Let researchers concentrate on their research
Scientific research environment is a general term for all kinds of direct and indirect factors that affect scientific and technological personnel to engage in scientific research activities. A good scientific research environment is conducive to researchers to concentrate on research and stimulate their creative vitality, which is of great significance to promoting scientific and technological progress and implementing the innovation-driven development strategy.
In recent years, the basic situation of scientific research environment in China has aroused widespread concern and debate from all walks of life, and has been highly valued by the relevant national science and technology management departments. In order to deeply understand the cognition of scientific researchers in various provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) on the scientific research environment in their respective regions, the research group of the Institute of Science and Technology Policy and Management Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the support of the China Association for Science and Technology, selected five types of sites, including universities, research and development institutions, park enterprises, large and medium-sized industrial enterprises and medical and health institutions, and distributed 8,074 questionnaires to scientific researchers directly engaged in R&D activities, with 7,868 returned and 7,691 valid questionnaires. On the basis of this investigation, combined with the statistical data of science, technology, economy and society in 2012, this paper made a comprehensive evaluation of China’s scientific research environment.
The researchers gave positive comments on the current scientific research environment as a whole.
First, the conditions of scientific research infrastructure have improved significantly, and nearly 30% of researchers feel that they have sufficient funds and full tasks.
According to the survey, nearly 80% of the researchers think that the basic conditions of scientific research have improved obviously, among which 65% think that the basic conditions of scientific research in their institutions are at the middle and upper-middle level in China, 10% think that they are at a higher level in China, and only a little over 20% think that the basic conditions of their institutions are poor. At the same time, when it is necessary to obtain relevant experimental materials or consult scientific research references in scientific research activities, more than half of them feel convenient or very convenient, and only 20% think it is inconvenient or inconvenient. In terms of scientific research intensity and task fullness, nearly 30% feel full of funds and tasks, nearly 30% spend more than 40 hours a week directly engaged in scientific research activities, and nearly 30% feel that scientific research tasks are challenging. This reflects that in recent years, with the continuous increase in the total amount of scientific research funds invested by the central and local governments, the basic conditions of scientific research work in China have been greatly improved, and the tasks of scientific researchers are generally full, especially those who study abroad, have high academic qualifications, and have high professional titles. The recognition of the basic conditions of scientific research in their units is the highest.
Second, the degree of scientific research cooperation and professional division of labor has been significantly strengthened, and researchers generally recognize the norms of teamwork.
Institutions are equipped with full-time, high-level scientific research assistants, and the formation of a relatively close network of partners among scientific researchers is an important factor to improve the efficiency and level of scientific research work. The survey results show that the cooperation and professional division of labor among researchers have improved to some extent. In the same organization, the frequency ratio of other colleagues to undertake and complete the scientific research auxiliary work reaches 30%, which is higher than the frequency ratio of handling the scientific research auxiliary work by themselves without auxiliary personnel at all; At the same time, the frequency ratio of scientific research collaborators from their own institutions is as high as 44%, and the units where more than 85% of scientific researchers work actively encourage cross-departmental or inter-institutional cooperation. However, it is common for graduate students to help teachers undertake scientific research auxiliary work, which is much higher than the proportion of full-time auxiliary personnel, which shows that there is still much room for improvement in the scale of teamwork in scientific research units. About 40% of the team leaders’ influence comes from their academic level and strategic vision. About 40% of the team members have consultation and communication, and respect each member’s own choice. Another three quarters of the team results are distributed according to actual contributions, and more than half of the researchers have a strong sense of belonging to the team, which reflects the recognition of most researchers on the existing team cooperation model.
Third, researchers give positive comments on the scientific research management ability of their units and are optimistic about the career development space.
The survey shows that about 90% of researchers give positive comments on the overall impression of the scientific research management department of the unit, among which nearly 60% think that the auxiliary scientific research services and the overall innovation atmosphere of the unit are "generally acceptable" or "very good", and nearly 70% think that the current performance evaluation mechanism is reasonable. At the same time, most researchers have remained relatively stable in their work. From the observation of the flow of researchers in their own units in the past two years, more than 80% of researchers have not felt the frequent outflow of other researchers, and they are satisfied with the career development space in their own units. Only less than 15% researchers are "not satisfied" or "very dissatisfied" with the career development space in their own units, hoping for other better development opportunities. The work of the party and government organs is still attractive to a considerable number of researchers. If there is an opportunity to transfer to the party and government organs at the same level or to start a business, more than 50% of researchers will consider moving. Generally speaking, good working environment, personal development space, stable work, more learning opportunities, and giving full play to their abilities are the main reasons why most researchers choose to stay in their current work units.
