by William A. Blanpied
Condensed Policy Brief | Extended Policy Brief
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The Chinese Academy of Sciences is the dominant organization within China's academic R&D sector. This policy brief:
The Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) is the dominant organization within China's academic research and development (R&D) sector and is officially recognized as such by the government. The CAS system consists primarily of a large number of research institutes located throughout the country. In 2003, these institutes accounted for 28 percent of all R&D performed in China, with institutions of higher education accounting for 10 percent. This research institute system is supported in part by a line item in the government's budget. Since the 1980s, its institutes have also had to rely on contracts with Chinese enterprises, income from its own spin off enterprises, and grants and contracts from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China to support many of their R&D activities.
CAS was created in November 1949, two months after the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China. It was based on the model of the then Soviet Academy of Sciences. That is, until the early 1980s, almost all research in the country was performed at CAS institutes, with universities (except those controlled by a ministries other than the Ministry of Education) limited almost exclusively to instruction. Between 1955 and 1966, CAS was instrumental in formulating China's 12-year Foresight Program (usually referred to as its Long Term Plan) for S&T Development, and also contributed to the development of the country's military technology, including its first nuclear bomb and space development program. Like virtually all Chinese institutions, CAS suffered significantly during the period of the Cultural Revolution. Consistent with the modernization and opening policies established by Deng Xiaoping beginning in 1978, a number of measures for the restoration and modernization of the CAS system were undertaken resulting in the important position which it now occupies.
CAS institutes are divided into three categories: institutes of basic and applied research, high-tech development institutes, and public service institutes, which include environmental, health, and agricultural institutes. Over 40 of these institutes are located in Beijing with at least 20 located in Shanghai. Additional institutes are located in 19 of China's 30 provinces and autonomous regions. Beginning in the early 1980s, several enterprises were spun off from CAS institutes. The most profitable is the Legends Holding Group whose most well known component is Lenovo. Since it was created in 2002, the CAS Holding Company (CASH) has gradually assumed management responsibility for several CAS spin offs and manufacturing enterprises.
On June 9, 1998, the Chinese government's Leading Group for Science and Education ratified the implementation of CAS's Pilot Project of the National Knowledge Innovation Program – or KIP. This program initially focused on reorganizing CAS's disciplinary structure. The aim has been to develop "an organizational management system of S&T innovation and a new structural system full of vitality for meeting the demands of social and economic development of China in the 21st century." In July 2001, CAS adopted a new initiative to reorient its work to meet the strategic demands of the country. The new plan, called the Strategic Action Plan for S&T Innovation (SAPI), is one aspect of operationalizing KIP. Selected SAPI projects include: Rice Genome Sequencing and Functional Genomics of Important Agronomic Traits; Study on Carbon Budget in Terrestrial and Marginal Sea Ecosystems of China;Construction of Qinghai-Tibet Railway and Permafrost Environment; Development of the National Tax Administration Information System in China; High-powered Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Engine and Hydrogen Technology; Nano Devices: Construction and Basic Study; and Development of the Technology of Slurry Phase Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis from Coal-based Syngas.
The history of graduate education in the People's Republic began in 1951, when CAS joined with the Ministry of Education in enrolling the first cohort of 276 graduate students. In May 2001, CAS centralized the administration of its graduate school. Both the Masters and the PhD degree are offered by the CAS graduate school. Students spend their first-year on the Beijing campus studying courses necessary for their degrees, and then pursue research projects for their dissertations at CAS research institutes throughout the country. In 2001, the CAS graduate school enrolled 13,000 students, of whom about 6,000 were studying for the PhD degree.
CAS attaches considerable importance to academic international exchange and cooperation with the international science and technology communities. It has established formal cooperative agreements with major research and academic organizations in more than 60 countries. Special areas of emphasis include: Scientific Expeditions; Introduction of Foreign Experts and Investment; Overseas Training; and South-South Cooperation.
