Since Vanneva Bush put forward the thesis that "basic research is the leader of technological progress" in Science: The Endless Frontier, more and more countries have paid more and more attention to the important role of basic research in enhancing their international competitiveness. In recent years, China has attached great importance to the role of basic research as the source of innovation, and fully emphasized the supporting role of basic research in high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and high-quality development. It is extremely necessary to track the basic research policy trends of major national innovation systems, analyze the intertwined impact of key factors such as international economy, geopolitics and global epidemic, and judge the future development trend, so as to carry out the deployment of basic research system and formulate relevant management policies in China.
1 Data** and study protocol.
Based on the policy research needs of basic research, this study first identified major developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Japan, and South Korea as the tracking countries. Secondly, the structure of monitoring institutions should be determined, that is, with major countries and their scientific funding institutions for basic research as the main body, focusing on the national science and technology development strategy and R&D plan, the development strategy of science funding institutions, institutional reform, scientific research evaluation, scientific research integrity construction, international science and technology cooperation, etc., focusing on the policy dynamics in the field of basic research in 2022. And pay attention to the perspective of the national innovation system, explore the relevant policy ideas of the relevant departments; In addition, the policies, measures and reviews related to basic research in non-** sectors such as representative think tanks, scientific research institutions, international organizations, civil society organizations, enterprises and news are summarized as supplementary references, and more than 100 official institutions have been tracked. The monitoring and analysis of international policy trends in basic research is shown in Figure 1.
Fig.1 Schematic diagram of the monitoring and analysis of international policy trends in basic research.
2 Trends in basic research policies in major countries and regions around the world.
North America, Europe and Asia are the core regions of global scientific and technological innovation, and a comparative analysis of the basic research policy dynamics of these three regions is helpful to understand the common global concerns and the unique policy initiatives of different regions, so as to judge the international policy trends of basic research.
In general, the above-mentioned countries and regions studied in this paper are increasing their investment in basic research, and are paying more and more attention to the role of basic research in meeting future challenges and enabling scientific and technological innovation and economic growth. In addition, by comparing the development plans and strategies of science and technology in various countries, it can be found that their R&D deployment and investment in key areas related to national competitiveness have convergence, such as artificial intelligence, quantum information, clean energy, digital transformation, semiconductors, biotechnology, etc.
North America, especially the United States, as a leading country in basic research, attaches more and more importance to the supporting role of basic research in national development, and comprehensively supports the development of basic research through institutions such as NSF and NIH.
Europe has a strong tradition of basic research, and it is committed to leveraging the synergy of European countries to strengthen investment and support for basic research, and to promote the free flow of knowledge, researchers and technology across borders in European research areas.
Basic research in Asia has developed rapidly, and in recent years, all countries have increased their investment in basic research to support high-level basic research.
3 Basic research on the main features of international policy trends.
3.1 Make application-oriented basic research a key priority.
At present, major developed countries are increasingly emphasizing application-oriented basic research, so as to give full play to the role of scientific and technological innovation as an engine for promoting sustainable economic and social development.
1) Take institutional and project reform as the breakthrough point, and carry out the systematic layout of application-oriented basic research. For example, NSF established the Division of Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP), one of its key missions is to support application-oriented basic research. In addition, the U.S. Congress approved the establishment of the Advanced Health Research Projects Agency (ARPAH) in the NIH to support projects with high scientific risk and significant impact potential at its core, with the core of advancing real-world problem solving. In its Strategic Plan 2025-2028, the Swiss National Society for Science (SNSF) aims to minimize the distance between research and innovation partners in the value creation process.
2) Play the role of a bridge of cross-integration and promote the paradigm change of application-oriented basic research. The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released a report "Research Process Automation to Accelerate Scientific Discovery: A Closed Loop of Knowledge Discovery", which demonstrates from a forward-looking perspective that research process automation (ARW) will promote large-scale experimental collaboration between researchers, across laboratories, teams, and departments. UKRI has proposed to use interdisciplinary, cross-sector expertise to address major societal challenges collaboratively.
