As a result of repeated criticism, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) is to reform its funding policies, though observers remain cautious on how the proposed policies will affect the widely claimed improper use of funding.

On 17 October, at a joint meeting between MOST and the Ministry of Finance, Wang Xiaofang, director for planning at MOST, said that during the 12th Five-year Plan (2011–15) period MOST will not set so many rigid regulations, so that the creativity of participating scientists can be encouraged.

A key part of the reform is that there will be no fixed requirement on how much of a research project budget should be paid to scientists. Payment will be decided by the nature of the project, with the chief scientist and the lead institution of the project responsible for properly spending the funding.

Meanwhile, according to Zhang Shaochun, vice-minister of finance, regular research get a larger proportion of competitive funding. The ratio of competitive to stable, noncompetitive funding will be adjusted from the existing 8 to 2 to 6 to 4.Wang also confirmed that MOST will further concentrate research resources to fund more mega projects to help China compete with other nations. 

The reform measures, particularly the flexible ratio of payments and noncompetitive basic funding, are welcomed by working scientists who have complained that despite the more than 2-digit growth rate in research budget, the money used to pay individuals – often about 10 per cent of the whole budget – is often much less than in Europe and North America. The low payment levels are said to discourage the creativity of scientists, lead to the overspending on scientific equipment and instruments, and often tempt scientists to misappropriate funding.

But science policy researchers remains cautious of the proposed reforms. ‘This is a good news, but we have not seen the implementation details. It is a systematic change and cannot be done overnight,’ says Mu Rongping, director of the Institute of Policy and Management, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Zhu Xiaomin, an associate professor of science studies at Peking University, says that part of the existing problem is the rigid management of science funding agencies. And if the proposed reform measures mean a new form of universal control, it will be meaningless.

While welcoming the move, Li Xia, a professor of science policy at Shanghai Jiaotong University, says that the current misuse of funding is not a result of rigid regulation of scientists’ personnel spending, but a result of a combination of fewer total research budgets - the concentration of funding to a few mega projects and insufficient funding for the smaller, creative projects.

According to MOST, China’s research and development (R&D) spending reached 706.3 billion yuan (US$111 billion) in 2010, an increase of 21.7 per cent year on year, and accounting for 1.76 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), not reaching the promised 2 per cent of GDP

‘But in the situation, most individual scientists cannot be well funded. Even if you ask them to flexibly get paid from the project budget, they have no extra money to do so!’ Li told Chemistry World. He adds the continued concentration of research funding in big projects, while giving more chances for science officials to show their achievements, cannot assure the equal and proper use of funding. 

Hepeng Jia