In implementing the first phases of its Knowledge Innovation Project, by 2003 CAS had eliminated and/or consolidated 123 existing institutes, while spinning others off as enterprises, so that 83 institutes remained. Since then, it has added several more, many of which qualify as joint ventures between CAS and local and provincial governments so that by 2007, there were a total of almost 100 institutes. One of KIP's objectives is for the CAS system to rank among the world's top research systems by 2010, as measured by criteria such as publication, citations and patents applied for and granted. Thoughtful CAS officials are beginning to understand that while it may make sense for CAS' research-oriented institutes to aspire to international leadership, pursuing that aspiration for the entire system may be counterproductive.
Although China's goal of increasing the number and quality (item 6.3) of its universities will probably be realized at least to some significant extent, there is little doubt that, for the foreseeable future, the Chinese Academy of Sciences will remain the country's premier system both for the conduct of basic and applied research and for the graduate education of China's next generations of scientists and engineers.
by William A. Blanpied
Click on blue links to go to relevant external website.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences is the dominant organization within China's academic R&D sector. This policy brief:
Although China's central government has assigned a high priority to increasing the number and quality of the country's institutions of higher education (Item 6.3), the Chinese Academy of Science remains the dominant organization within China's academic research and development (R&D) sector, and is officially recognized as such by the government which refers to it as "China's highest academic institute and comprehensive research center in natural sciences."
In common with national academies of science in the United States and Western Europe, such as the US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London, the CAS elects China's most prestigious scientists to as members. At the end of November 2006, there were 695 CAS Members and 51 Foreign Members. Unlike Western academies, the core of the CAS system consists of a large number of research institutes located in the country's major cities and 19 of its 30 provinces and autonomous regions. In 2003, these institutes accounted for 28 percent of all R&D performed in China, with institutions of higher education accounting for 10 percent. CAS institutes account for approximately 60 percent of the academic sector's applied research and approximately 65 percent of its basic research.
The CAS system is supported in part by a line item in the central government's budget. Since the 1980s, its institutes have also had to rely on contracts with Chinese enterprises, income from its own spin off enterprises, and grants and contracts from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China to support many of their research activities.
The mission of CAS is to further its role as "a leading academic institution and comprehensive development center in natural science, technological science and high-tech innovation in China "
CAS was created in November 1949, two months after the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China on September 30 of that year. It was established on the basis of the former Academia Sinica and the Peiping Academy of Sciences which were in turn established in the 1920s and, as with all Chinese institutions, suffered during the years of the Japanese occupation (1937-45) and the subsequent civil war. CAS was based on the model of the then Soviet Academy of Sciences. That is, until the 1980s, universities, then as now controlled by the Ministry of Education, were limited almost exclusively to instruction, while almost all research in the country, and a good deal of its development, was performed either at CAS institutes created from 1950 onward, or at universities controlled by a ministry other than the Ministry of Education, almost all of which have now been abolished.
During its first five years, CAS engaged in planning and contributed to several national projects in heavy industry and agriculture, such as the construction of the iron and steel industry in Baotou and Wuhan, the development of the Chinese antibiotic industry, the harnessing and exploitation of the Yellow River, and the cultivation of rubber trees.
In 1955, the Academic Divisions of CAS were founded and the first group of 233 Members was elected.
Between 1955 and 1966, CAS was instrumental in formulating and implementing China's 12-year Foresight Program (or Long Term Plan) for S&T Development. During this same period, "Chairman Mao and the central government made a decision to develop atomic bombs for the sake of national defense after consulting with Chinese scientists. CAS was fully engaged in the program with its research strength." CAS also identified 13 areas and 57 key projects and drew up a disciplinary development program of basic research, including programs in emerging areas of atomic energy, semi-conductors, and electronic computers.
In common with virtually all Chinese institutions, CAS suffered significantly during the period of the Cultural Revolution from 1966-76. The CAS budget for 1967 was only 16 percent of what it had been in 1965. Still, some "notable results were achieved." These included the "109C computer, the meritorious computer to the development of nuclear bombs, missiles and satellites." CAS researchers "synthesized Artemisia apiacea and synthesized Artemether, which is the first acknowledged synthesized drug from China and is listed by WHO [World Health Organization] as the No.1 anti-malaria drug." In 1974, Premier Zhao En Lai set the goal of "Four Modernization Drive," with CAS assigned a central role in its implementation.
