【Science and Technology Perspective】Smooth the virtuous circle of education, science and technology, and talents

When presiding over the 11th collective study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that it is necessary to smooth the virtuous cycle of education, science and technology, and talents in accordance with the requirements of developing new quality productive forces, and improve the working mechanism of talent training, introduction, use, and reasonable flow. Education, science and technology, and qualified personnel are the basic and strategic support for the mainland to build itself into a modern socialist country in an all-round way. Promoting the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talents and building a virtuous circle is not only a solid foundation for strengthening the collaborative allocation of resources and promoting the upgrading and iteration of new quality productivity, but also an important engine for opening up new fields and new tracks, shaping new kinetic energy and new advantages, and supporting the rapid development of new quality productivity.

New requirements are put forward for the promotion of the "trinity".

The new quality productivity is the quality of advanced productivity in which innovation plays a leading role, gets rid of the traditional economic growth mode and productivity development path, has the characteristics of high technology, high efficiency and high quality, and conforms to the new development concept. Education is an important foundation for the development of new quality productive forces, science and technology are the core elements for the development of new quality of productive forces, and talent is the first resource for the development of new quality of productive forces. To develop new-quality productive forces, it is necessary to promote education, science and technology, and qualified personnel in an integrated manner to form a powerful joint force, and this has set new requirements for the mainland's education, science and technology, and talent distribution in an all-round and in-depth manner.

First, it is required to cultivate top-notch innovative talents with modern education. In order to achieve this goal, on the one hand, it is necessary to effectively meet the development needs of new quality productive forces, carry out education work guided by serving major scientific and technological innovations, and especially cultivate talents in key areas; on the other hand, it is necessary to give full play to the guiding role of education, and guide more high-quality talents with innovation potential to devote themselves to innovation and practice by opening up the blocking points of the government, industry, academia and research mechanisms.

Second, it is required to lead innovation with strategic and leading talents. People are the bearers of production practice and scientific and technological innovation, and the progress of productive forces depends on human development in the final analysis. The new quality productivity is characterized by high technology, high efficiency and high quality, and requires higher quality talents as the first resource to lead the development of scientific and technological innovation. By significantly enhancing the leading and supporting role of high-level top-notch talents in scientific and technological innovation in key areas, we will promote first-class talents to make leading contributions to solving practical problems and key problems of new quality productivity, and form a beneficial interaction between talents and science and technology.

Third, it is required to drive development with independent and subversive innovation. The new quality productivity emphasizes the revolutionary breakthrough of technology, the innovative allocation of production factors, and the deep transformation and upgrading of industries, and requires the combination of major scientific and technological achievements with many industrial factors to a greater extent, so as to promote profound changes in the productive forces. In particular, it is necessary to concentrate efforts on the development of strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new materials, advanced manufacturing, and electronic information, actively cultivate future industries, and use disruptive science and technology and cutting-edge technologies to give birth to new industries, new models, and new kinetic energy that have qualitative significance for economic and social development.

It is necessary to open up the circulation of education, science and technology, and talents

The new requirements of the new quality productivity for education, science and technology, and talents mean the necessity of promoting the three to realize the virtuous circle of "innovation-driven development, talent-led innovation, and education cultivating talents". It is necessary to completely change the past development model of education, science and technology, and talent that is fragmented, decentralized, and simplified, and create a circular advantage in which each shows its strengths and makes the best use of its abilities. Although the mainland has made important progress in deepening the comprehensive reform in the field of education and in the reform of the system and mechanism of scientific and technological talents, there are still shortcomings that hinder the development of the mainland's new productive forces.

