Where are all the research funds going?
- Source: Global Times
- [02:21 September 06 2010]
- Comments
By An Baijie
For the last decade or so, China's scientific research funds have grown by more than 20 percent each year, but a large part of those funds has been misused due to long-standing corruption and inefficiency in the way they are distributed.
Two renowned scientists, Rao Yi, a professor and dean at the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, and Shi Yigong, a professor and dean at the School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua Uni-versity, jointly published an article in Science magazine on Friday, pointing out that public research funds were often granted to scholars who maintained good relations with bureaucrats rather than those who sought to conduct real scientific research.
"It wastes resources, corrupts the spirit, and stymies innovation," it said.
Rao told the Global Times Sunday that he wasn't worried about offending bureaucrats or other scholars by the article, and hoped that the problems raised in the piece would draw public attention.
It is rare for Chinese scientists to criticize the negligence found in China's scientific research system in a foreign magazine, and their article has come like a bolt of lightning for the world of academia, which for years has been harried by the "Qian Xuesen Question."
The late Qian, the father of China's space program, posed the question to Premier Wen Jiabao when they met in 2005: "Why do our schools always fail to produce outstanding talents?"
Chen Liangyao, a leading scientist of information engineering at Fudan University, said that the answer to this question lies in bureaucracy in academia, which the Ministry of Science and Technology has done little to solve.
"It is normal for a researcher to spend three or four months a year applying for research funds, and often getting nothing," Chen said, citing his experience of failing to obtain funds from the ministry after applying for 12 years consecutively.
"This unfair distribution and waste of research funds is a form of invisible cor-ruption, which erodes the morale of the research community and poses a great threat to China's high-tech and sustainable development," Chen added.
In 2008, the country's government and businesses spent 457 billion yuan ($67.2 billion) on R&D, more than 40 times the figure spent in 1978. However, scientific and technological achievements only contribute to 40 percent of China's economic growth, while more than 60 percent of its technology depends on imports.
Though China's human resources in the field of science and technology reached 51 million in 2009, the most in the world, there are just a few top scholars such as Qian Xuesen, while many skilled professionals choose to work in foreign institutions to get better pay as well as the research funds they need.
In an article published on November 5 last year, just days after he passed away, Qian said it was more important to nurture creative talents than to randomly spend money on various projects.
Chen suggested the Ministry of Science and Technology, National Natural Science Foundation and other relevant authorities define their role regarding the management of research funds.
