Reorganization of the Ministry of Science and Technology: Concentrate on solving the "stuck neck" problem

Produced by Tiger Sniff Technology Group

Author|Chen Yifan

Head Image|Visual China

The reorganization of the Ministry of Science and Technology has become one of the biggest highlights of the two sessions.

On March 7, the State Council Institutional Reform Plan was released, and Xiao Jie, State Councilor and Secretary-General of the State Council, explained the plan at the second plenary session of the First Session of the 14th National People's Congress, and the reorganization of the Ministry of Science and Technology was the part of the institutional reform.

The Ministry of Science and Technology was reorganized, one of which was the establishment of the Central Science and Technology Commission, and the responsibilities of the offices of the Central Science and Technology Commission were assumed by the reorganized Ministry of Science and Technology (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of Science and Technology).

Five years have passed since the last round of restructuring of the Ministry of Science and Technology. In the 2018 round of institutional reform of the State Council, the responsibilities of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs were integrated, and the Ministry of Science and Technology was re-established as a component department of the State Council, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China was managed by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

"The logic of reorganizing the Ministry of Science and Technology this time is actually to make the positioning of the Ministry of Science and Technology more clearly defined as grasping strategy, planning, and implementation. Separate the Ministry of Science and Technology from some project management. Liang Zheng, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Public Administration, told Tiger Sniff that "on the other hand, strengthen centralized and unified leadership." Over the past decade, his organization has been tracking and studying the reform of the scientific and technological system, and in his view, such adjustments are expected and the result of further deepening reforms.

Then, after the reorganization, how will the Ministry of Science and Technology better transform the technological achievements? Has the company been further implemented as the main body of innovation that has been talked about for many years? Do some U.S. science and technology policies offer some food for thought?

Strengthen the basic research orientation of the Ministry of Science and Technology

The reorganized Ministry of Science and Technology focuses more on coordination and supervision functions, and the Ministry of Science and Technology originally acted as both a referee and an athlete, which is now equivalent to transferring the functions of some "athletes". In addition, "the Ministry of Science and Technology will pay more attention to basic and strengthen the research of 'stuck neck' technology in the future." Li Jizhen, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management, said.

In this adjustment, the National Natural Science Foundation of China is still under the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Management Center of Agenda 21 and the High-tech Research and Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology are transferred to the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

In recent years, China's investment in basic research has increased year by year, but there is still a gap compared with the United States.

According to data from the Ministry of Science and Technology, in 2022, the R&D expenditure of the whole society will exceed 3 trillion yuan for the first time, the intensity of R&D investment will exceed 2.5% for the first time, and the proportion of basic research investment will exceed 6% for four consecutive years. Continental's GII ranking rose from 34th in 2012 to 11th in 2022. According to an article previously published in China Science News by Sun Yutao, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Dalian University of Technology, basic research accounted for 19% of the total R&D expenditure in the United States in 2009.

Xiao Jie mentioned that the reorganized Ministry of Science and Technology no longer participates in the evaluation and management of specific scientific research projects, but is mainly responsible for guiding and supervising the operation and management of professional institutions for scientific research management, and strengthening the supervision and inspection of the implementation of scientific research projects and the evaluation and effectiveness of scientific research results.

In the original organizational structure of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology had 14 department-level departments, including the General Office, the Department of Basic Research, the Department of Rural Science and Technology, the Department of High and New Technology, and the Department of Achievement Transformation and Regional Innovation.

This reorganization will transfer the specific management responsibilities of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and some business departments that are closely integrated with the industry will be classified into corresponding departments. For example, the Department of Agricultural Science and Technology was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Department of High Technology was transferred to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Xiao Jie also explained some specific adjustments of the reorganization, such as: the responsibility of organizing the formulation of plans and policies for promoting agricultural and rural development through science and technology and guiding rural scientific and technological progress was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; The responsibility for organizing the formulation of science and technology for social development planning and policies is assigned to the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the National Health Commission and other departments; The responsibilities of organizing the formulation of high-tech development and industrialization plans and policies, guiding the construction of science and technology parks such as national independent innovation demonstration zones and national high-tech industrial development zones, and guiding the development of science and technology service industries, technology markets, and science and technology intermediary organizations are transferred to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; The responsibility for bringing in foreign intellectual work was transferred to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) brand was attached to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. The Ministry of Science and Technology no longer retains the SAFEA brand.

This adjustment is related to the new stage of development that China is now in. Liang Zheng said that for a long time in the past, China's scientific and technological development was more to follow, but at present, many industries have developed to the forefront, and it is necessary to solve the outstanding problems faced by the industry through scientific and technological development, and have the ability to solve the "stuck neck" problem. This is why we chose to make such institutional adjustments at this time, because we need to stand at a strategic level and find real scientific and technological problems from the industry in a targeted manner.

