Qiu Ling
Promoting the collaborative research of key core technologies and accelerating the overcoming of "bottleneck" technologies in important fields is an urgent requirement for coordinating high-quality development and high-level security, realizing high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-reliance, and is the only way to build a world scientific and technological power and seize the commanding heights of international scientific and technological competition and future development.
Positive progress has been made in tackling key core technologies
Under the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, all regions and departments have given full play to the advantages of the new national system, supported and guided enterprises, institutions of higher learning and scientific research institutes to implement key core technology research tasks, and effectively promoted new breakthroughs in key areas and key links.
The first is to increase policy and financial support. The 27th meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform deliberated and adopted the "Opinions on Improving the New National System for Tackling Key Core Technologies under the Conditions of Socialist Market Economy", which built "four beams and eight pillars" for strengthening strategic planning and systematic layout, and building an organizational and operational mechanism for collaborative research. The first meeting of the 20th Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform deliberated and adopted the "Opinions on Strengthening the Main Position of Enterprises in Scientific and Technological Innovation", which systematically laid out key innovation resources such as policies, funds, projects, platforms, and talents, and promoted enterprises to play a role in key core technological innovation and major original technological breakthroughs. In-depth implementation of the core competitiveness of the manufacturing industry and technological transformation of the special project, in the clean and efficient power generation equipment, ultra-high voltage power transmission and transformation equipment, rail transit equipment, high-tech ships and marine engineering equipment and other fields to carry out the first (set) major technical equipment insurance compensation mechanism pilot. Special measures have been introduced for the national key R&D plan, the innovation of the new generation of artificial intelligence industry, and the import of key components and equipment, and the level of policy guarantee and resource integration has been significantly improved.
The second is to deepen the reform of systems and mechanisms. Strengthen the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee over science and technology work, establish a Central Science and Technology Commission, and promote the systematic and overall reconstruction of the national science and technology management system. Improve the new national system for tackling key core technologies, explore and implement new models such as "unveiling the leader", "horse racing", "capital injection" and "substitution with awards", and improve the ability to integrate and innovate by optimizing the layout of major productive forces such as integrated circuits and new energy vehicles, and initially establish a new mechanism with demand as the traction and the ability to solve problems as the evaluation criteria. It has introduced reform measures to promote the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talents, promoted the evaluation of scientific research projects, the evaluation of scientific and technological talents, the evaluation of scientific research institutions, and the reform of the salary system, implemented the chief scientist responsibility system for frontier exploration projects, and set up special projects for disruptive technologies, which has effectively promoted the research and iterative application of key core technologies.
The third is to carry out major research tasks. Strengthen the national strategic scientific and technological strength, explore more efficient institutional mechanisms and organizational models, accelerate the "14th Five-Year Plan" national key research and development plan, the "14th Five-Year Plan" scientific and technological frontier research tasks, etc., from the basic frontier, original innovative technology, key common technology to application demonstration of the whole chain of innovative design, integrated organization and implementation. We will further implement the major projects of scientific and technological innovation 2030, and focus on cutting-edge key areas such as quantum communication and quantum computers, new generation artificial intelligence, brain science and brain-like research. In view of the "stuck neck" technology, we will continue to promote special projects for major short-board equipment, major technical equipment research projects, industrial base reengineering projects, safe and reliable alternative projects, and strategic leading science and technology projects, etc., and strive to improve the level of independence and controllability with the project as the traction.
Fourth, important scientific and technological achievements have been formed. A work pattern of integrated promotion of short-board research, iterative application, and ecological construction is taking shape, and new breakthroughs have been made in key core technologies. Part of the "stuck neck" technology has initially achieved independent control, CPU, operating system, memory, etc. have achieved a major leap from scratch and from unavailability to availability, independent innovation in the fields of integrated circuits and industrial machine tools has made positive progress, new energy vehicle chips have broken foreign monopoly, and high-speed EMUs and urban rail transit equipment have fully realized technological independence. Some technological leading advantages continue to be consolidated, and a number of major original scientific and technological achievements have been made in the fields of quantum technology, life sciences, and deep space exploration, with the number of patent applications in the field of artificial intelligence ranking first in the world, and large-scale scientific and technological equipment such as manned spaceflight, lunar and fire exploration, and deep-sea and deep-earth exploration maintaining a leading position in the world.
Contradictions and problems faced by key core technology research
At present, the competition between the major powers around the commanding heights of science and technology is unprecedentedly fierce, the mainland's ability to innovate in science and technology is not strong, the level of independence and controllability of core technology and major equipment is not high, and the situation of being controlled by others has not been fundamentally changed, there is still a gap between the technical indicators and quality performance of domestic equipment and the international advanced level, and the role of institutional advantages and policy support is not fully played.
First, the overall planning and coordination of the key research forces need to be strengthened. The functional positioning and task division of different subjects such as ministries and commissions, military and civilian, central and local, industry, academia, research and application are relatively independent, and there are more problems in the process of promoting key research, such as screening and identifying key core technologies from the standard, insufficient information sharing between each other, and overlapping and duplication of work. For example, the special funds set up in some places are mostly concentrated in the fields of 5G, integrated circuits, advanced materials, and intelligent manufacturing, and the direction of support is highly similar to that of key projects, and even "digging each other's walls" to grab talents, diluting limited research resources. At the same time, due to the lack of overall planning of upstream and downstream industries, software and hardware industries, the interface standards and performance indicators of some major equipment subsystems and submodules are not uniform, which leads to the difficulty of collaborative operation of the whole machine as a key research achievement and the overall stability is reduced.
