[Xinhua News Agency] Looking at the key scientific issues of concise basic research
◇ "It is necessary to build a communication bridge between scientific and technological talents and enterprises, connecting scientific output and technological innovation, so that scientists can help find and solve problems in the main battlefield of the national economy."
Since 2020, the Natural Science Foundation of China has set up an original exploration program to fund original research work from 0 to 1. The research content is put forward by the applicant himself, regardless of field or direction, and only needs the recommendation of two influential peer experts at home and abroad, so as to solve the problem that it is difficult to obtain financial support for original research through conventional channels.
◇ The world has entered the era of great science, and the degree of organization of basic research is getting higher and higher, and the influence of system guarantee and policy guidance on the output of basic research is increasing. To condense key scientific issues from major strategic needs, it is necessary to strengthen the organization at the national level and give full play to the advantages of institutionalized and concise issues.
Text | "Outlook" News Weekly reporter Hu Yongshun
Fan Xu (right), a professor of Fudan University who was selected in the first phase of Shanghai’s "Basic Research Special Zone Plan", and students used the self-developed surface topology soft gripper to intelligently grab various particles for Fudan University.
According to the latest natural index data released by the subsidiaries of the world-renowned academic publishing organization "springer-Nature Publishing Group", the authors in China made the greatest contribution to high-quality natural science research in 2022, and the share of papers published in high-quality journals ranked first in the world for the first time.
The natural index shows the progress of Chinese researchers in global high-quality scientific research output in recent years, and shows that the quality of basic research in China has steadily improved.
Asking scientific questions is the first step in basic research.
In recent years, many measures have been taken by relevant departments to promote concise basic research on key scientific issues. The Natural Science Foundation of China has successively adopted a series of policy measures, such as clarifying the funding orientation, improving the mechanism of concise scientific questions facing the frontier of science and the major needs of the country, guiding the scientific and technological circles to continuously improve the quality of applications, and striving to reverse the phenomenon of "turning basic research into aimless applied research and turning applied research into low-level basic research"; In 2021, China Academy of Sciences issued "Ten Basic Research Articles", which proposed to identify scientific problems around the most urgent scientific and technological problems in the national strategic needs and the world’s frontier scientific problems.
In the direction of aiming at major needs, we should build institutional bridges to promote scientists to concise scientific problems from the "four aspects". Strengthen the construction of basic research bases and platforms such as the National Center for Applied Mathematics, and carry out strategic-oriented systematic basic research. Guide diversified investment and innovate the joint funding model of national scientific research funds and industry departments, local governments and large enterprises; In terms of free exploration, we should further innovate research funding methods for non-consensus projects, speed up the establishment of a subversive and non-consensus basic research topic discovery mechanism, set up a basic research special zone to break the inertia of scientific research management, and ensure that researchers can explore freely and bravely break into no man’s land; Establish a long-term mechanism for concise problems, strengthen organizations at the national level, and give full play to the advantages of institutionalized concise problems. Implement a series of reform measures around the construction of innovative environment for basic research and talent evaluation.
In recent years, China’s investment in basic research has continued to increase, with an average annual growth rate of nearly 15%, which is close to twice the growth rate of R&D investment in the whole society, which has strongly supported the major achievements in the fields of iron-based superconductivity, quantum information, stem cells and synthetic biology, and laid a solid foundation for achieving high-level scientific and technological self-reliance.
Aim at the problem of major demand conciseness
In the soybean functional genome and molecular design breeding laboratory of Institute of Genetics and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, thousands of soybean materials thrive under the irradiation of fluorescent lamps. This is the breeding of new soybean varieties being carried out by researcher Tian Zhixi.
Scientific research topic selection is the first problem that scientific and technological workers need to solve. High-quality economic development urgently needs the supply and support of high-level basic research, and the strategic significance of demand-driven and application-oriented basic research is prominent. Aiming at the important national demand of high soybean yield, Tian Zhixi led the team to find the direction of tackling key problems. "Less than 20% of the soybeans we need every year are produced in China, and the rest need to be imported. In recent years, the soybean import volume has been continuously above 90 million tons/year, and improving soybean production capacity is one of the most urgent national needs in China’s agricultural field. " Tian Zhixi concluded that there are two reasons for China’s dependence on soybean imports: First, the soybean yield per unit area is low, which is one-third or even one-quarter of the staple food output. The average yield per mu of major soybean producing countries in the world has reached 220 kg, while the average yield per mu in China is only about 130 kg; Second, we are faced with the national conditions of a large population and less arable land.
