Strengthen basic research to achieve high level scientific and technological self-reliance

Strengthening basic research is an urgent requirement for achieving self-reliance in high-level science and technology, and is the only way to build a world power in science and technology. The Party and the state have always attached importance to basic research. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the CPC Central Committee issued a call to "march to science", and the majority of scientific and technological workers worked hard and independently, and achieved major basic research achievements such as "two bombs and one star" key scientific problems, artificial bovine insulin, breakthroughs in the theory of multiple complex functions, and proof of Goldbach's conjecture. After the reform and opening up, China ushered in the "scientific spring", and successively implemented the "863 plan", "climbing plan" and "973 plan", and the overall research strength and academic level of basic research were significantly enhanced. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee has placed the improvement of original innovation ability in a more prominent position, successfully organized a number of major basic research tasks, built a number of major scientific and technological infrastructure, and major original achievements in the direction of basic frontier have continued to emerge.

At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is deepening, the integration of disciplines is advancing, the paradigm of scientific research is undergoing profound changes, the integration of science and technology and economic and social development is accelerating, the transformation cycle of basic research is significantly shortened, and international competition in science and technology is moving to the forefront of basic research. To cope with international competition in science and technology, achieve self-reliance in high-level science and technology, promote the construction of a new development pattern, and achieve high-quality development, it is urgent that we strengthen basic research and solve key technological problems at the source and at the bottom. Because of this, the report of the Party's 20th National Congress highlights the need to strengthen basic research, highlight originality, encourage free exploration, make strategic plans, and effectively implement them.

First, we need to strengthen the forward-looking, strategic and systematic distribution of basic research. Basic research is at the beginning of the scientific research chain from research to application and then to production, and only when the foundation is laid firmly can the building of science and technology be built high. To strengthen basic research, it is necessary to highlight forward-looking and strategic demand-oriented, optimize resource allocation and layout structure, and provide basic theoretical support and technological source supply for innovative development.

It is necessary to adhere to the "four aspects", adhere to the "two legs" of goal-oriented and free exploration, combine the world's scientific and technological frontiers with the major strategic needs of the country and the goals of economic and social development, coordinate the cutting-edge issues raised by the law of scientific development and the theoretical issues abstracted from major applied research, and condenze key scientific issues in basic research. It is necessary to grasp the development trend of science and technology and the national strategic needs, strengthen the feasibility evaluation and selection of major basic research projects, fully respect the opinions of scientists, grasp the general trend, and play a good "first hand". We will strengthen national strategic scientific and technological strength, and systematically promote strategy-oriented systematic basic research, leading-edge exploratory basic research, and market-oriented applied basic research. We will give full play to the leading role of national laboratories, the institutional role of national scientific research institutions, the main force role of high-level research universities and the role of leading scientific and technological enterprises as "question makers", "answer takers" and "examiners". We need to improve 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.

Second, we need to deepen institutional reform of basic research. 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 guarantee and policy guidance on the output of basic research is getting greater and greater. China's institutional mechanisms to support basic research and original innovation have been basically established, but they are not yet perfect. We must optimize and refine reform plans, and give full play to the value driving and strategic leading role of institutions and policies.

We should steadily increase financial input in basic research, encourage enterprises to increase investment through various means such as tax incentives, encourage social forces to set up diversified investment such as science funds and scientific donations, improve the effectiveness of funding from the National Natural Science Foundation and its joint funds, and establish a sound mechanism for basic research investment that combines competitive support with stable support. We need to improve the system of basic research support for national science and technology plans, improve the mechanisms for organizing, reporting, reviewing and making decisions on basic research projects, implement differentiated and classified 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 innovative research. We should strike a balance between the new national system and market mechanisms, improve systems for evaluating and incentivizing science and technology, applying and transforming achievements, and remunerating scientific and technological personnel that match the long-term cycle of basic research, and provide long-term and stable support to a number of basic research innovation bases, competitive teams, and key directions, so as to create a source of original innovation and a vanguard force for basic research. It is a general trend to increase the investment in basic research, and at the same time, it is necessary to consider the national financial resources, maintain a reasonable investment intensity, strengthen the performance evaluation of the implementation process, and ensure that "good steel is used on the edge of the knife."

Third, build a high-level support platform for basic research. For a long time in the past, China's basic research problems existed in the "two ends out" problem of finding topics from foreign academic journals, importing instruments and equipment from abroad, and then spending money to publish in foreign journals and platforms after achieving results. In recent years, China has made great efforts to build world-class science and technology journals, built a number of major countries, and made great progress in the construction of basic research support platforms, but there is still a long way to go to fundamentally solve the problem of "two ends and outside".