Consistent with the modernization and opening policies established by Deng Xiaoping beginning in 1978, a number of measures for the restoration and modernization of the CAS system were undertaken. These included a resolution, supported by the government, to employ the research funds and a contract system in basic research and set up a science foundation originally within CAS which was open to the whole country and which led to the establishment, in 1986, of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Additionally, international exchanges and cooperation, including academic visits, conferences, overseas training and study in the United States and European countries, were restored.
In 1989, CAS put forward the concept of "one academy, two operational mechanisms", based on the understanding that different types of S&T work had their own different regularities, and should be managed in different approaches and different modes, in order to break the closed system and to be open, mobile and cooperative. The CAS system was organized to serve national economic and social development, while leading scientists and institutes were encouraged to devote their efforts for basic research and high-tech innovation. Notable large scale research projects undertaken by CAS since the mid-1980s have included: the Beijing Electron Positron Collider, the Lanzhou Heavy Ion Accelerator; the Hefei Synchrotron Radiation Facilities; the Hefei Tokamak Facilities; and the Beijing Free Electron Laser Device.
Taken together, the Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASAD) is the highest advisory body of the Chinese government in science and technology.
At present, CAS is organized into six academic divisions: the Divisions of Mathematics and Physics, Chemistry, Life Sciences and Medicine, Earth Sciences, Information Technical Science, and Technological Sciences. The CAS system includes almost 100 institutes, the newest having been established as recently as 2007.
CAS institutes are divided into three categories:
Over 40 of these CAS institutes and associated facilities such as the CAS central library are located in Beijing, including the Institute of Physics, the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science, the Institute for Remote Sensing Applications, the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, and the Chinese Institute of Atomic Energy.
Almost 20 are located in Shanghai.
Additional institutes and associated facilities are located in 19 of China's 30 provinces and autonomous regions, including eight in Guangdong Province, five in Sichuan Province, five in Yunnan Province, and three in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. A few of these "institutes" are actually manufacturing enterprises which have been spun off from research institutes, such as the CAS Guangzhou Chemistry Co., Ltd and the Guangzhou Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.
Several other enterprises have been spun off from CAS institutes since the 1980s. The most profitable is the Legends Holding Group whose most famous component is Lenovo, which now manufactures IBM personal computers. Lenovo is a sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and expects that the publicity generated thereby will significantly expand its overseas sales
Since it was created in 2002, the CAS Holding Company (CASH) has gradually assumed management responsibility for several CAS spin offs and manufacturing enterprises as a means for bringing expert management to these organizations.
Beginning in 2002, the CAS led a consortium of Chinese companies and research institutes in the development of the Extended Video Disc (EVD. Although smaller than a DVD, the EVD has substantially more data storage capacity. Significantly, the EVD would require players based on a different standard than those currently used in the United States or Europe. Thus, foreign EVD users would be compelled to purchase equipment either from Chinese firms or non-Chinese firms licensed to use Chinese technology. The effort to commercialize the EVD appears to have stumbled, at least temporarily, over content-related issues.
On June 9, 1998, the Leading Group for Science and Education under China's State Council ratified the implementation of CAS's Pilot Project of the National Knowledge Innovation Program, or KIP. The project was formally launched during that same month.
The Pilot Project of the Knowledge Innovation Program will be completed by 2010. It can be divided into three phases: the Initial Phase (1998 - 2000); the Phase of All-round Implementation (2001 - 2005); and the Phase of Optimization (2006 - 2010). Its broad goals include:
The Knowledge Innovation Program initially focused on reorganizing CAS's disciplinary structure. The aim has been to develop "an organizational management system of S&T innovation and a new structural system full of vitality for meeting the demands of social and economic development of China in the 21st century."
In the spirit of readjusting CAS's disciplinary structure, various institutes at CAS repositioned themselves with regard to disciplinary orientation and developmental priorities. Obsolete disciplines or research fields are no longer supported.
By 2001, 37 institutes had been restructured into 17 research institutions, 39 institutes were approved to participate the KIP's Pilot Project as independent legal entities. That is, these 39 institutes were recognized as independent enterprises under Chinese law.
Additionally, by 2002, 210 excellent young scholars were recruited directly by CAS from abroad, and more than 100 young disciplinary leaders were employed from Chinese universities.
