A new platform may help deal with chronic duplication and lack
of funding in scientific research. The aim of the system is to meet
the country's science, technology and social progress development
demands by 2010.
The?Ministry of Science
and Technology released national guidelines to give scientists
across the country better research conditions and facilitate the
sharing of resources, Vice Minister of Science and Technology Liu
Yanhua said on Wednesday at a press conference in Beijing.
The government's focus in the near future will be on building a
legislative framework to encourage sharing of data and
resources.
Sixteen cabinet departments have already created an
inter-ministerial meeting system to build an innovative basic
research platform. Twenty-three senior scientists are working as
advisers.
Liu said the idea is to address major problems that are creating
bottlenecks in basic science research.
China has not had a national blueprint for basic research during
the past two decades, he said, which has led to frequent
duplication of projects. At the same time, government funding is
far from sufficient.
"So it has thus far been difficult for Chinese scientists to
make breakthroughs in some key technologies," said Liu.
Liu Chuang, a senior researcher with the?Chinese
Academy of Sciences, said she has high hopes for the new
platform.
Previously, the various research institutes maintained their own
records, making it very difficult to search for specific data.
Scientists had to pay to use data maintained by other institutes,
and it was impossible to buy data because research funds were very
limited, she said. Government support under the new platform
enables scientists to share data freely.
The SARS outbreak last year and bird flu this year were
catalysts for the program, said Liu. The outbreaks sent out a clear
warning that more emphasis was needed on scientific innovation.
Sources from the Ministry of Education said China's scientific
brain drain can be partly attributed to the country's poor basic
research conditions.
The state's long-term scientific plan (2005–2020) is scheduled
to be completed later this year and the ministry will begin
drafting the national scientific plan for the 11th Five-Year Plan
(2006–2010) period.
"All this will rely heavily on having an effective basic
research platform," said Liu.
The idea for the platform is not entirely new. China started the
project a couple of years ago.
In 2002, the government launched the Scientific Data Sharing
Program, part of the National Facility Information Infrastructure,
to maximize the efficiency of the country's investment in science
and technology.
Vice Minister of Science and Technology Cheng Jinpei said that
sharing data is vital to sharpening the competitiveness of Chinese
researchers and scientists. Inefficient data sharing and
duplication of theoretical research have hindered the development
of science and technology.
China has built up vast reservoirs of scientific data, most of
which is kept on shelves or in archives.
Meanwhile, barriers against sharing remain between different
organizations, institutes and research fields.
"Some basic data is just exclusively owned by a single institute
and exchanges between research organizations are rare," said
Cheng.
(China Daily July 22, 2004)