We need to work together to build a system of national laboratories with Chinese characteristics, establish research centers for basic disciplines, accelerate the development of special basic research zones, and advance the deployment of new information technology platforms for scientific research to form a strong backbone network for basic research. We need to make scientific plans and layout for major science and technology infrastructure that is forward-looking, strategy-oriented, and application-oriented, strengthen the supervision during and after the construction of facilities, improve the management of the full life cycle of facilities, and comprehensively increase the level of openness and sharing and operational efficiency. It is necessary to fight hard for the localization of scientific and technological instruments and equipment, operating systems and basic software, encourage scientific research institutions, universities and enterprises to carry out joint research, improve the level of domestic substitution and application scale, and strive to achieve the early realization of China's independent research platforms, instruments and equipment to solve major basic research problems. It is necessary to speed up the cultivation of world-class scientific and technological journals, build scientific and technological literature and data platforms with international influence, initiate high-level international academic conferences, and encourage major basic research results to be first published, developed and utilized in Chinese journals and platforms.

Fourth, strengthen the construction of basic research personnel. To strengthen basic research, in the final analysis, we must rely on high-level personnel. In recent years, China has deeply implemented the strategy of strengthening the country with talents, deepened the reform of the talent system and mechanism, and achieved remarkable results, but the team of basic research talents still has obvious shortcomings. Efforts must be made to build a systematic, high-level platform for training basic research talents, so that more basic research talents can emerge.

It is necessary to increase support for basic research personnel in various talent programs, train and employ strategic scientists, support young scientific and technological personnel to take the lead and assume heavy responsibilities, actively introduce outstanding overseas talents, and constantly expand the ranks of leading scientific and technological personnel and first-class innovation teams. It is necessary to clarify the evaluation methods and standards of how to "establish" after "breaking the four only", improve the differentiated evaluation and long-term support mechanism for basic research talents, give scientific and technological leaders greater rights of human and financial control and the choice of technical routes, and build an evaluation system that conforms to the law of basic research and the law of talent growth. It is necessary to strengthen the construction of scientific research style, adhere to the combination of scientific supervision and integrity education, deeply promote the management of scientific research style and study style, and guide scientific and technological personnel to abandon grandiosity and get rid of impetuous, and sit on the "bench". It is necessary to adhere to the road of independent training of basic research talents, thoroughly implement the "Middle School Student Talent Plan", "Strong Foundation Plan" and "Training Plan for Top students in basic disciplines", optimize the education system of basic disciplines, give play to the role of universities, especially "double first-class" universities, as the main force for training basic research talents, and strengthen the training of high-level talents urgently needed by the country. A steady stream of large-scale basic research reserves.

Fifth, we need to conduct extensive international cooperation in basic research. At present, international science and technology cooperation is facing the impact and challenge of unilateralism and protectionism of a few countries. To solve the problem of common development, mankind needs international cooperation and open sharing more than ever before. No country can become an independent innovation center or enjoy the fruits of innovation alone. China should continue to expand international exchanges and cooperation in basic research with more open thinking and measures, and foster an open innovation ecosystem with global competitiveness.

We need to build a platform for international cooperation in basic research, lead the implementation of major international science programs and projects, set up global scientific research funds, make national science and technology programs more open to the outside world, and expand and deepen joint scientific research with foreign countries on global issues such as climate change, energy security, biosecurity and the use of outer space. It is necessary to make forward-looking plans and deeply participate in global science and technology governance, participate in or initiate the establishment of international science and technology organizations, support domestic universities, research institutes and science and technology organizations in connecting with the world, and improve laws and regulations, ethical review rules and regulatory frameworks. We should dare to struggle and be good at struggle, strive to promote openness, trust and cooperation in the international scientific and technological community, make new and greater contributions to the progress of human civilization with more major original innovations and breakthroughs in key core technologies, and effectively safeguard our scientific and technological security interests.

Sixth, we need to create an innovation ecosystem conducive to basic research. To carry out basic research needs both material guarantee and spiritual motivation. Generations of Chinese science and technology workers, through the spirit of "two bombs and one star", the spirit of westward migration, the spirit of manned space flight, the spirit of scientists, the spirit of lunar exploration, and the spirit of Beidou in the new era, have shaped the innovation ecology with Chinese characteristics and become the inexhaustible driving force for basic research and development.

We should vigorously promote the scientific spirit of pursuing truth and reaching new heights throughout society, widely publicize advanced examples and deeds that have emerged in scientific and technological fields such as basic research, educate and guide scientific and technological workers to carry forward the glorious tradition of scientists of the older generation of serving the country and caring for the people, and write their papers on the land of the motherland. We will apply the results of scientific research to the great cause of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way. It is necessary to strengthen the national capacity for science popularization, carry out in-depth actions to improve the scientific quality of the whole people, disseminate scientific knowledge online and offline through multiple channels, showcase scientific and technological achievements, and foster a social trend of loving and advocating science. It is necessary to effectively promote the integration of science and education, do a good job in science education in the "double reduction" of education, sow the seeds of science, stimulate young people's curiosity, imagination and desire to explore, and cultivate young people who have the potential of scientists and are willing to devote themselves to scientific research.

Party committees and governments at all levels should put strengthening basic research into the important agenda of science and technology work, strengthen overall coordination, increase policy support, and promote the high-quality development of basic research. 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, relieve constraints and lighten burdens, and encourage them to implement a series of strategic plans of the Party Central Committee on scientific and technological innovation.