KIP entered into the phase of all-round implementation at the beginning of 2001. Between 2001 and 2005, CAS sped up the pace of readjustment and reform in order to realize objectives in the following five broad areas:
In the course of implementing the KIP pilot project, CAS defined its "strategic target for the new era." Namely: "by about 2010, CAS will be a national powerhouse for knowledge innovation with international renown and strong sustained capacities, a scientific research center up to the world advanced level, an incubator for high-ranking S&T professionals and a national base for the development of high-tech industries."
The former 123 CAS-affiliated institutes have been organizationally regrouped into 83 research entities, each with the status of a legal person and with access to the rank of testing points listed in the KIP pilot project. Since 2005, approximately a dozen new institutes have been created as joint ventures between CAS and municipal and regional governments, several as recently as 2007.
Regarding salaries, a new system has been introduced to give first consideration to performance. It consists of three parts: basic salaries, subsidies for working posts, and performance rewards. Institutes have developed their own systems for evaluating performance in attaining R&D accomplishments, which are linked with the personnel employment and the reward of their staff.
With the development of the KIP pilot project, a noticeable increase has been seen in both the comprehensive research strength and integral competitiveness of CAS. Taking the year of 2001 as an example, CAS scientists received 15 prizes from the National Awards for Natural Sciences, three prizes from the National Awards for Technological Inventions and 18 prizes from the National Awards for S&T Progress.
In July 2001, CAS adopted a new initiative to reorient its work to meet the strategic demands of the country and to tackle frontier issues in world S&T development. The new plan within KIP, called the Strategic Action Plan for S&T Innovation (SAPI), is intended to operationalize the former. Selected SAPI projects include:
CAS plays a major role in China's graduate education system. Graduate education in the People's Republic of China can be traced back to 1951, when CAS joined with the Ministry of Education in enrolling the first cohort of 276 graduate students. In 1958, CAS established the University of Science and Technology of China which began to train the best and brightest even without a formal graduate program. Following the cultural revolution and coincident with Deng Xiaoping's reforms, both CAS and the universities reestablished formal graduate programs. In 1983, the first PhD degrees were awarded to students who had studied exclusively or at least primarily in China.
Formerly, the way that each institute ran its own programs of graduate education encountered inconsistencies among various programs and other difficulties. Thus, in May 2001, CAS centralized the administration of its graduate school.
Both the Masters and the PhD degree are offered by the CAS graduate school. Since 2001, students have spent their first year in Beijing pursuing courses required for their degrees, and then pursue research projects for their dissertations at CAS research institutes throughout the country. In 2003, the CAS graduate school enrolled more than 13,000 students, of whom about 6,000 were studying for doctorate degrees.
Currently (2007) CAS is building a new graduate school campus outside of Beijing.
Significant milestones in the history and development of graduate education in CAS are the following:
The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) is a new type of university established by CAS. CAS has pooled the entire strength of its faculty for the development of the university. USTC was founded in Beijing in September of 1958 and was moved to Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province, in 1970. Since 1978, it has initiated and implemented a series of open and reform measures with a forward-looking sense and innovative spirit.
In 2003, USTC had more than 3600 faculty and staff numbers, 22 CAS and CAE (Chinese Academy of Engineering) academicians, and 432 professors. The number of students studying at USTC is normally around 13,000, 8200 of them undergraduate students, 3800 Master degree students, and 1500 Ph.D. students. Additionally, the university normally has approximately 1600 students enrolled in its professional master degree programs, over 100 post-doctoral fellows and over 120 guest professors.
The campuses cover an area of 1.33 million square meters, with 800,000 square meters of building area. The library has a collection of 1.51 million books, 2800 journal in the Chinese or English languages, 60,000 electronic books, and 10,300 electronic journals in Chinese or English.
CAS attaches great importance to academic exchange and cooperation with the international science and technology communities. It has established formal cooperative agreements with major research and academic organizations in more than 60 countries (including all the developed and some developing countries), and has signed more than 70 cooperative agreements at the academy level and more than 700 agreements at the institute level with partners spread in approximately 40 countries and regions of the world.
Special emphases worth noting include:
Scientific Expeditions: To attract what it characterizes as "the more adventurous foreign scientists" to conduct international cooperation in resource and environmental projects in China, CAS organizes annually a number of scientific field trips and expeditions with the involvement of foreign scientists and produces a series of films based upon them.
