East China’s Jiangsu province has released a roadmap to strengthen basic research, according to a press conference held Monday morning by the provincial government.
Jiangsu will focus on the strategic need to build a globally influential industrial technology innovation center by clarifying the "construction map" and "roadmap" for the province's basic research work in the coming period, according to the Action Plan for Jiangsu to Strengthen Basic Research.
The Action Plan specifies the work goals for basic research in Jiangsu from 2025 to 2035. By 2035, Jiangsu will record a proportion of basic research funding to R&D funding of around 9%, supporting Jiangsu's technological innovation capability to reach the forefront of world innovative countries and regions.
“Regarding the specific deployment of the Action Plan, I would like to focus on introducing this set of numbers ‘1820’, which includes 18 key areas, 18 main tasks, and 20 supporting policies. Through the implementation of the Action Plan, we will break through the bottleneck that restricts the development of basic research in Jiangsu, achieve forward-looking basic research, and lead original breakthroughs, striving to become an important source of original innovation and a leading area for cutting-edge scientific and technological breakthroughs in China,” said Xu Guanghui, Director of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology.
The 18 key areas cover strategic new materials, integrated circuits, mathematics and its applications, state control, core algorithms and future computing, future network communication, and other research areas that Jiangsu has the most advantages, foundations, and potential breakthroughs in.
The 18 main tasks include vigorously cultivating and utilizing strategic scientists and top talents, building a strategic scientific and technological force led by laboratories, accelerating the construction of world-class universities and disciplines, increasing financial support for basic research, and some other solid measures.
Proposed by the Provincial Department of Science and Technology in collaboration with 12 departments, the 20 supporting policies aim to solve problems such as difficulty in forming interdisciplinary and cross college scientific research teams, and incomplete evaluation and incentive mechanisms.
The action plan also clearly proposes the establishment of an exemption system for administrative management and innovation activities related to free exploration and disruptive technology by creating a basic research and research atmosphere that allows for and tolerates failure, so that researchers will have no worries.