3.2. Pay attention to the cultivation and introduction of basic research talents.
As the primary resource, talent is the core element of the current scientific and technological competition among countries, and countries have strengthened the cultivation of basic research talents and improved the global talent recruitment policy.
United States. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has recommended reforming science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) immigration policies. The CHIPS and Science Act states that NSF will focus on STEM education; In addition, in 2022, NSF launched the Emerging and New Technology Experiential Learning Workforce Development Program (EXLENT) to expand opportunities for experiential learning for the workforce in emerging technology fields.
United Kingdom. In its strategic plan, UKRI supports scientific research talents by setting up world-class scholarship programs and improving the visa mechanism; By supporting the flow of talents from all walks of life in government, industry, academia and research, and carrying out knowledge and professional skills training for scientific researchers, we will cultivate skilled talents and teams that will support future R&D work.
Japan. Japan will provide financial support to about 8,800 doctoral students (about twice the number of the previous year) through the "New Generation Researchers Challenge Research Program" and the "University Scholarship Program" to fully cover their living and research expenses.
France. The French Academy of Sciences put forward suggestions from the perspectives of increasing their remuneration packages, lowering the age limit for researchers to create their own teams as needed, giving researchers under the age of 45 autonomy in academic research and scientific research expenditure, and moderately lowering the recruitment threshold for on-staff positions, so as to enhance the enthusiasm of young people to devote themselves to scientific research.
It is worth noting that after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in order to attract the inflow of Ukrainian scientific and technological talents, European countries have launched a number of special programs to support and attract Ukrainian scientists. The Coalition of German Scientific Organizations has published a position paper "Solidarity with Ukrainian Partners", which indicates that German scientific organizations will continue to work closely with Ukrainian partners at all levels. The UK** has launched a £3 million funding package for Ukrainian researchers. The European Commission launched the Marie Skłodowska Curie (MSCA) Direct Assistance Programme, committing 25 million euros to support researchers from Ukraine.
3.3. Balance scientific research security and international cooperation.
1) International cooperation in science and technology is the trend of the times and has become an important aspect of science and technology diplomacy, which is essential for solving global challenges and benefiting mankind.
United States. The American Academy of Arts & Sciences International Science Partnership Challenge (CISP) project team released the Global Collaboration: Emerging Science Partners research report. The report argues that the United States should continue to play a leading role in strengthening global research capabilities and finding solutions to challenges such as pandemics and climate change, and actively promote and build collaboration with emerging scientific partners (ESPs); Continue to support and expand international scientific cooperation.
Russia. The Russian Academy of Sciences has proposed to the Federation to establish a special project for UNESCO in Russia for the promotion of Russian higher education in the field of basic research.
France. In the Declaration on International Cooperation in Research and Innovation, France** Macron proposed a common understanding of these values and principles, including issues such as freedom of scientific research, ethics and integrity in research, gender equality and open science.
Japan. In response to the four major crises facing Japan's science and technology field, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs put forward proposals to strengthen research capabilities with a focus on science and technology diplomacy: optimizing the research environment of Japanese universities and research institutes, cultivating international talents, and improving talent mobility; Promote international talent exchanges and strengthen science and technology diplomacy.
2) How to balance the openness of science and the security of scientific research has been a topic that has attracted much attention in the practice of transnational scientific research cooperation for a long time.
Mutual benefit and mutual trust are the basis for transnational scientific research cooperation, which is a broad consensus reached by the scientific and technological circles of various countries in maintaining open exchanges in the field of basic research. However, in recent years, under the complex international situation such as geopolitics, the new crown epidemic, and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the blockade of China's key core technologies by Western countries led by the United States is gradually extending to basic research in related fields.
