Young scientists from Fudan University who have entered the "Special Economic Zone": From a shortage of funds to their second appearance in the journal "Nature" with talent | research | youth
Recently, a team led by Wang Rong, a young researcher from the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at Fudan University, published a paper in the journal Nature. They used a cross fusion method of atmospheric physics, chemistry, and economics to study the physical processes of climate change through computer modeling. For the first time, from the perspective of energy system integration, they proposed the "optimal path" for China to accelerate the development of photovoltaics and wind power and achieve the 2060 carbon neutrality goal. This paper has received attention from academic peers both domestically and internationally, as well as attention from relevant national departments.
And just half a year ago, this young scientist was still worrying about research funding. From 2019 to 2022, he failed to apply for competitive scientific research projects supported by various levels of finance, resulting in a shortage of funds.
"Our team is really running out of money," Wang Rong said helplessly at the second batch of project defense and argumentation meetings for the "Basic Research Special Zone Plan" in March this year. To his delight, his application for "Basic Research on the Interaction between Natural Factors and Energy Systems under Climate Change" was approved by the Special Zone Plan and received funding support of 4 million yuan. This money can support his free exploration for the next five years, allowing for the sustained integration of atmospheric physics, chemistry, economics, and computer simulation in his research on the "four different phenomena".
Taking risks to engage in research on "four different phenomena"
"Four Similarities" is an evaluation of Wang Rong's research direction by a senior scientist. He reminded Wang Rong that conducting interdisciplinary and cross disciplinary research between natural and social sciences carries great risks, as experts from traditional single disciplines do not have sufficient understanding of such research and do not consider researchers to be their peers, resulting in cross-border research being difficult to obtain fair evaluation and being at a disadvantage in the current highly competitive scientific research project evaluation.
The fact proves that this judgment is accurate. In 2018, Wang Rong, who had just joined Fudan University, received support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for his traditional research project on atmospheric chemistry. Afterwards, he transitioned to conducting research on the "Four Disguises" and never received competitive research projects again, until he was selected for the "Basic Research Special Zone Plan" this year.
Wang Rong, Young Researcher at the Department of Environment, Fudan University
Why engage in high-risk cross-border research? Wang Rong said that during his doctoral studies at Peking University, he spent five years focusing on researching a type of atmospheric chemical pollutant. Is conducting scientific research in this way too microscopic? Will there be a loss of overall judgment on the issue of "big science"? With reflection, he went to the French Climate Change Research Center and began studying climate change issues from a macro perspective. He conducted extensive research on the changes in various natural elements such as the atmosphere, ocean, soil, and glaciers through computer simulations, exploring the basic laws and mechanisms of these changes.
As his research deepened, he was no longer satisfied with analyzing climate change issues from a natural science perspective and began self-learning economic principles. Because he believes that there is an important question - in the context of global climate change, what will be the long-term impact on the energy systems, industrial structure, technological progress, food production, per capita income, and employment situation of countries including China? This issue is related to socioeconomics and is crucial for national policy formulation and strategic layout.
After Wang Rong inputted a lot of economic data into the model, the study of "four different things" was officially launched. "I think this kind of research can be called 'carbon neutrality', and the scientific tool we have established is named 'Fudan University Earth Digital Intelligent Information Complex System'."
Why innovative research often falls into obscurity
In September 2020, Chinese leaders announced during the general debate of the 75th United Nations General Assembly, "China will increase its national independent contribution, adopt more powerful policies and measures, strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030, and strive to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060."
Since then, how to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality before 2060 with minimal economic cost has gradually become an important issue in the study of carbon neutrality.
Wang Rong's team took a group photo in front of the Environmental Building of Fudan University.
However, the cruel reality lies before Wang Rong: between 2019 and 2022, he did not apply for a competitive scientific research project, and some of the projects did not even have the opportunity to defend themselves. This poses a risk of unsustainable carbon neutrality studies. As a young scientist living in an environment of either promotion or departure in universities, the pressure he bears can be imagined.
Why does an original and potentially valuable research direction often fail in project reviews? Director Wang Hao of the Research Institute of Fudan University, who is responsible for the school's "Basic Research Special Zone Plan," analyzed the reasons behind it——
Firstly, there are few precedents in the academic community for this type of "four dissimilarities" research, which belongs to non consensus innovation research and is indeed difficult to evaluate. Therefore, under the traditional evaluation mechanism that pursues the recognition of the majority of experts, the likelihood of obtaining support is relatively low.
Secondly, in the current situation where a large number of project applications, multiple rounds of evaluation, and excellent projects from different disciplines and research directions are squeezed into a single wooden bridge, only projects with research background, content, and expected goals that are close to "perfect" can stand out. However, truly original projects often have a lot of uncertainty, and their vulnerabilities naturally exist, making it difficult to receive unanimous praise from expert groups.