Fourth, the scientific and technological innovation policy has been well received by researchers, and the implementation and implementation need to be further strengthened.
In recent years, the central and local governments have issued a series of policies and supporting measures to encourage scientific and technological innovation, attract high-level talents and promote the development of high-tech industries. Researchers generally recognize these incentive policies, and nearly 40% of them think that the policies are good and fully affirm them. More than half of the researchers still hope that the government will increase its encouragement and support. For the implementation of these policies, 8% of researchers think that the effect is very good, and 38% think that "some encouragement policies have been implemented, and the overall effect is ok", which is basically the same as the overall proportion of "the implementation is not good, the effect is not great, and these policies are basically not felt". This shows that the implementation of relevant science and technology policies has not been widely recognized, and the urgent task is to enhance the scientific nature of policies and further increase publicity and implementation.
Six outstanding problems reflected by scientific researchers
First, a large number of institutions lack systematic and efficient innovation management capabilities.
All kinds of institutions in Industry-University-Research generally don’t know enough about the law of creative activities in scientific research, which is manifested in the weak ability of specialized division of labor and cooperative management of scientific research organizations, and they are used to managing scientific researchers by means of administrative management and engineering management, and lack of supporting for truly valuable "creative" work, which makes a large number of scientific researchers’ enthusiasm consumed in low-level repetitive daily chores. On the one hand, scientific researchers frequently work overtime, on the other hand, about 70% of scientific researchers directly engage in scientific research activities for less than 40 hours a week. According to the survey, only 16% of the researchers think that the unit attaches great importance to innovation, and about 50% of the researchers think that the incentive effect of scientific research and innovation in their unit is not good; 34% of the respondents think that although the company has formulated some incentive measures, the overall incentive atmosphere for innovation has not yet emerged, and 8% of the respondents think that there is basically no difference between innovation and non-innovation in the company.
Second, the investment and allocation of science and technology funds are not targeted to people.
In recent years, China’s investment in scientific research has increased rapidly, and it has become the third largest country in the world. These greatly increased scientific and technological funds have achieved remarkable results in improving the basic conditions of scientific research and other "hardware facilities", but they are insufficient in investing people, especially young and middle-aged researchers with more innovative vitality. The survey shows that the current research funding, task pressure and work intensity basically present three "one-third" situations, that is, in terms of sufficient research funding and full tasks, there are one-third of people who feel full, average and lacking; In terms of the pressure and challenge of scientific research work, one-third of the people feel very stressed, less stressed and more moderate; At the same time, the proportion of people who spend more than 40 hours, less than 20 hours, and between 20 hours and 40 hours is also one-third of three. In addition, researchers with different professional titles have significant differences in their cognition of individual environment. The actual working time intensity and the proportion of challenging scientific research work of deputy senior and intermediate researchers are higher than those of senior researchers, but their satisfaction in scientific research activities, funding commitment and academic exchanges is lower than that of senior researchers, which also shows that the allocation of scientific and technological resources is insufficient to support this group.
Third, most researchers still lack high-level and international academic exchange opportunities.
It is found that the internationalization level of scientific and technological research in China has become an important factor that restricts the improvement of scientific researchers’ ability. 44% of researchers "mainly participate in academic conferences or scientific and technological group exchanges organized by domestic organizations", and two-thirds of researchers choose to publish their scientific research results in China because "there will be some language or channel barriers abroad". Less than 15% of researchers can publish their academic research results internationally without obstacles, and only 11% can participate in foreign academic exchanges relatively freely and conveniently. More than 40% of researchers said that they "seldom have academic exchanges" and "lack relatively high-level academic exchange opportunities", and 16% of researchers still have obvious obstacles in terms of regions, institutions or languages even if they publish their scientific research results in China, reflecting that some researchers’ channels for participating in academic exchanges are not smooth enough, and their academic exchange ability needs to be further strengthened.
Fourth, the publicity and transparency of the allocation mechanism of scientific and technological resources are not enough.
