Is China Brain Planning And Project Management Really a Big Problem?

Recently, Rao Yi suggested that "China's brain plan should be slowed down", saying that the news of its planning and project management [very problematic] was screened on the Internet, causing heated discussion among netizens.

The China Brain Project refers to "Brain Science and Brain-like Research", which is a major scientific and technological project in 2030, which mainly includes the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases, the neural basis of brain cognitive function, and brain-computer intelligence technology. The plan is carried out in phases, of which on September 16, 2021, the official website of the Ministry of Science and Technology officially released the notice of the 2021 annual project application guidelines for major projects of "Brain Science and Brain-like Research" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines"), involving 59 research fields and directions, and the state funding is expected to exceed 3.148 billion yuan.

In fact, rao yi raised the question of either completely overturning the brain plan, or it can only be carried out according to the present. Why? Today I will share with you my views from four aspects.

01, first of all, let's talk about what Rao Yi said makes sense

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In fact, many of the problems in it can be boiled down to the current xx problem, which does exist. For example, the mountaintop doctrine, let alone this kind of national-level huge project, even if it is a simple project as small as a college, the opinion of the big guy is always the most important, the so-called "say you can do it, you can't do it, you can't do it, you can't do it."

In the first two years, he also experienced the suicide of an associate professor, because all his evaluations, even if they met the conditions, could not go out at the college level, and finally chose to take his life.

Especially after breaking the four dimensions, it is even more towards this trend, in the past four dimensions, at least everyone has a clear standard, without this standard, it is very interesting, once said a certain review, obviously insufficient strength, but the big guy opened a sentence So-and-so people have made a great contribution to the long-term work, OK.

Like the national project, not to mention, it is basically a monopoly of academicians, and even the problem of academicians taking turns to manage.

Back to the brain plan, Pu Muming is the top 1 in this field, so he is basically the boss of the unyielding, then, in the end, the promotion of the entire project must have a lot to do with Pu Muming, and Pu Muming is a neurophysiologist, and it is also determined that the orientation of the entire project will also be towards the trend of neurophysiology.

Then, if You let Pu Muming open his mind, it is too difficult, an old man in his 70s, a lifetime of cultivating a field, it is very difficult to expand.

However, if you change to someone else, if nothing else, you can't do it just to balance the big guys, so why be a hair?

02, let's talk about the debatable place

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However, there are some places that I personally think are debatable.

First of all, the brain plan focuses on the monkey brain plan

I agree with that. Although Rao Yi thinks that it can be done with other animals, I don't think so. In fact, Rao Yi mainly does fruit flies, but fruit flies are far away from humans, and it is good to do some ordinary genes, which really involve functional research, and doing brain planning is not enough for individuals.

In fact, the selection of animal models is very elaborate in itself. You do egg and embryonic development, pick Xenopus and zebrafish; do genetics and development, choose fruit flies and so on. The brain plan is fundamentally based on the human brain as the research object, so choosing the primate that is closest to humans is undoubtedly the most appropriate.

Second, the brain plan is not a Chinese biomedical plan, which should be made clear.

Rao Yi proposed

Unlike the international molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, which account for a large part of brain research, the Chinese brain program rarely has real molecular biology and other aspects, and genetics and biochemistry are very few.

And for example, Yuan Junying joined, personally feel that how much is debatable, not to mention that Yuan Junying is a harvard tenured professor of this sensitive identity, not suitable to participate in the top domestic projects (otherwise you will face charges or even sentences, see Li Xiaojiang, Harvard University top professor Charles Lieber).

Yuan Junying herself is apoptosis, which has some relationship with the brain, but it is not her main business, so even if she returns to China full-time, the possibility of participating in the brain plan is not very likely, and the reason for this is the same as Rao Yi accusing Pu Muming, after all, a person has been in a field for a long time, and it is not appropriate for you to let him change the field.

Otherwise, if this is the case, there are many similar cross-border big men in China, Li Xiaojiang is one, and even a proteome giant like He Fuchu can join, then isn't it time for He Lao to preside over the entire project?

After all, Shi Yigong is involved in the structural interpretation of the key protein γ of Alzheimer's disease - secretory enzymes, which can be said to be very related to the brain.

As far as I know, in the participation of the brain program, there are actually those who specialize in genetics, as well as those who do cell and gene editing (such as Academician Ji).

Biotechnology, that is, technology, is a tool, and researchers in brain science can also master this technology, without the need to completely use the main researchers of this technology to dominate brain science, which is a bit of an inversion.

03, brain planning is just a general concept

Many laymen may not be clear, and they will think that the brain plan is a project that Academician Pu divides the money for, in fact, this project covers a lot of content.

For example, there are 59 sub-items in the 2021 Brain Program application, involving the following:

Analysis of brain cognitive principles;

Pathogenesis and intervention techniques of heavy brain diseases associated with cognitive impairment;

Brain-like computing and brain-computer intelligence technology and application;

Brain development in children and adolescents;

Technology platform construction.

Many people think that the brain plan is the analysis of brain cognitive principles, but in fact, this is only a small part. And like the second content, it is to focus on brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's syndrome, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, depression, drug addiction and central nervous system damage, etc., which are covered by the brain plan.

04, the root cause of the problem

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In fact, the main problem at present is that the brain plan is too rich. Tens of billions, can be said to be the number one project in the current biomedical field, although divided into many sub-projects, but the money is still very exaggerated.

It is possible to reduce the investment in the brain plan and divide some in other areas, so that each field is all well. But this is again contrary to the practice of concentrating on big things. One can't expect a brain plan to have to wear a lot of responsibilities, or even rise to the overall progress of biomedical research, so that nothing can be done, and every day you wear a top hat.

Some problems are basically insoluble and cannot be considered to be features of the brain plan. For example, can the hilltop doctrine be solved? There is basically no solution. As long as it is a person operating, there is no solution.

Is the project a question for the big guys or for the average person?

This has always been very controversial, anyway, I think it is more reliable to hand it over to the big guy than to give it to someone like me.

The Ministry of Science and Technology wants to invest money in scientific research, but the officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology do not understand, they entrust scientists to evaluate the proposal, so the question is, who to listen to? Listen to netizens? Or do you listen to academicians? Although many people have a lot of views on hats, from my personal experience, although some of the hats are slightly inferior, there are basically no academicians who do not have hats.

So, in the end, the bigger the project, the more it will be concentrated in the strongest one in the field. For example, the brain plan, if it is not handed over to Pu, will it be handed over to Rao?

If you give it to Pu, then you have to accept that this project has a certain Pu style, after all, Pu is not a genius, and he can't understand all the people who do nerves in the country.

Secondly, since it is a big guy operation, it is more likely to hand it over to someone he is familiar with.

How do you know if you know the other person well enough to integrate into your project if you at least know his situation and research situation, and rush to hand over the project to someone you are not familiar with? How do you know if the other person will work hard to complete a project?

I have seen this suffering, to be honest. A major project, three units of cooperation, originally planned to be a certain person who has cooperated with unit A, but because the big guy is limited to items, it has changed to another similar direction, and the result is that millions of dollars have been taken, nothing to do, the output of things is simply master's students feel that they can't see it, what is the way? The money was given, there was no binding force, and I could only admit it myself.

The end result is that the collaborative project becomes a commitment, with one-third of the funds to complete the entire project.

So the question arises, the project let the big guy propose, handed it over to the big guy, and said that the big guy has a mountain head doctrine, isn't this difficult for strong people? By the way, let me ask you a question, do you think Rao is a mountain head study valve? Hahahaha