Cultivating new soybean varieties with high yield per unit area and developing new soybean varieties suitable for saline-alkali land cultivation are the key to solve China’s soybean import dependence.
According to conventional breeding methods, breeders rely more on naked eye observation of soybean phenotype for breeding, and only one season can be selected in a year, which takes a long time. In order to find out the control mechanism of 50,000 genes in soybean, Tian Zhixi’s team innovated the research method of population genomics, constructed the first pan-genome with graphic structure of soybean, clarified the genetic basis of the evolution of soybean germplasm resources, and explained the coupling relationship of regulatory sites of important agronomic traits, and achieved a series of important results. The related research results provided important theoretical and technical support for solving the high yield of soybean in China.
On March 22nd this year, Team Tian Zhixi, together with other teams, developed a deep integrated database of soybean multidimensional genomics based on large-scale genome, variation group, phenotype group, transcription group and pan-genome data, which provided a high-quality platform for soybean breeders to retrieve and analyze soybean genomics data. Tian Zhixi hopes to cultivate new soybean varieties with higher yield and salt tolerance by molecular design breeding in five years, and improve the self-sufficiency rate of soybean in China.
It is becoming the direction of many efforts to condense scientific problems from the "four aspects" and build a bridge between scientists and the actual needs of society.
Many revolutionary engineering technologies and "stuck neck" problems seem to be technical problems, but their roots are in basic research. "It is necessary to build a bridge between scientific and technological talents and enterprises, and link scientific output and technological innovation, so that scientists can find problems and solve problems in the main battlefield of the national economy." Yuan Yaxiang, academician of China Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of China Association for Science and Technology, told the reporter.
Taking mathematics as an example, the Ministry of Science and Technology has set up 13 national applied mathematics centers, and the national key R&D plan has also launched key projects of mathematics and applied research to promote mathematicians to condense scientific problems from production practice.
Xu Zongben, an academician of China Academy of Sciences, is the director of Shaanxi National Center for Applied Mathematics. He told the reporter of Outlook Newsweek that the center has focused on the research of key mathematical theories and methods in the fields of big data and artificial intelligence, unconventional oil and gas reservoir exploration, future communication technology, and infectious disease prevention and control, and has achieved a series of major achievements in mathematics and mathematical technology.
For example, the Center and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. jointly established the Xi ‘an Jiaotong-Huawei Joint Laboratory of Mathematical Technology, and put forward the key mathematical algorithms in 5G communication, which solved the bottleneck problems such as manual resource allocation and limited channel estimation accuracy in the current communication system, and made important contributions for Huawei to solve the problems in 5G communication technology and explore 6G new technologies. Recently, the joint laboratory has also made a breakthrough in the research on the benchmark algorithm of communication physical layer matrix calculation, which is of great significance to improve communication performance, reduce base station energy consumption and break through the chip process blockade. The new algorithm has brought at least 1 ~ 10 times the calculation speed, and this achievement has been adopted by the application department.
Strengthening the conciseness of scientific questions also appeared in the special chapter of the National Natural Science Foundation’s "Tenth Five-Year Plan". According to the requirements of "Four Orientations", the planning puts more emphasis on the conciseness of scientific issues. For example, in the process of project establishment, we should adhere to the combination of "top-down" and "bottom-up", listen to the opinions and needs of departments, industries, industries and scientific and technological associations extensively, give full play to the role of expert review groups and expert advisory committees, and carry out professional argumentation and scientific research and judgment from the needs of economic and social development and industrial innovation and development, and concisely raise key scientific questions.
In terms of financial support, the joint fund project of NSFC has opened up a new channel for NSFC to support problems and demand-oriented basic research. By setting up a joint fund, giving full play to the platform-oriented role of the Science Fund, innovating the joint funding model with industry departments, local governments and large enterprises, exploring the establishment of a docking platform for demand, talents and achievements, further amplifying the leverage effect of financial funds, promoting the original innovation ability of industries and regions, and creating a new situation of diversified investment in basic research.
Broaden the space of non-consensus scientific research projects
Exploratory topics facing the forefront of world science and technology are original and often non-consensus, and non-consensus basic research may exceed the level of scientific development, research mindset or existing technical conditions, and the risk of innovation failure is greater. Innovating scientific research funding methods and encouraging scientists to explore frontier fields according to their own interests is one of the important ways to achieve original scientific research breakthroughs.
