[Focus on the Two Sessions] Liu Zhongfan: Control the Build-up of National Laboratories
Mar 14, 2022
Peking University, March 14, 2022: The construction of national laboratories is a significant and forward-looking measure to reshape China’s scientific and technological innovation system in an era filled with profound shifts unseen in a century. Prof. Liu Zhongfan from School of Chemistry of Peking University (PKU) suggested that the total number of national laboratories should be strictly controlled by both sorting out the current number of laboratories and limiting their increment. Prof. Liu Zhongfan is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and the chairman of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Jiusan Society (BMCJS).
Liu Zhongfan said that supported by the BMCJS, a research group composed of experts from various fields conducted specific research in the past year to investigate the construction of the national laboratories. As a pertinent issue in the fields of scientific and technology, the construction of national laboratories received extensive attention, and warrants intricate top-level design and firm strategic decisions while exhibiting the strengths of the national construction system.
Liu Zhongfan stressed that the increment of national laboratories must be strictly controlled to ensure the stability and continuity of government funding and reflect the will of the state. In terms of controlling the total amount, the construction should seek to avoid excessive functional overlap with existing resources.
“Frankly speaking, many institutions in the existing national innovation system meet or basically meet the requirements of national laboratories. These ‘stock’ resources should be carefully sorted out and certified to allow for control of the total amount in a truer sense.” Liu Zhongfan added that the construction of national laboratories should go in tandem with the reform and re-organization of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) . Specifically, the CAS, being a pioneer and vanguard in China’s innovation system, should be allocated a certain fraction of national laboratories to aid its rearrangement of existing CAS research institutes.
On the policy level, Liu Zhongfan focused on finding solutions to extreme trends such as “the winner takes all” and proposed the cultivation of “hardcore talents” exclusive to the national laboratories. This helps avoid the draining of talent ponds of universities and other research institutes, and actively integrates existing talent resources to ensure that national laboratories start at a higher point.
Written by: Fu Jiaqi
Edited by: Li Wanqi
Source: PKU News (Chinese)
