Strengthen basic research and technological self-reliance

Xi Jinping emphasizes during the third collective study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee:

Effectively strengthen basic research and consolidate the foundation of self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 22 – On the afternoon of February 21, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China conducted the third collective study on strengthening basic research. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, emphasized when presiding over the study that strengthening basic research is an urgent requirement for achieving high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement, and it is the only way to build a world scientific and technological power. Party committees and governments at all levels should strengthen basic research into the important agenda of scientific and technological work, strengthen overall coordination, increase policy support, and promote high-quality development of basic research.

Professor Gong Qihuang, president of Peking University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, explained this issue and put forward work suggestions. The comrades of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee listened carefully to the explanation and discussed it.

After listening to the explanation and discussion, Xi Jinping delivered an important speech. He pointed out that the party and the state have always attached great importance to basic research work. After the founding of New China, especially since the reform and opening up, our country’s basic research has made great achievements. At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is advancing by leaps and bounds, interdisciplinary integration is constantly developing, scientific research paradigms are undergoing profound changes, science and technology and economic and social development are accelerating penetration and integration, basic research transformation cycles are significantly shortened, and international scientific and technological competition is moving forward to the basic frontier. To cope with international scientific and technological competition, achieve high-level self-reliance and self-improvement, promote the construction of a new development pattern, and achieve high-quality development, it is urgent for us to strengthen basic research and solve key technical problems from the source and the bottom.

Xi Jinping emphasized that it is necessary to strengthen the forward-looking, strategic and systematic layout of basic research. Basic research is at the beginning of the scientific research chain from research to application to production. Only when the foundation is firmly laid can the scientific and technological building be built high. We must adhere to the “four orientations”, adhere to the goal-oriented and free exploration of “walking on two legs”, combine the world’s cutting-edge science and technology with the country’s major strategic needs and economic and social development goals, and coordinate the cutting-edge issues and major applications raised in accordance with the laws of scientific development. Theoretical issues abstracted from the research condense the key scientific issues of basic research. It is necessary to grasp the development trend of science and technology and the national strategic needs, strengthen the feasibility demonstration and selection evaluation of major basic research projects, fully respect the opinions of scientists, grasp the general trend, and play a good “first move”. It is necessary to strengthen the national strategic scientific and technological strength, organize and promote strategically oriented systematic basic research, frontier-oriented exploratory basic research, and market-oriented applied basic research, and focus on giving full play to the leading role of national laboratories, the institutionalized organizational role of national scientific research institutions, The role of the main force of high-level research universities and the role of “question maker”, “answerer” and “marker” of leading technology companies. It is necessary to optimize the layout of basic disciplines, support the development of key disciplines, emerging disciplines, unpopular disciplines and weak disciplines, promote interdisciplinary integration and interdisciplinary research, and build a high-quality discipline system with comprehensive and balanced development.

Xi Jinping pointed out that the world has entered the era of big science, the degree of organization of basic research is getting higher and higher, and the influence of institutional guarantees and policy guidance on the output of basic research is increasing. It is necessary to deepen the reform of basic research systems and mechanisms, and give full play to the value-driven and strategic traction roles of systems and policies. It is necessary to steadily increase financial investment in basic research, encourage enterprises to increase investment through various methods such as tax incentives, encourage social forces to set up multiple investments such as science funds and scientific donations, improve the funding efficiency of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and its joint funds, and establish a sound competitiveness. Basic research investment mechanism that combines support and stable support. It is necessary to optimize the basic research support system of the national science and technology plan, improve the basic research project organization, application, review and decision-making mechanism, implement differentiated classification management and international and domestic peer review, organize and carry out collaborative research on major scientific issues, and encourage free exploratory research and Non-consensus innovation research. It is necessary to properly handle the relationship between the new national system and the market mechanism, improve the system of scientific and technological evaluation and incentives, the application and transformation of achievements, and the salary of scientific and technological personnel that match the long-term basic research cycle, and provide long-term and stable support for a number of basic research innovation bases, advantageous teams and key directions. , to create an original source of innovation and a pioneer in basic research.

