New Rewards

By WANG HAIRONG

New Rewards

By WANG HAIRONG

China’s determination to be more innovative sparks a debate on how to reform the state’s incentive system

On July 7, the National Office for Science and Technology Awards published its short list of nominees for the 2011 State Science and Technology Awards. The publication of the list is an annual event but this year it has taken on a heightened signi fi cance as debate rages on the role of government awards in scienti fi c and technological development.

In February, the Ministry of Science and Technology revoked, on the grounds of fraud, the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award given to Li Liansheng, a former professor at Xi’an Jiaotong University in northwest Shaanxi Province.

According to a statement of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Li had been found to have plagiarized others’works and to have fabricated the data he used in his award-winning project.

This is the first time China has withdrawn a state award for science and technology. Such a major academic fraud,at one of China’s most prestigious universities, has fueled the debate on the role of awards within China’s academic system.

Reform calls

“Government awards can no longer play their expected role in boosting scienti fi c and technological progress and should be abolished,” said Wang Zhixin, a professor of life science at Tsinghua University and academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“The government awards system was born in the heyday of the planned economy,and it is not suited to current times,” Wang said. According to him, reforming the government’s awards system to suit the needs of a market economy would prove very dif fi cult, while abolishing the awards system would have little effect on scienti fi c research, teaching or production.

Wang believes what really motivates scientists are not awards. “Those doing theoretical research must be interested in their subjects of study, whereas applied research is driven by market demands and competition, and the quality of that research cannot be improved on by the motivation to win an award,” he said.

While Wang makes a case for the complete abolition of the awards system, most academics argue that the system, while in need of major reform, should be allowed to survive.

Yin Zhuo, a rear admiral and senior researcher with the Navy Equipment Research Center of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is a veteran member of the jury for the PLA’s awards for science and technology. He said the government awards system is an important part of scientists’ performance evaluation system,and it has successfully guided scienti fi c and technological work for years.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government awards system played a signi fi cant role in boosting scientists’ morale and promoting scienti fi c and technological research, Yin said.

Yin did concede, however, that at present the awards system is plagued with problems, problems so severe that they threaten to undermine China’s goal of becoming a world leader in innovation. But he said these problems were mainly due to changing national conditions and could be tackled with reforms to the existing system.

“A major problem is that the existing awards system relies overly on quantitative standards and tangible rewards,” Yin said.

“In most cases, the number and grade of awards obtained are the only criteria for judging whether a researcher could obtain a pay rise, a higher professional title, a promotion in administrative ranks and other incentives,” said Shao Guopei, former President of the Electronic Engineering Institute of the PLA.

“Some researchers put award applications before solid research, and invest lots of energy in promoting themselves and their work, and in networking with the people who can help with these applications,”Shao said.

“Excessively pegging awards with personal gains would turn the awards into the goal of research and make the awards counterproductive,” said Guo Lei, an academician and President of the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science.

“Unfair evaluation results also dampen excellent scientists, and produce long-term negative impacts,” Guo said.

A survey conducted by the China Association for Science and Technology in 2007 revealed that 24.6 percent of respondents thought the existing scientific awards system was ineffective and unable to measure the value of scienti fi c and technological achievements. Meanwhile, 30.3 percent of the scientists surveyed blamed the system for encouraging dishonest academic behavior.

HIGHEST RAILWAY: A train running on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which travels on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the world’s roof. The project won China’s National Scientific and Technological Progress Award in 2008

FARMER-TURNED-INVENTOR: Guo Yufu (center), a farmer in Wuqing District of Tianjin,talks with technicians about how to improve the corn harvester he invented, on February 5, 2010. Guo was given the National Scientific and Technological Progress Award for his invention in January 2010

“The respondents also said overly quantitative performance evaluation criteria put a lot more stress on them,” said Qi Rang, a retired of fi cial with the China Association for Science and Technology.

The Chinese Government established the annual State Science and Technology Awards in 2000 to recognize individuals and organizations for their outstanding contributions to scienti fi c and technological development.

According to Yin, the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award, one of the five major categories of the State Science and Technology Awards, was particularly problematic.

The award honors project teams. But the names of many administrative of fi cers are reportedly often put on application materials together with the names of the scientists who have actually done the research.Data from the National Of fi ce for Science and Technology Awards show, from 2000 to 2009, this award was given to 24,555 individuals working on 2,388 projects in 7,306 research institutions.

Except for the International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award that honors foreigners or international organizations, the other three categories of the State Science and Technology Awards, namely the State Supreme Science and Technology Award, the State Natural Science Award and the State Technological Innovation Award, had a total of 3,174 recipients during the same period.

Breakthrough points

“To establish a sound scientific and technological awards system, it is important to streamline the relationship between government departments and academic communities and between the administrative and academic divisions of research institutions,” Qi said.

According to Guo, rede fi ning the functions of relevant government departments should be the top priority in any reform of the state-sponsored awards system.

“Government departments should neither do too much nor do too little,” Guo said. He argued that while the government should avoid micromanaging projects it should make an effort to implement plans and policies that encourage and enable China’s scientists.

The senior mathematician was particularly critical of the fact that the State Science and Technology Awards are not fi eld-speci fi c.

“Achievements in various fields are lumped together. Though many outstanding experts are invited to participate in the evaluation, they are unable to adequately assess the value of projects in areas beyond their knowledge. So the experts usually tend to rely on quantitative standards,” Guo said.

“The inability of government departments to adequately evaluate projects in various fi elds also gave dishonest scholars the opportunity to cheat,” he continued.

In terms of a comprehensive reform,Guo suggested that the government should distribute awards to only a small number of exceptional scientists. Findings from specific projects, he argued, should be evaluated and rewarded by academic communities and the market.

“Findings from basic research should be judged by their academic value or contribution to scientific and technological development, and should be mainly assessed by recognized academic institutions,whereas findings from applied research should be appraised according to its effects after application, and should be primarily evaluated through market mechanisms,”Guo said.

Guo’s suggestion is echoed by Hou Jianguo, President of the University of Science and Technology of China. Hou said China should streamline its numerous and complicated science awards.

Yet the idea of letting the market and the public pick the winners and removing government awards entirely sounds “a little too drastic” to of fi cials within the National Office for Science and Technology Awards.

In an interview with Beijing-basedOutlookweekly, an anonymous official with the of fi ce said, “If the State Science and Technology Awards were abolished,how would the government recognize the contribution of science and technology to economic and social development?”

Many researchers have also expressed concerns that most industry associations and NGOs are incapable of conducting unbiased evaluations, as the leaders of such organizations are mostly incumbent or retired government of fi cials.

“The problem is that these institutions are also managed like government departments, and administrative staff monopolize the power to allocate resources,”said Ma Dalong, a Peking University professor.

Zhu Lilan, former Minister of Science and Technology, has called for rede fi ning the evaluation criteria for government science and technology awards since 2009.She also suggests members of juries for the awards should be carefully chosen, evaluated and regularly reshuf fl ed.

Zou Dating, Director of the National Office for Science and Technology Awards, said in June stricter measures had been taken to ensure that recipients of this year’s State Science and Technology Awards were selected in a “clean and fair”way.

One of the new measures introduced is to keep the judges anonymous. Judges and other members of the evaluation committee are now required to use their code names when reporting for duty and evaluating each others’ performances.

the second-grade prize of the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award in 2005 for his research into key technologies for designing and manufacturing scroll compressors.