In April, 2020, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Engineering, and the Natural Science Foundation jointly issued "Several Key Measures to Strengthen Basic Research under the New Situation", proposing to optimize and improve the selection mechanism and funding mechanism of non-consensus projects, establish an "online through train" for non-consensus and subversive project proposals, and collect suggestions on major demand directions all the time.
More and more original projects with the characteristics of "subversion, non-consensus and high risk" stand out in the innovative selection methods. The research field of Zhu Ting, a chair professor at the School of Life Sciences of West Lake University, is to construct a mirror biological system with the opposite chirality to the natural biological system, which is a non-consensus original project.
When asked why he chose this scientific question, Zhu heard that it was an "interesting guess". Naturally occurring biomolecules in organisms have specific chirality, that is, biomolecules are right-handed and left-handed. The mystery of the origin of chirality of biomolecules has been an unsolved scientific problem since the discovery of chirality in the 19th century. One of the interesting conjectures is whether there is a mirror biological system in the universe, or whether it is possible to artificially create a mirror biological system in the laboratory.
Based on his interest in this issue, Zhu Ting thought of synthesizing mirror biological system in the laboratory from the central principle of constructing mirror version. However, this non-consensus frontier exploration has made Zhu Ting encounter a problem: it is difficult to get financial support from competitive projects.
Similar problems are also the dilemma faced by many scientists exploring frontier fields. For example, when another researcher applied for an original project named "Research on Key Technologies of Learning Parts", because of its originality and high risk, most evaluation experts were skeptical about its feasibility, so the project was not funded.
In view of the fact that original research is non-consensus, easy to fail and difficult to obtain project funding, the Natural Science Foundation of China has set up an original exploration plan project since 2020, aiming at funding original research from 0 to 1. The research content is put forward by the applicant himself, regardless of the field or direction, and only needs the recommendation of two influential peer experts at home and abroad. After the relevant departments pass the examination, they can get funding for 1-3 years, and the annual funding intensity does not exceed 1 million yuan, so as to solve the problem that it is difficult to obtain financial support for original research through conventional channels.
Zhu Ting’s project was supported by the original exploration plan. With the support of the project, the team used multidisciplinary means such as chemistry and biology to construct a mirror biological system with the opposite chirality to natural biomolecules. At present, they have initially realized the process of mirror nucleic acid replication, transcription and reverse transcription in the mirror center rule, and developed technologies such as mirror DNA information storage and directed evolution of mirror nucleic acid.
Similarly, the original topic of "Research on Key Technologies of Learning Parts" has also passed the evaluation of the exploration project. The evaluation experts regard the originality of research ideas and the leading of expected results as the primary evaluation criteria, and the requirements for feasibility are weakened in the evaluation points. In the end, the project was unanimously approved by the conference review experts.
It is understood that in the future, the Natural Science Foundation of China will also accelerate the establishment of a subversive and non-consensus basic research topic discovery mechanism. For example, the recommendation application mechanism is implemented to support reputable experts, institutions or managers to directly recommend projects, so that scientists with ideas, abilities and courage to innovate can be supported and the sense of responsibility and accomplishment of recommenders and recommending institutions can be enhanced.
Exploration is carried out everywhere. In 2021, Shanghai issued "Several Opinions on Accelerating the High-quality Development of Basic Research", and put forward the institutional innovation of "Special Zone for Basic Research", which made scientists dare to try and rush. The Shanghai municipal government invests 20 million yuan in each special zone unit every year for five years; The pilot units will jointly invest in the proportion of funds of not less than 1: 1. Xu Xiaochuang, deputy dean of the Institute of Science and Technology of Fudan University, said that the Basic Research Special Zone has provided relatively sufficient resources and a more secure environment for encouraging young researchers to venture into the basic research no-man’s land.