Second, there is a problem in some policy orientations that focus on the immediate and ignore the long-term. Some departments and localities do not have enough understanding of the characteristics of key projects, such as high technical thresholds, long R&D cycles, and high uncertain risks, and pursue "immediate results". Some departments focus on the current return on the assessment of investment in major research projects, focusing on financial indicators such as annual investment amount and investment rate of return, and lack scientific and effective evaluation methods and standards for the achievement of strategic goals. Under the guidance of this assessment, individual research projects tend to "make quick money", and the core technology breakthrough and industrial chain driving effect is not obvious. Some localities pursue short-term catch-up goals and prefer applied research projects with quick results, resulting in insufficient investment in basic scientific research.
Third, there is a mismatch between the supply of innovation and the demand for tackling key problems. In terms of talents, the disciplines of universities and vocational colleges are relatively disconnected from the needs of tackling key problems, which makes it difficult for high-tech enterprises to find talents. In terms of funding, venture capital focusing on "seed stage" and "hard technology" is insufficient, and the scale and number of funds for technology-based start-ups are small and small, making it difficult to accurately connect the innovation chain with the financial chain. Some financially funded scientific research projects require the proportion of fixed asset investment to reach 30%-50%, but many key core technology research projects are mainly based on personnel performance expenditure, and the purchase cost of fixed assets is relatively low. In terms of the market, due to the inflexibility of the accountability system, corporate decision-makers may be held accountable for problems with the use of "first (set)" products, and the mentality of "crabs" letting others eat first is more common. Due to factors such as market share and performance indicators, it is difficult for independent innovation products to enter the procurement catalog or meet the bidding requirements, and the "no way to enter the market" restricts the performance improvement and product iteration of independent innovation products, and the advantages of the super-large-scale market need to be fully utilized.
Accelerate the collaborative research of key core technologies
It is necessary to firmly establish the idea of "a game of chess for the whole country", form the greatest synergy of horizontal communication and cooperation, and promote the cooperation between the upper and lower levels, so as to win the battle of key core technologies.
The first is to focus on plugging points and silting points and strengthen overall coordination. Implement the central government's decision-making and deployment on improving the new national system for tackling key technologies under the conditions of the socialist market economy, promote relevant departments, localities, enterprises and scientific research institutes to strengthen information sharing and policy convergence, and accelerate the construction of cross-departmental, cross-field, and cross-regional mechanisms for joint research on key core technologies. Give full play to the guiding role of the State Council's working mechanism for maintaining the safety and stability of industrial and supply chains, the optimization of the layout of the state-owned economy and the catalogue of structural adjustment, increase the financial support within the central budget, clean up and integrate the subsidy policies of various departments, and accelerate the formation of a collaborative innovation pattern of complementary advantages, joint construction and sharing. Give full play to the role of state-owned central enterprises as the "vanguard" and "pillar", strengthen the upstream and downstream collaborative research of equipment and materials, machinery and electronics, complete machines and components, hardware and software, strengthen cross-domain technology, product and market cooperation, and turn the scale advantage into the advantage of related cooperation. Accelerate the construction of a unified national market, promote the abolition of market barriers and discriminatory access policies in various localities, and fully support the local market-oriented application of independent innovation products.
The second is to anchor the strategic objectives and improve the evaluation mechanism and policy orientation. Fully respect the objective law of scientific and technological innovation, appropriately extend the period of policy support, reasonably determine the project support and review cycle that matches the roadmap for technological research, and avoid short-term behaviors that rush for quick success and quick profit. For state-supported scientific and technological research projects, it is recommended to optimize the assessment system around strategic objectives, appropriately reduce the weight of financial indicators such as return on investment, and pay attention to the whole process and multi-dimensional performance evaluation. Establish and improve the fault-tolerant and error-correcting mechanism, adhere to the "three distinctions", and provide a relaxed environment for the underlying innovation attempts and non-consensus cutting-edge technology research and development.
The third is to stimulate the vitality of the main body and promote the deep integration of production, education, research and application. Promote the reform of the project selection mechanism and evaluation mode of scientific research projects, enhance the participation and voice of enterprises as scientific and technological innovation contributors, and open up the whole chain of scientific and technological research and development, pilot test verification, and industrial application. Increase the proportion of leading science and technology enterprises leading and participating in national science and technology projects in the application and industry categories, and promote the agglomeration of various elements to all kinds of innovation subjects. Comprehensively adopt a variety of methods such as loan interest discounts, risk subsidies, guidance funds, and tax incentives to support enterprises to carry out forward-looking and exploratory scientific and technological research. Combined with the needs of semiconductors, artificial intelligence and other industries, optimize the development plan of key disciplines in colleges and universities, and increase the construction of basic disciplines and the cultivation of urgently needed talents. Strengthen the legality and compliance review of the procurement process, and prevent "exclusionary" and "discriminatory" standards from hindering independent innovation products from entering the market.
(The author is a researcher at the Institute of Industrial and Technical Economics, China Academy of Macroeconomics)