Although there is no project support, Wang Rong's research results have been recognized by the academic community and multiple internationally renowned journals. Since 2019, his papers have been published in Joule, Nature Communications, and Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences. Last September, a paper by Wang Rong as the independent corresponding author was first published in Nature, revealing the potential threat of biomass energy combined with carbon capture and storage technology to food security in developing countries.
Diagram of Wang Rong's team's first paper published in Nature
To publish this paper in Nature, an open source publication fee equivalent to RMB 60000 needs to be paid. At that time, Wang Rong's team had only 230000 yuan in their account, and their laboratory had a minimum monthly expenditure of 30000 yuan, which could not sustain them for several months. Fortunately, the project collaborator funded this fee and allowed the paper to be published as scheduled.
Promotion of "Basic Research Special Zones" nationwide
How can we better support exploratory research and non consensus innovation research in the field of basic research, so that talented young scientists can receive more funding and devote themselves wholeheartedly to scientific research?
The Shanghai Municipal Government has proposed the innovative plan of "Special Zone for Basic Research". The "Several Opinions on Accelerating the High Quality Development of Basic Research" released in September 2021 showed that Shanghai was the first in the country to pilot the establishment of "Basic Research Special Zones", selecting some universities and research institutes with outstanding advantages in basic research, and providing long-term and stable support to key teams. The municipal government grants the special zone full autonomy in scientific research, supporting its free selection of topics, self organization, and independent use of funds.
At present, there are six "special basic research zones" in Shanghai, namely Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai Branch, Tongji University, East China Normal University and East China University of Science and Technology.
"Many scientists say that research projects with strong originality and high uncertainty are difficult to pass routine evaluations, which is our original intention for establishing special zones." Song Yang, Director of the Basic Research Department of the Municipal Science and Technology Commission, said that the "Basic Research Special Zone Plan" encourages six units to exercise their autonomy, support scientific researchers in conducting free exploratory research and non consensus innovation research, and tolerate failure. As long as the original records prove that the project team has fulfilled its diligent and responsible obligations, it is allowed to conclude the project.
In February of this year, the Third Collective Study of the Central Political Bureau pointed out that in building high-level support platforms for basic research, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of "special zones for basic research". Recently, multiple science and technology departments from other provinces and cities have contacted the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission to understand the innovative measures of the special zone.
Entering the special zone makes scientists feel "wonderful"
As a beneficiary of the special zone plan, Wang Rong has a deep understanding of its institutional innovation. He, who was busy with scientific research, completed the project application materials in just over an hour and then participated in the debate session organized by Fudan University. A scientist who reviewed the project bluntly stated at the meeting that he couldn't quite understand the research he was doing, but he felt that it was highly innovative and solid, in line with the positioning and requirements of the special zone plan.
The review result surprised Wang Rong to the surprise: he has finally received project support, and the project funding is sufficient for his team to focus on researching and challenging difficult problems in the next five years. "I didn't expect the process of obtaining a million yuan project to be so short," he laughed. "In the future, I can do very free and independent basic research, and use the new tool of 'carbon neutrality' to serve the country. This feeling is wonderful."
In July of this year, his paper as the independent corresponding author was published for the second time in Nature. Based on the earth digital intelligent information complex system with high spatial and temporal resolution, Wang Rong's team constructed an optimization model for China to replace fossil fuels with solar photovoltaic and wind power plants from 2021 to 2060, calculated the optimal investment amount for China's development of photovoltaic and wind power in 2030, 2040 and 2050, and listed the list of countries suitable for introducing domestic photovoltaic and wind power technologies, providing scientific suggestions for China's energy transformation and "the Belt and Road" cooperation under the goal of carbon neutrality.
The paper proposes to optimize the spatial and temporal layout of the development of solar photovoltaic and wind power generation in the next 40 years.
"I hope these suggestions are valuable for the government's future decision-making," Wang Rong said. "Optimizing the spatial layout of photovoltaic and wind power, accelerating the upgrading of the national power system, can reduce the total cost of carbon reduction in the future, and will also bring more economic benefits to the western region."
The young scientist who was willing to sit on the bench walked a bumpy road from a tight budget to his second publication in Nature. In the future, more scientists will enter the "Special Zone for Basic Research". Song Yang introduced that the Municipal Science and Technology Commission is studying and formulating the 2.0 version of the "Basic Research Special Zone" policy, which will focus more on basic disciplines and strategic directions, and is not limited to project funding support. It will also form policies that conform to the laws of basic research in talent introduction, evaluation and assessment, supporting outstanding scientists to explore the forefront of science in a better environment and nurturing a batch of important original achievements.