Liang Zheng also stressed that in the past, we mainly considered how science and technology supported economic development, but in the face of a new round of scientific and technological industrial revolution and international competition environment and other severe challenges, it is also necessary to support the country's competitive advantage in strategic fields and ensure national security, so in the new stage of development, it is necessary to more closely integrate scientific and technological work with national strategic goals and missions.

Further implement enterprises as the main body of innovation

It has always been a consensus that enterprises are the main body of technological innovation.

Prior to this, the government stimulated and supported enterprise innovation through a series of policies such as government procurement, tax deductions, financing and listing.

This time the reorganization of the Ministry of Science and Technology has transferred the responsibilities of high-tech development and industrialization planning and policies, guiding the construction of science and technology parks such as national independent innovation demonstration zones and national high-tech industrial development zones, and guiding the development of science and technology service industries, technology markets, and science and technology intermediary organizations to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which is more closely integrated with the industry. "This can better play the role of enterprises as the main body of innovation." Li Jizhen said.

"The core is to take enterprises as the main body in four aspects: major scientific and technological decisions, R&D investment, scientific research organizations and transformation of scientific and technological achievements." Wang Zhigang said in an interview with the media that only by making enterprises the main body of scientific and technological innovation activities, not just the main body of the application of results, can enterprises participate in the whole process from the source.

Wang Zhigang revealed at the two sessions that in the next step, the Ministry of Science and Technology will increase support for enterprises to become the main body of scientific and technological innovation, form an ecology conducive to enterprises becoming the main body of scientific and technological innovation, and achieve fair rights, fair opportunities and fair rules. Whether it is a state-owned, private, large, medium, small and micro enterprise, as long as it engages in scientific and technological innovation activities and uses science and technology to enhance the development quality, development level and competitiveness of enterprises, the Ministry of Science and Technology will fully support it.

In Liang Zheng's view, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's own responsibility is to promote industrial development, therefore, directly transferring high-tech industry-related scientific and technological work to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology can strengthen the connection and interaction between departments and enterprises, combine enterprise research and development, resource allocation and industry development, and directly identify common scientific and technological problems that need to be solved urgently for industrial development by industry departments, especially give play to the role of enterprises in putting forward needs, and the support for enterprises can be more direct than the original, and the integration and integration of innovation is also greater.

In terms of support for SMEs, the original support for SMEs' scientific and technological innovation activities was more concentrated in the Torch Program of the Torch Center manager, and the background of its establishment was how to enhance the innovation ability of SMEs and give full play to their innovation vitality. Now it is placed in the relevant industry authorities, which is conducive to forming a more three-dimensional industry innovation ecology covering large and small enterprises, and realizing the combination of innovation chain, capital chain and policy chain. In the past, when enterprises applied for a science and technology project, the review experts were more from academia, but now they will come more from industry, from focusing on science to focusing more on solving practical problems in the industry.

How the U.S. supports basic research

The U.S. approach may also give rise to some food for thought.

More than 70 years ago, Van Nevar Bush's report, Science: Endless Frontiers, requested at the request of then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, laid the foundation for the nation's innovation system and mechanism in the United States, the most important of which was to support basic research.

On January 16, 2021, before he was officially sworn in, U.S. President Joe Biden announced the appointment of members of his President's Science Advisory Team and government science agencies, which will be responsible for mapping the U.S. science and technology landscape over the next 75 years.

In terms of investment, more than $200 billion of the "Chip and Science Act" signed by Biden in 2022 was invested in cutting-edge science, and its bill said that it will provide about $200 billion in scientific research funding support in the next few years, focusing on supporting cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing.

Taking the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as an example, according to its research, development, testing and appraisal budget request for fiscal years 2019-2023, DARPA spent an average of about $500 million in the basic research stage from fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year 2023. Other important inputs include advanced technology development and applied research. In terms of investment in basic research, DARPA invested the most in basic AI science, with nearly $250 million.

Source: Li Linli et al. "Trends and Characteristics of Defense Research Projects Agency's Defense Research Funding Budget Activities in the Past 5 Years" Tiger Sniff Cartography

Institutionally, the U.S. science and technology system was formed in the 60s of the last century, and the highest coordinating bodies are the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST). In addition, there are six major departments and agencies that make up the funding system: the Ministry of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the Ministry of Agriculture. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy itself is not responsible for budget allocation, but it is responsible for policy coordination, communication and resource allocation.

"A country that relies on others for basic scientific knowledge, regardless of its mechanical skills, will have a slow pace of industrial progress and a very weak competitiveness in world trade." That's a quote Bush said in Science: Endless Frontiers.

For the reorganization of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China is still under the management of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Science and Technology also retains the functions of national laboratory construction and national science and technology major special management. Xue Lan, academic committee member of public management of Tsinghua University and dean of Schwarzman College, also said in an interview that basic research, infrastructure and major projects are still under the responsibility of the Ministry of Science and Technology, especially some "stuck neck" technical problems that need to be solved by concentrating national resources, which is also the focus of the Ministry of Science and Technology in the future.