On the one hand, the insufficient supply of high-level personnel in key areas is a major obstacle to the development of the mainland's new-quality productive forces. At this stage, the total number of talents in the new generation of artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing, new materials and other key fields in the mainland has steadily increased, and the number of international scientific and technological papers published and invention patents authorized ranks among the top in the world, but the training speed of high-level talents has not yet been able to meet the strong demand for talents. According to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Manufacturing Talent Development Planning Guide", it is predicted that by 2025, the talent gap in key areas of the national manufacturing industry will be close to 30 million, with a gap rate of 48%. Problems such as the large gap in the number of high-level talents, the difficulty in introduction, the low utilization efficiency, and the rapid attrition rate still exist. To a certain extent, this has limited the pace of major original technological innovation and advanced technological layout on the mainland.

On the other hand, in recent years, the mainland has made great progress in basic research investment and the construction of scientific research evaluation system, but there are still challenges in quickly cultivating a group of interdisciplinary talents who have the ability to control complex innovation projects and promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. The new quality productivity emphasizes disruptive scientific and technological innovation, and it is urgent to cultivate talents who are proficient in core technologies and have overall concepts and forward-looking thinking. However, there are still problems in mainland higher education, such as a single teaching mode and insufficient cutting-edge content, and the speed of education update cannot keep up with the speed of scientific and technological iteration, which makes it difficult for a considerable number of self-trained talents to directly meet the practical needs of emerging industry layout and key core technology research.

Vigorously cultivate strategic talents in key areas

Break through the integration of education, science and technology, and talents, create a virtuous circle, and vigorously cultivate strategic talents for scientific and technological innovation in key areas of the country.

First, based on the requirements of the construction of new productive forces, we should further promote the reform of the system and mechanism of scientific and technological talents that stimulate the initiative of innovation. First of all, it is necessary to further implement the lump sum system of funding, and leave the right to decide on the allocation of scientific research funds and the selection of technical routes to scientific research personnel. Secondly, we should promote the establishment of a hierarchical and classified talent evaluation system, comprehensively consider the evaluation methods of original masterpieces, academic community evaluation, task entrusting party evaluation, market value evaluation and other evaluation methods, and focus on exploring a long-term and continuous funding mechanism to encourage basic research. At the same time, the scientific research management process should be simplified, the interference of scientific research activities should be minimized, and talents should be ensured to focus on scientific and technological innovation itself.

The second is to comply with the requirements of strategic emerging industries and future industrial development, and build a modern education system that cultivates top-notch innovative talents. On the one hand, we should adhere to the objective needs of scientific and technological development as the traction, and encourage the main body of education to accelerate the construction of basic disciplines, interdisciplinary disciplines and emerging disciplines in the face of major national strategic needs. Explore the construction of a cooperation mechanism between universities and enterprises, scientific research institutes, and industry institutions to jointly select and hire mentors, jointly cultivate talents, and jointly recognize top-notch talents, and transform top scientific and technological resources into top talent cultivation resources through the establishment of joint laboratories, industrial talent innovation bases, and modern industry colleges. On the other hand, efforts should be made to build an educational body that focuses on original innovation, and fully demonstrate the important leading position of universities and research institutes in basic research and major original innovation. By speeding up the construction of large-scale scientific facilities and setting up basic research centers and cooperative laboratories, we will provide a platform for more outstanding talents to cooperate in research and development, cultivate and transform high-level achievements, and provide scientific and technological support and services for the construction of a new quality productivity system.

The third is to focus on the deployment of the world's important talent centers and innovation highlands, and smooth the cross-regional circulation channels of education, science and technology, and talent elements. Accelerate the creation of a radiation mechanism for education, science and technology, and human resources from the highland area to the surrounding regions, and take regional coordination projects such as "Eastern Data and Western Computing" as an important opportunity to encourage the sharing of educational resources between regions, promote the "nesting of talents in different places", set up an innovation liaison group, and build a cross-regional circulation channel for mutual recognition of high-end talents' qualifications, convenient and fast transfer of talents' social security information, and smooth dissemination of technology. Through the regional coordination of education, science and technology, and talents, we will give full play to the leading role of the mainland's talent center and innovation highland, and promote the development of new quality productive forces in many places according to local conditions.

Source: Science and Technology Daily