Xi Jinping emphasized that it is necessary to coordinate the construction of a national laboratory system with Chinese characteristics, lay out and build basic discipline research centers, deploy new basic scientific research information platforms in advance, and form a strong backbone network for basic research. It is necessary to scientifically plan and deploy forward-looking, strategic-oriented, and application-supporting major scientific and technological infrastructure, strengthen supervision during and after the construction of facilities, improve full life cycle management, and comprehensively improve the level of openness and sharing and operational efficiency. It is necessary to fight the tough battle for the localization of scientific and technological equipment, operating systems, and basic software, encourage scientific research institutions, universities and enterprises to carry out joint research, improve the level of localization substitution and application scale, and strive to use my country’s independent research platforms, equipment and equipment to solve problems as soon as possible. important basic research questions.

Xi Jinping pointed out that strengthening basic research ultimately depends on high-level talents. Efforts must be made to build a systematic and high-level basic research talent training platform, so that more basic research talents can emerge. It is necessary to increase the support of various talent plans for basic research talents, cultivate and use strategic scientists, support young scientific and technological talents to take on leading roles and shoulder important responsibilities, and continuously expand the team of leading scientific and technological talents and first-class innovation teams. It is necessary to improve the differentiated evaluation and long-term support mechanism for basic research talents, give leading scientific and technological talents greater control over human, financial and material resources and the right to choose technical routes, and build an evaluation system that conforms to the laws of basic research and the laws of talent growth. It is necessary to strengthen the construction of scientific research and academic style, guide scientific and technological personnel to abandon exaggeration, get rid of impetuosity, and sit firmly on the “cold bench”. We must adhere to the road of self-cultivation of basic research talents, deeply implement the “Middle School Student Talent Program”, “Strengthening Foundation Program”, and “Top-level Student Training Program in Basic Disciplines”, optimize the education system of basic disciplines, and give full play to the foundation of universities, especially “Double First-Class” universities. The role of the main force in the cultivation of research talents, strengthen the cultivation of high-level talents urgently needed by the country, and continuously create a large-scale basic research reserve force.

Xi Jinping emphasized that in order to solve the problems of common development, human beings need international cooperation and openness and sharing more than ever. It is necessary to build an international basic research cooperation platform, set up a global scientific research fund, increase the opening up of national science and technology plans, and expand and deepen Sino-foreign joint scientific research around global issues such as climate change, energy security, biosafety, and outer space utilization. It is necessary to plan forward and deeply participate in global science and technology governance, participate in or initiate the establishment of international science and technology organizations, and support domestic universities, scientific research institutes, and science and technology organizations to connect with the international community. Efforts should be made to enhance openness, trust, and cooperation in the international scientific and technological community, to make new and greater contributions to the progress of human civilization with more major original innovations and breakthroughs in key core technologies, and to effectively safeguard my country’s scientific and technological security interests.

Xi Jinping pointed out that the spirit of “two bombs and one satellite”, the spirit of westward migration, the spirit of manned spaceflight, the spirit of scientists, the spirit of lunar exploration, and the spirit of Beidou in the new era created by generations of scientific and technological workers in our country have jointly shaped innovation with Chinese characteristics. Ecology has become an inexhaustible driving force supporting the development of basic research. It is necessary to vigorously promote the scientific spirit of pursuing the truth and bravely climbing the peak in the whole society, widely publicize the advanced models and deeds that have emerged in the field of science and technology such as basic research, and educate and guide the vast number of scientific and technological workers to inherit the old generation of scientists who pledge their lives to the country and care about the people. Honoring the tradition, writing the thesis on the land of the motherland. It is necessary to strengthen the construction of national science popularization capabilities, implement in-depth actions to improve the scientific literacy of the whole people, disseminate scientific knowledge and demonstrate scientific and technological achievements through multiple channels online and offline, and establish a social custom of loving and advocating science. It is necessary to do a good job of adding science education to the “double reduction” of education, stimulate young people’s curiosity, imagination, and desire to explore, and cultivate young people who have the potential of scientists and are willing to dedicate themselves to scientific research.

Xi Jinping finally emphasized that leading cadres at all levels should learn scientific and technological knowledge, carry forward the scientific spirit, take the initiative to solve problems for scientific and technological workers, loosen ties and reduce burdens, cheer and encourage, and implement a series of strategic deployments of the Party Central Committee on scientific and technological innovation.