For the research funding mechanism of local government departments, except for 32% researchers who did not give a clear judgment, less than 5% clearly chose "the whole funding mechanism is open and transparent", while the proportion that "the process is very opaque and all kinds of hidden rules are very serious" is as high as 13%, and 30% researchers think there are some unfair and unreasonable places, "but not very serious"; Another nearly 20% of the staff think it is not bad on the whole, which has greatly improved compared with the past. In addition, some researchers specifically mentioned the problem of "unfair project application" in the allocation of scientific research funds, which is reflected in the prevalence of "learning hegemony" in the formulation, application and evaluation of project guides. I hope that the setting and funding mechanism of related scientific research projects will be more open and transparent.
Fifth, the academic community and scientific and technological associations have not played a sufficient role.
Academic communities and scientific and technological societies are important carriers to strengthen the education of scientific values and integrity of researchers and promote academic exchanges. According to the survey, nearly one-third of the researchers’ overall impression of the scientific and technological associations in this region said that they seldom contact with scientific and technological organizations, more than half thought that the scientific and technological organizations in this region were not active enough, nearly 8% said they knew something about a certain scientific and technological association, and less than 3% of the researchers had a better understanding of the society and gave a "good impression" evaluation. It can be seen that the majority of scientific researchers have obviously insufficient understanding and participation in scientific and technological associations, and the scientific and technological associations that should play an important role as carriers and intermediaries in developing academic norms, shaping scientific values and promoting academic exchanges have not fully played their roles at present. Strengthening the self-construction of "academic communities" and enhancing the value recognition of scientific researchers are the weak links in the current development of China’s scientific community.
Sixth, the overall cultural atmosphere of social innovation is not ideal.
A good social innovation atmosphere is an important prerequisite to stimulate the innovation enthusiasm and vitality of researchers, and it is also an important aspect that researchers pay attention to. It is found that the atmosphere of social tolerance failure, challenge to academic authority and academic independence, which are necessary for creative work, is not highly evaluated by researchers. Nearly half of the researchers think it is general, and the proportion of ideal or unsatisfactory is about 20%. In terms of improving the social image and political status of scientific and technological personnel, 50% of scientific and technological personnel think that there is no obvious difference from other occupations. Among them, only 19% think that the social status of researchers in this area has been greatly improved, and nearly a quarter of researchers think that despite a lot of publicity in various aspects, there has been no substantial improvement; Generally speaking, most researchers think that compared with other groups, the social status has not improved much.
Analysis of the crux of the above problems mainly lies in the lack of creativity of scientific researchers and the low level of independent management of scientific research activities.
First, the substantial increase in investment in science and technology has improved the working conditions of researchers, but it will not automatically bring about the same improvement in the satisfaction of researchers with the scientific research environment.
According to the survey, the higher the level of researchers, the more scientific and technological resources they occupy, and the higher the quality requirements for the scientific research environment. Senior and senior researchers who have studied abroad and are at the top of the group of researchers are significantly superior to other groups in terms of basic conditions for scientific research, research funds, publication of achievements and opportunities for academic exchange, and they are also in a dominant position in teamwork. At the same time, they attach great importance to the norms of teamwork and have higher requirements for the scientific research management level of their units. This situation shows that innovation management and cultural issues are replacing the lack of investment in science and technology, and become the main problems restricting the improvement of the current scientific research environment in China. It requires government management departments and various scientific research institutions to explore macro-and micro-management mechanisms that are more in line with the laws of scientific and technological innovation activities.
Second, the conflict between the increasing demand for scientific autonomy and the administrative science and technology management system has become one of the main contradictions in the macro-management system of science and technology in China.
The intervention of too many external administrative forces makes the degree of independent management of scientific researchers, scientific research institutions and scientific communities insufficient, which not only reduces the efficiency of scientific research and management, but also affects the enthusiasm and sense of accomplishment of scientific researchers as knowledge workers. In particular, some scientific research institutions and management departments lack of attention to the laws of scientific research and innovation activities, and the management methods focus on planning and administration. There is a big gap between the management ability of creative activities and the actual needs of scientific researchers, which leads to the phenomenon of simple management methods, repeated work by scientific researchers and a lot of work in vain to some extent. In addition, the imperfect public participation mechanism in the allocation mechanism of scientific and technological resources leads to the insufficient participation of the scientific community and the public in public scientific and technological affairs, and the low recognition of the fairness and impartiality of the government in allocating resources is also an important reason that affects the positive evaluation of the scientific research environment by researchers.
