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Nation
Print Edition> Nation
UPDATED: July 18, 2011 NO. 29 JULY 21, 2011
New Rewards
China's determination to be more innovative sparks a debate on how to reform the state's incentive system
By WANG HAIRONG
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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 (HOU DEQIANG)

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 significance as debate rages on the role of government awards in scientific 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.

Li received 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.

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This is the first time China has withdrawn a state award for science and technology.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 scientific 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 difficult, while abolishing the awards system would have little effect on scientific 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 scientific and technological work for years.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government awards system played a significant role in boosting scientists' morale and promoting scientific 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 scientific and technological achievements. Meanwhile, 30.3 percent of the scientists surveyed blamed the system for encouraging dishonest academic behavior.

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

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