Introduction of Foreign Experts and Investment: A loan from the World Bank on the project of Development of Key Disciplines has enabled CAS to establish 21 national key laboratories. The Chinese Environmental Technical Assistance Program has resulted in the establishment of the CAS Ecosystem Monitoring Network Nationwide and the conducting of bio-diversity research in some CAS institutes.
Overseas Training: In order to improve the managerial expertise of its research and administrative staff, CAS has cooperated with international organizations and leading foreign universities in organizing training courses for senior managers. Since 1994, the Center for International Academic Exchanges of CAS has organized some US-based training courses for directors of CAS institutes, Singapore and Australia-based training courses for CAS finance chiefs, as well as training courses for education and post-doctoral administrators held in the United States.
South-South Cooperation: In order to promote cooperation and exchanges with the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, CAS sponsors annually the visits of several hundred scientists from China to developing countries as well as inviting scientists from developing countries to China for academic exchanges. Several CAS members are also active in the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). The TWAS Regional Office for East and Southeast Asia is located in Beijing.
Overall statistics of overseas cooperation indicate that by 1999, over 7,000 CAS staff members were being sent overseas annually for training and cooperation on joint research projects, while CAS was hosting almost 3000 visitors from abroad.
By implementing the first phases of its Knowledge Innovation Program, by 2003 CAS had eliminated and/or consolidated over 123 existing institutes, while spinning others off as enterprises, so that 83 remained. Since then, it has added several more, most of which qualify as joint ventures between CAS and provincial and local governments. The objective of these new types of institutes is to provide economic benefits for the respective provinces and cities.
At the same time, CAS is attempting to differentiate more clearly its institutes into three separate categories:
Although the rationale for such a differentiation was articulated as early as 1987, there is some evidence that that rationale may not be widely understood. As a case in point, one objective established by CAS' Knowledge Innovation Program is for its institute system to rank among the top five or six research systems in the world by 2020, as measured by criteria such as publications in international peer reviewed journals, citation analysis, and international patents granted.
Towards this end, some at CAS headquarters have sought to compare the system to research systems in other countries such as the Department of Energy (DoE) national laboratory system, the National Institutes of Health system in the United States, or the National Institute for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) system in Japan.
However, a closer examination of such foreign systems suggests that the CAS objective of having its entire institute system become one of the world's foremost research enterprises has little chance of being realized and, in fact, may be counterproductive.
For example, there are several types of DoE national laboratories including:
Los Alamos, for example, could not – and would never seek to - aspire to becoming one of the world's foremost research facilities based on publication and patent criteria.
Similarly, the objectives of Japan's AIST system are related to industrial research so that few of AIST laboratories would aspire to world research leadership on the basis of criteria used primarily to gauge the basic research contributions of an organization.
Thoughtful officials within CAS are beginning to understand that while it may make sense for CAS' basic research-oriented institutes to aspire to international leadership as measured by publication and patent criteria, pursuing that aspiration for the entire CAS system of almost 100 institutes may, in fact, be counterproductive.
In particular, some regard the links between CAS' high-tech institutes and established or nascent industrial enterprises to be weak or, in some cases, virtually non-existent. Rather than seeking to conduct more high quality basic research, personnel in these high tech industries are now being encouraged to seek second jobs in industrial enterprises and/or develop R&D training programs for personnel in industrial enterprises.
CAS' Knowledge Innovation Program and its associated Strategic Action Plan for Science and Technology Innovation have identified several key areas in which financial support for research is readily available. More broadly, however, researchers at most CAS institutes are obliged to rely on grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology, and/or the National Natural Science Foundation of China for research support.
This system could have the effect of imperiling the continuity of research projects over the long term, and also reduce the funds available to researchers in Chinese universities at a time when the central government has established a goal of increasing the number of the country's world class research universities, item 6.3.
Although the government's goal of increasing the number and quality of the country's universities will no doubt be realized to some extent, there is little doubt that for the foreseeable future, the Chinese Academy of Sciences will remain the country's premier system both for the conduct of basic and applied research and for the graduate education of China's next generations of scientists and engineers.