In short, although the scientific research infrastructure conditions of various units have improved significantly in recent years, all units and government scientific and technological management departments are also vigorously strengthening scientific research performance management, promoting scientific research cooperation, and actively introducing a series of incentive policies for scientific and technological innovation; However, the survey found that researchers still generally feel that it is difficult to give full play to their creativity, and their units and scientific and technological management departments lack systematic and efficient innovation management capabilities, which has become the main obstacle to improving the scientific research environment. This also means that innovation management and cultural issues are replacing the overall lack of investment in scientific and technological resources, becoming an important factor affecting researchers to judge the quality of scientific research environment, and further requiring government management departments and various scientific research institutions to explore macro-and micro-management mechanisms that are more in line with the laws of scientific and technological innovation activities.
Suggestions on respecting the law of scientific research activities and promoting the process of independent management of scientific research institutions and researchers
To improve the scientific research environment, we must strengthen the regular understanding of scientific research activities and management, give full play to the initiative and creativity of scientific and technological personnel, and greatly expand the participation scope and discourse power of scientific communities and the public in government scientific and technological affairs. The research group suggested that:
Efforts should be made to ensure the time for scientific researchers to directly engage in scientific research activities.
Increase the steady support for public scientific research institutions, simplify the scientific research management and evaluation mechanism, and shorten the time for scientific researchers to participate in administrative affairs and other social affairs activities; With the positive attitude of "releasing water to raise fish", we will support scientific researchers to concentrate on their scientific research work, and guide front-line scientific researchers to gradually increase their time directly engaged in scientific research activities to three-fifths or even more than four-fifths of their normal working hours.
Piloting the reform of the comprehensive supporting system of different types of scientific research institutions.
Actively explore the governance model of public scientific research institutions in the new period, and select some basic and public research institutes with high scientific research level to carry out pilot reform of comprehensive supporting system. The pilot work focuses on rationalizing the operating mechanism of scientific research institutions in terms of personnel, finance, materials, activities and comprehensive management, and establishes a coordinated scientific research management system of personnel-post-funds-activities-evaluation; While fully mobilizing the initiative and enthusiasm of researchers, we should strengthen the independent management of scientific research at all levels and stimulate the creativity of researchers.
Strengthen the right to speak of scientific community in scientific and technological affairs of the whole society.
Give full play to the academic norms and value guidance functions of the scientific community. Gradually reduce all kinds of scientific and technological awards led by the government; Strengthen the leading role of professional societies, trade associations and other professional groups and social organizations in academician selection, scientific and technological awards and evaluation, suppression of academic misconduct, establishment of academic journals, and dissemination of scientific and technological news; Strengthen peer review in scientific research organization evaluation, project evaluation, talent recruitment and other matters; Let the scientific community rebuild academic norms and innovative values.
Establish a more transparent and higher social participation mechanism for the allocation of scientific and technological resources.
Reform the allocation mechanism of public scientific and technological resources, improve the participation of scientists and the public in the process of public scientific and technological decision-making and project organization and implementation, and reduce the direct intervention of government departments in the process of scientific and technological project organization and implementation. Strengthen the construction of social supervision and management mechanism, and promote the opening of all kinds of scientific and technological projects and scientific and technological infrastructure supported by public finance to the whole society.
Significantly increase the budget for supporting scientific researchers to "go global".
Implement the strategy of "going out" for researchers, and rapidly improve their research vision and international communication ability. Significantly increase the amount of international scientific and technological cooperation and exchange funds of the National Scholarship Fund Committee, China Academy of Sciences and other departments, while building a high-level international academic exchange platform, increase support for front-line scientific researchers and young and middle-aged scientific research management backbones, and maintain the growth rate of more than 30% for three to four consecutive years.
Explore the implementation of "inclusive" science and technology policies and encourage "mass innovation".
Taking generate, which encourages and stimulates the creativity of the whole society, as an important part of the construction of innovative cities, we should not explore and implement the "inclusive" all-staff innovation project for all kinds of enterprises, institutions and the public based on the qualification theory of innovative subjects; Continue to promote the work deployment of "Several Opinions on Strengthening the Work of Innovative Methods" by the four national ministries and commissions, and constantly promote and popularize the knowledge of innovation methodology such as TRIZ in society and various enterprises and institutions; Increase the creative methods and scientific aesthetic education content in primary and secondary education, vocational education and training, and higher education, and form a pluralistic and inclusive mass innovation culture atmosphere for all social subjects. (Author of research group of Institute of Science and Technology Policy and Management Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences: Leng Min, Song Qi)