United States. The relevant policy trends introduced by the United States in 2022 show that it has further strengthened the scientific and technological blockade in the field of science and technology in the name of scientific research security. In the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, it is proposed to establish an "Office of Science and Technology Security and Policy" in the NSF Director's Office. Cooperation between the intelligence community and the scientific community has been strengthened. The National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) has partnered with the NSF, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and other federal agencies and organizations to develop the "Safeguarding Science" toolkit. NIST establishes an advisory body to the Safety Committee. NSF is funding four new research safety research projects.
European Union. The European Commission has published a toolkit on how to reduce foreign interference with research and innovation, providing best practices to support EU higher education institutions and research institutions in upholding their fundamental values, as well as protecting their staff, students, research results and assets.
3.4. Shaping a new culture of science.
In view of the current international chaos of scientific research evaluation such as "emphasizing quantity over quality, form over content", in 2022, all major countries have introduced reform measures to continuously improve the ethical governance of scientific research in the fields of life sciences and artificial intelligence.
1) Scientific research evaluation. In 2022, the EU led more than 350 institutions in more than 40 countries to sign an agreement on scientific research evaluation reform to promote qualitative evaluation with peer review as the core, so as to drive the reform of the scientific research evaluation system at the global level. In October 2022, the "Evaluation and Open Science" Committee of the French Academy of Sciences announced its recommendations for transparent and strict evaluation criteria for researchers and research teams, including advocating representative works, enriching evaluation dimensions, scientifically treating and using bibliometric data, and using homogeneous international evaluation standards as much as possible.
The German DFG has developed a package of measures at the institutional level to change the culture of scientific evaluation, shift the focus of research evaluation from quantitative indicators to research content, and improve inequality of opportunity in academia.
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russia** decided to reduce the weight of bibliometric indicators and scientometric indicators in the evaluation of scientific research. At the same time, scientific research evaluation indicators such as "application of scientific research results in industry" and "joint research with enterprises" will be added.
2) Research ethics. Current scientific discoveries are often accompanied by major ethical issues.
United States. In its latest strategic plan, NSF makes it clear that its investments in research and training help advance understanding of the ethical aspects of engineering and science. The NIH Strategic Plan 2021-2025 also proposes to "develop a set of ethical principles for NIH-funded researchers in the use of artificial intelligence".
Germany. In its 10-year strategic plan, "The role and future prospects of the DFG in the German research system", Germany states that "the DFG is committed to ensuring that research activities comply with legal requirements in the fields of genetic engineering, animal protection, copyright, data protection, etc." The DFG has also developed guidelines to minimise the risk of abuse and to help institutions, universities and researchers self-regulate.
3) Open science. In 2022, the United States, the United Kingdom and other Western countries actively formulated policies to promote the development of open science.
United States. The U.S. issued a policy memorandum requiring that all federally funded academics** must be made available to the public free of charge immediately after peer-reviewed publication by the end of 2025, and that the underlying data must be made available "without delay."
Germany. The DFG publishes a position paper entitled "Open Science as part of a scientific culture", which summarizes the DFG's understanding of Open Science, the conditions for its success, the social and economic orientation of Open Science, and the DFG's mandate in the field of Open Science.
United Kingdom. The UKRI requires that from 1 April 2022, peer-reviewed scholarship** funded and submitted for publication by the UKRI must be immediately open access, and that monographs, book chapters, etc. published from 1 January 2024 onwards should be made available within 12 months of publication.
National science funding agencies and think tanks have also conducted consultations on how to measure the scientific contributions of participants in Open Science, the significance of open peer review in the Open Science era, and how to balance Open Science and intellectual property.
3.5. Continue to promote organizational management reform.
In recent years, NSF and NIH in the United States, UKRI in the United Kingdom, DFG in Germany and other scientific funding institutions have continued to promote organizational management reform, emphasizing the improvement of internal management in their medium and long-term strategic plans, and improving the efficiency of funding management by strengthening information services, strengthening condition guarantees, and building management teams.
