Ministry of Science and Technology： The past decade has witnessed the fastest improvement of China’s scientific and technological strength.

"The decade since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has witnessed the greatest scientific and technological progress and the fastest improvement in scientific and technological strength. China’s scientific and technological undertakings have undergone historic, holistic and structural changes, successfully entered the ranks of innovative countries and fully integrated into the global innovation network, showing the overall layout and development trend with the characteristics of the new era."

On May 12th, Tommy, Vice Minister of Science and Technology, made the above summary on the development of science and technology at the press conference on the theme of "China this decade" held by the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee.

In the past ten years, from innovation as the first driving force for development, to fully implementing the innovation-driven development strategy, to insisting on putting scientific and technological innovation at the core of the overall national development, and to taking scientific and technological self-reliance as the strategic support for national development, the road of independent innovation with China characteristics has become wider and wider.

The strength of science and technology has risen rapidly.

Statistics show that the total R&D expenditure in China is 2.7 times that in 2012, and the basic research expenditure is 3.4 times that in 2012. China’s global innovation index has risen by 22 places in ten years, making it the only country in the world that keeps rising rapidly.

All-round development, outstanding characteristics and quality improvement … In the past decade, science and technology have become the first driving force to support and lead China’s high-quality economic development and improve people’s livelihood.

Tommy summed up the important characteristics of China’s scientific and technological development in the past ten years-

The level of scientific research and the overall strength of the discipline have greatly increased. Several disciplines have reached the international leading level, and the research and development capabilities of scientific research institutions, universities and leading scientific and technological enterprises have obviously increased in the global position. There were less than 50,000 high-tech enterprises ten years ago, but now there are 330,000. Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, three major international science and technology innovation centers, have all entered the top 10 in the ranking of global science and technology innovation clusters.

Produce a number of world-class scientific and technological achievements in the fields of basic research and strategic high technology. The exploration of Mars by Tian Wen, the landing of Chang ‘e on the moon, the successful docking of the core modules of Shenzhou XIII and Tianhe have made a great leap in China’s deep space exploration. The successful development of "Deep Sea Warrior", "Struggler" and "Haidou No.1" indicates that China has the ability to detect the depth of 10,000 meters in the whole sea. In the field of quantum science and technology, China has become the only country in the world that has reached the milestone of "the superiority of quantum computing" in two physical systems.

Independent research and development of a large number of advanced technical equipment and systems into practical use has become a "sharp weapon" to promote rapid industrial upgrading. Supercomputing, high-speed railway, smart grid, fourth-generation nuclear power and UHV transmission technology have all entered the world’s advanced ranks. In particular, the deep expansion of 5G R&D and application scenarios, and the initial establishment of China’s characteristic ecology for the development of artificial intelligence are accelerating the empowerment of all industries. With the support of large computing power and supercomputing, the digital economy is booming, and a number of smart cities, smart factories, intelligent medical care and intelligent transportation are taking shape.

At the same time, the number of original new drugs developed has increased significantly compared with ten years ago, and a variety of COVID-19 vaccines, detection reagents and therapeutic drugs have strongly supported the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic; In the front line of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, a large number of science and technology commissioners played an important role; The application of more than 200 achievements of "Science and Technology Winter Olympics" has strongly supported the high-quality hosting of the Beijing Winter Olympics …

"Of course, we are also clearly aware that compared with the world’s leading countries, China’s scientific and technological innovation still has a long way to go." Tommy said that facing the future, China’s scientific and technological circles will face up to problems, face up to difficulties and make unremitting efforts to build a world science and technology power.

System reform was accelerated.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee has placed innovation at the core of the overall development of the country, unswervingly followed the road of independent innovation with China characteristics, and made full efforts to reform the scientific and technological system.

"The reform of the science and technology system has always been regarded as the focus of comprehensively deepening reform." Tommy said that in the decade since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform has considered more than 20 major reform programs in the field of science and technology. So far, the 143 tasks deployed in the implementation plan for deepening the reform of the science and technology system proposed by the central government have been fully completed, and the institutional and basic framework for supporting comprehensive innovation has been basically established. Substantial progress has been made in the reform of key areas and key links, and breakthroughs have been made in some key difficulties and blocking points that have not been solved for a long time. China has set up the National Science and Technology Advisory Committee for the first time, established the National Science and Technology Ethics Committee, reconstructed the science and technology planning system, solved the problem of closed and scattered allocation of science and technology resources, and the science and technology governance mechanism is more suitable for the needs of science and technology development. The national laboratory has been built, the reorganization of the national key laboratory system has been initiated, the autonomy of universities and research institutes has been expanded, the main position of enterprise innovation has been basically established, the national strategic scientific and technological strength has been further strengthened, and a strong synergy has been formed to promote scientific and technological innovation.

In the aspect of scientific research funds, the distribution policy oriented by knowledge value is implemented, the management system of scientific and technological projects and funds based on trust is established, the evaluation orientation centered on quality, performance and contribution is established, and the incentive for scientific researchers is greatly enhanced. Through the reform of "three evaluations", the reform of project evaluation, talent evaluation and institutional evaluation has been carried out in an orderly manner, and many localities and units have explored the realization path of classified evaluation.

Following the law of scientific exploration and technological innovation, we have implemented the system of "revealing the list and taking the lead" and "horse racing" for major tasks, implemented the chief scientist responsibility system for frontier exploration projects, and set up subversive technical projects to support scientists’ bold exploration. In the "14th Five-Year Plan" national key R&D plan, young scientists are generally set up, so that more young scientists can take the lead and take the lead, which has been widely welcomed. In addition, it also gives scientists greater decision-making power on technical routes and the right to use funds, freeing researchers from the cumbersome and unnecessary institutional constraints.

In order to solve the long-standing problem of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, an important orientation of scientific and technological system reform in recent years is to speed up the establishment of the transfer and transformation system of scientific and technological achievements and open up channels among science and technology, industry and finance. To this end, the reward for the transformation income of scientific and technological personnel has been greatly increased, the right to use, dispose of and benefit from scientific and technological achievements has been fully decentralized, and a pilot project has been carried out to give scientific and technological personnel ownership and long-term use rights.

Established a relatively complete inclusive policy and institutional arrangement to encourage enterprise innovation. The deduction ratio of R&D expenses of enterprises has increased from 50% in 2012 and 75% in 2018 to 100% in the fields of technology-based SMEs and manufacturing, which reflects the orientation of supporting technology-based SMEs. At present, more than 3/4 of China’s total social R&D investment is invested by enterprises, and 79% of the national key R&D plans are led or participated by enterprises.

The technology trading market continues to grow, and the activity of the technology trading market reflects the activity of the transfer and transformation of achievements. Last year, the national technology contract transaction volume reached 3.7 trillion, far exceeding the R&D investment of the whole society in that year and 5.8 times that of 2012.

In the capital market, the establishment of science and technology innovation board, the reform of the Growth Enterprise Market, the establishment of the North Stock Exchange, and the smooth channels for direct listing and financing of hard technology enterprises are forming a virtuous circle of mutual shaping of science and technology, industry and finance. In the past, weak ties, where science, technology and economy were amplified by the participation of financial and capital markets, has become a strong coupling now.

"To achieve high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement, China depends on high-level innovative talents in the final analysis." Tommy said that in the next step, the Ministry of Science and Technology will, in accordance with the deployment of the CPC Central Committee, take the implementation of the three-year plan for tackling key problems in scientific and technological reform as the main line, pay close attention to implementation, stimulate the innovative vitality of all kinds of talents, and make more researchers with real talents and practical knowledge available.