can freely use the prize money. Behind this public welfare award is the "New Cornerstone Science Foundation" initiated by Tencent. The foundation has established "Scientific Exploration Award" and "New Cornerstone Researcher Project", with plans to invest 10 billion yuan within 10 years to explore innovative models of long-term stable social funding support for basic scientific research.
Establishing basic research funds through donations from enterprises and individuals to support non consensus innovation research has become an important way to stimulate the vitality of various innovation entities.
Many significant discoveries and breakthroughs come from non consensus projects
"The so-called non consensus innovation research can be understood literally as a project where the reviewing experts have different opinions on the same project, and most even believe that funding should not be given." Zhu Xueyan, director of the Strategic Planning Research Office of the Shanghai Institute of Science, told the Liberation Daily Shangguan News reporter that foreign countries have a more open attitude towards non consensus innovation research, implementing multiple reviews for controversial non consensus projects to avoid "pearls from the sea"; In the United States, there is a type of project approval method for basic research with "high risk and high return": as long as the research project meets the basic standards, even if no consensus is formed, it can be decided by drawing lots; In Japan, there is even a "one vote through system".
Dou Xiankang, Director of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, recently mentioned in an interview with Outlook that original exploration projects have two characteristics: first, they are non consensus, and the more original research, the more likely it is for non consensus to occur; The second reason is that the failure rate is very high. To this end, the National Natural Science Foundation of China is deeply promoting the "Original Exploration Program" to support original projects with characteristics such as non consensus, subversion, and high risk. He also told a story: the "Optical Spin Hall Effect Project in Organic Microcrystalline Light Cavities" funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2021, which had previously been applied for four times. Most of the reviewing experts were skeptical of its feasibility, making it difficult to enter the critical stage of conference review under the conventional review mechanism. In the evaluation of the "Original Exploration Program Project", this non consensus project was recommended for conference review and ultimately received funding. At present, its research results have been published in international journals such as Nature Communications.
Why do we support non consensus innovation research? From the history of modern science and technology, many significant discoveries and breakthroughs have come from non consensus projects. "With a more accurate understanding of the laws of basic research, especially the characteristics of high risk and uncertainty, it is hoped that the whole society will pay more attention to non consensus innovation research and provide more funding," said Zhu Xueyan.
Has it ever been done abroad? It used to be an important reference and indicator for scientific research project evaluation. When people reach a consensus on the importance of non consensus innovation research, it means that they are closer to the breakthrough of original innovation.
Accelerate the formation of a diversified investment pattern
In recent years, China's investment in basic research has significantly increased, from 49.9 billion yuan in 2012 to approximately 195.1 billion yuan in 2022, accounting for 6.3% of the total R&D expenditure in society. However, there is still a gap compared to developed countries where basic research investment accounts for 15% to 20% of the total R&D expenditure in society.
More than 90% of China's basic research funding comes from government funding, and enterprises invest less than 3% in basic research. What is the situation abroad?
Zhu Xueyan introduced that the United States has numerous scientific foundations that raise social donations, which makes the scale and proportion of diversified investment in basic research in the United States ahead of other developed countries. There are two main modes, one is for individuals or businesses to establish independent foundations to directly support scientific research activities. As early as the early 20th century, led by a group of entrepreneurs such as Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, JP Morgan, and Henry Ford, the United States established a group of public welfare foundations that could provide long-term and stable support for education, scientific research, health, and other undertakings. Compared to other types of scientific funding, scientific foundations established through social donations are often more autonomous, flexible, and actively supporting high-risk cutting-edge scientific research, interdisciplinary research, and early applied research. According to the American Science and Engineering Indicators, in recent years, the basic research investment of the American Science Foundation has accounted for over 12% of the total social investment, becoming one of the important sources of basic research funding.
The second model is for individuals or businesses to donate to university foundations, indirectly supporting research activities. In 1890, Yale University established the first Alumni Endowment Foundation, which specifically accepted and managed alumni donations. It has now become one of the best performing large institutional investors in the United States, and has since been established by universities such as Harvard and Stanford. According to a 2015 survey conducted by the American Association of Universities by the Science Charity Alliance, science charity funding accounts for nearly 30% of research funding in American universities. The American University Foundation has professional management, marketing, and strategic planning experts, such as Harvard University's dedicated management company, and hires industry experts with an annual salary of over $1 million to ensure high returns on assets.
What are the inspirations of these experiences for Shanghai? In Zhu Xueyan's view, "on the one hand, we can encourage enterprises and other social forces to independently establish scientific funds, and on the other hand, we can establish joint funds with the government to open up channels for basic research to receive investment from enterprises and social donations. Through tax incentives and other means, we can encourage enterprises to increase their investment in basic research, accelerate the formation of a diversified investment pattern that effectively leverages government investment and deeply participates in enterprises and social forces.".
【 Targeting researchers to "set questions" and explore the lowest level scientific problems 】
Just last month, the "Chinese Eye" detected crucial evidence for the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves, and Li Kejia, the corresponding author of the paper and a researcher at Peking University, was one of the winners of the 2022 "Science Exploration Award".
Zhou Huanping, a professor at Peking University who won the award in 2019, admitted, "Receiving funding has given me the confidence to shift my focus away from short-term projects and towards more uncertain but significant ones."
Over the past five years, the "Science Exploration Award" has gradually taken an innovative path of social support for basic research and cutting-edge technology exploration. Professor Zhang Yitang from the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who published a new paper on the Landau Siegel null hypothesis last year, said that this award "has aroused the enthusiasm of society and businesses to invest in basic research and enhance scientific innovation.".
In order to encourage enterprises and social forces to increase investment in basic research, Shanghai launched the first "Explorer Plan" in 2021, which is funded by the government and enterprises together to support basic research. Three enterprises have joined in succession, and a total of 34 projects have been funded in the past two years, with a cumulative investment of nearly 30 million yuan. Hongzhi Micro Technology, which is engaged in multi-scale simulation technology research, is a new enterprise to join the Explorer Program this year. They plan to invest 10 million yuan in three years to "solve problems" for scientific researchers throughout the city, exploring the fundamental scientific problems of computational materials science.
"As innovative entities, enterprises' enthusiasm for investing in basic research is gradually increasing." Song Yang, Director of the Basic Research Department of the Municipal Science and Technology Commission, said that Shanghai will further stimulate the vitality of various innovative entities, improve the convenience of enterprises to enjoy relevant incentive policies, and encourage and support enterprises to increase their investment in basic research.