United States. In 2018, NSF launched an innovation initiative that includes: developing flexible tools using state-of-the-art information technology (IT); Support the development of tools such as "business intelligence" to improve the flexibility and efficiency of the organization; Achieve strategic management of human resources; Strengthen the construction of talent team and study the evaluation method suitable for NSF. In the NIH Strategic Plan 2021-2025, the NIH states that the process of "optimizing the NIH initiative" will continue to be pursued to improve the performance of all sectors.
United Kingdom. UKRI will further consolidate resources to maximise the collective impact of its research councils; reduce bureaucracy; Promote the modernization and digitization of grant management services; shorten the review cycle; Conduct information sharing and progress tracking.
Japan. The Japan Science and Technology Agency's 2022 plan proposes to reassess the organizational structure and operations to maximize the quality of research and the effectiveness of funding. Build an efficient operation mechanism to achieve the goals of rationalization of fund use, efficiency, labor costs, procurement, and contract optimization; Strengthen the use of information and communication technologies to streamline business processes, improve work efficiency, and enable diverse and flexible work style reforms.
4 Directions to focus on in the future.
4.1. Strengthen the deployment of basic research systems.
Strengthen strategic deployment at the national level, give full play to the role of national laboratories and national scientific research institutions as strategic scientific and technological forces, strengthen basic research, strengthen system deployment, and promote the collaboration between universities and leading scientific and technological enterprises, so that basic research can be better integrated with national needs, bridge the gap between research and practical problems, and improve the ability to respond to risks and challenges.
4.2. Build an ecological environment for scientific and technological innovation that is attractive to scientific research talents.
In terms of talent introduction, we will innovate the form of international scientific research cooperation organizations, rely on first-class scientific research facilities and other scientific research infrastructure, and attract high-level foreign scientific research talents to carry out large-scale cutting-edge interdisciplinary research in China; By extending the duration of the visit and providing financial support, we will select the best to attract visiting scholars with high potential to work in China.
In terms of talent training, we will increase the support of various funding programs for young scientists, and give young researchers more opportunities to take the lead; Improve the project and fund management system and process, and each scientific research unit should build a multi-classification evaluation system focusing on the quality, influence and contribution of scientific research according to its own characteristics and with reference to the spirit and practice of international scientific research evaluation reform.
4.3. Strengthen scientific research safety and governance of scientific research ethics.
In recent years, the security of scientific research has received more and more attention, and the European Union and the United States have successively launched similar scientific toolkits to safeguard them. On the one hand, China must continue to pay attention to and be vigilant against the spillover effect of the toolkit, and formulate corresponding plans and countermeasures. On the other hand, as an open platform, such toolkits also provide important information for the formulation of relevant scientific research safety policies in China**.
In addition, scientific research institutions, scientific researchers and relevant social groups should give full play to the joint force of governance, form a sound scientific research ethics management system, the subject of ethical review is clear, the mechanism is perfect, scientific research personnel have the awareness and ability to carry out responsible research, and the whole society pays attention to the innovative atmosphere of ethical values.
4.4. Promote the systematic construction of open science.
While tracking the practice and exploration of open science abroad, we should determine the main body of our strong promotion of open science, study the balanced relationship between open science and intellectual property rights, improve the understanding of open science among various subjects in the process of academic exchanges through various means of communication, and expand the influence of open platforms such as the basic research knowledge base of the National Natural Science Commission.
4.5. Actively promote international cooperation in science and technology.
On the one hand, it is necessary to actively build an open innovation ecosystem, participate in global science and technology governance, take the initiative to design and take the lead in international major science programs and projects, participate in or initiate the establishment of international science and technology organizations, and enhance its own scientific and technological innovation capabilities in open cooperation. On the other hand, it is necessary to expand and deepen international scientific research cooperation on global issues such as climate change, energy security, biosecurity, and food security.
Authors: Huang Minzhuo1,2, Wu Jinglei2, Ren Zhen3,4, Meng Qingfeng2*
1 Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine.
2 National Natural Science Commission.
3 Library and Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
4 School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
This article is **from WeChat***Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Issue 1, 2024.
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