A light sail aircraft is developed, which uses high-energy laser to push the light sail with a thickness of 100 nanometers and an unfolded width of about 10 square meters, and accelerates the aircraft to 20% of the speed of light and flies to the nearest star system in the solar system-Alpha Centauri. Fan Xu, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Fudan University, was deeply attracted by the scenes in this science fiction novel. After the basic research special zone plan was launched in Fudan, Fan Xu learned that the plan encouraged young researchers to venture into no-man’s land, and projects with high risk of failure might be selected, so he declared the project "Structural Stability and Intelligent Regulation of Aerospace Optical Sail Film" and successfully established it. Fan Xu received 2 million yuan from Shanghai and supporting scientific research funds from Fudan University. With the long-term and stable support of the government and universities, Fan Xu has made a lot of progress. Recently, the research results of Fan Xu’s research group were published in Physical Review Express and reported in the "Research Highlights" column of Nature magazine.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Science and Technology said that the next step is to reform and improve the project formation mechanism, explore the discovery and proposal mechanism of original scientific problems facing the forefront of the world’s science and technology, establish a support and management mechanism for non-consensus projects and subversive technologies, further increase investment in basic research, optimize the investment structure, and increase long-term and stable support for unpopular disciplines, basic disciplines and interdisciplinary disciplines, so as to provide better services for scientific researchers to think calmly, concentrate on research and devote themselves wholeheartedly, and support and encourage the majority of scientific and technological workers to be innovative.
Establish a long-term mechanism for concise problems
"To solve the’ stuck neck’ problem, we need to attach great importance to concise basic research scientific problems. In addition to relying on the interests of scientists for free exploration, we should also establish a mechanism for concise scientific problems in light of major national needs." Xu Zongben thinks.
First, give full play to the enthusiasm of scientists, especially strategic scientists, to concise key scientific issues."Strategic scientists play an important role in identifying and refining key scientific issues in basic research. They often have high academic attainments, can build bridges between multiple disciplines, and are good at identifying new research directions and potential scientific breakthroughs. " Yang Jinlong, academician of China Academy of Sciences and vice president of China University of Science and Technology, thinks.
Xu Zongben believes that, first of all, by establishing mechanisms or management norms, it is clear that concise scientific issues should be regarded as the duty of strategic scientists; Secondly, a special research project on concise problems can be set up to support strategic scientists to carry out research aimed at concise scientific problems; Furthermore, establish and improve the incentive mechanism, and give some forms of recognition and reward to scientists who have condensed out major scientific problems.
Second, concise organized scientific questions. The world has entered the era of great science, and the degree of organization of basic research is getting higher and higher, and the influence of system guarantee and policy guidance on the output of basic research is increasing. To condense key scientific issues from major strategic needs, it is also necessary to strengthen the organization at the national level and give full play to the advantages of institutionalized and concise issues.
"For the key scientific issues of basic research in strategic industries and major engineering fields, the government and research subjects should play a leading role and explore the establishment of a key scientific issues concise mechanism." Mu Rongping, director of the Innovation and Development Research Center of China Academy of Sciences, thinks.
Dong Guoxuan, executive deputy director of the Department of Mathematical Physics Science of NSFC, introduced that the Department of Mathematical Physics Science of NSFC is exploring the establishment of a collection mechanism for cutting-edge scientific questions, and guiding researchers to carry out basic research around the major needs of the country by giving play to the strategic advisory role of high-level experts and the functions of academic exchange platforms such as the "Shuangqing Forum". For example, in-depth communication with China Academy of Engineering Physics and other industry departments, investigation of major engineering projects, major needs in the main economic field, etc., to explore the key basic scientific problems behind them; Extensive contact with the first-line experts and scholars related to the scientific problems preliminarily condensed by the department, and organization of regular systematic seminars and irregular special seminars. Focusing on the preliminary concise scientific problems, we will further sort out the fields and directions involved, clarify the core problems that need to be broken through, the possible technical methods and the situation of the talent team, and constantly clarify the key scientific problems and the scientific problems that are expected to make breakthroughs, so as to provide decision-making reference for the subsequent publication of guidelines and funding by the Natural Science Foundation of China.
Scientific problems often involve multiple disciplines, and interdisciplinary exchanges and cooperation can help researchers understand and solve problems from different angles, which will lead to more major breakthroughs."Therefore, the competent department of science and technology should build a multi-disciplinary cross-research platform and encourage concise problems from cross-disciplines." Yang Jinlong said.
Third, create a scientific research environment that is conducive to finding key issues and tackling difficulties. The more significant the breakthrough, the higher the possibility of failure. Because of the fear of failure, the "courage" of researchers will also become less, and it is more difficult to judge whether a problem is a scientific problem. In particular, young researchers lack confidence in how to raise high-quality scientific questions.
"It is necessary to create an open and encouraging research environment to stimulate the curiosity of researchers and make them more willing to explore the unknown and propose and solve key scientific problems. It is necessary to further optimize the evaluation methods of talents and improve the enthusiasm of young researchers for concise original scientific problems. " Yang Jinlong said.
(Outlook, No.29, 2023)
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