On November 10th, 2009, the Working Conference of State Key Laboratories is held in Beijing Guo Yi Hotel. More than 350 people from various laboratories attend the meeting, including representatives from 212 state key laboratories all around China, 6 experimental state laboratories, 5 state key laboratories in Hong Kong, 13 state key enterprise laboratories, 14 province-ministry co-constructed state key laboratory cultivating bases, 5 civil-military state key laboratories, and 39 representatives from supporting organizations, and 48 representatives from administrative departments.
Director-general Zhang Xian’en of the Department of Basic Research, Ministry of Science and Technology presides over the meeting. First of all, Mr. Cao Jianlin, vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology addresses at the meeting. In his speech, Minister Cao generally introduces the works of state key laboratories, and highlights the subjects of the meeting, “concentrating research directions, and forming and constructing key laboratories with features and advantages to avoid repeated or de-concentrated researches; further deepening reforms, and perfecting the mechanism and system; reinforcing the construction of talent cultivation system; focusing on culture construction of laboratories to establish several models and examples of excellent scientific culture; and for administrative departments and supporting organizations, enhancing their supporting and administration”. He especially points out that, during the sector of perfecting mechanism and system, the laboratories should pay much attention to the annual reporting system, conduct correlation analysis during evaluation process, and organize the joint meetings of directors of state key laboratories or establish academic committees of each field to promote exchange and cooperation between laboratories of the same filed, and further optimize the supervision and inspection mechanism.
Then, Associate Counsel Song Qiuling from the Science & Education Department of the Ministry of Finance introduces in details the newly-issued Measures for the Administration of Special Funds of State Key Laboratories. She points out that the measures indicate significant change of the national scientific and technical investment mode, that is, from investment on single competitive projects to stable support; the measures also innovate the fund administration system, which divides the special funds into open operating funds, scientific and research funds, and equipment funds, and integrate the fund system with the 5-year evaluation system to highlight the key points and form a stable and effective supporting mechanism. Director-general Song also indicates that, the existing problems at current stage mainly include repeated purchase of equipments, lack of sharing mechanism, detainment of scientific and research funds, and how to handle the relation between competition and stableness, etc. She expects all laboratories to actively and positively explore a perfect fund using system in line with the development of state key laboratories, resolve the current problems of de-concentrated and repeated researches, integrate research directions, and at the same time reinforce budget administration and pay more attention to performance evaluation. China expects a high development of basic research, improvement of core competency and technical breakthrough in priority fields by increasing the investment on state key laboratories.
Associate Counsel Hu Jianhua from the Talent Working Bureau of the CPC Central Committee then introduces the implementation of the Thousand-Talent Plan of CPC Central Committee, and deputy director-general Liao Xiaohan of the Department of Basic Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology makes the year 2008 work report of state key laboratories. Afterwards, Xu Tao, director of the State Key Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peng Xiaojun, director of the State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, and Luo Jianbin, director of the Sate Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University respectively introduce the advanced experiences and excellent research findings of their laboratories.
In the meeting of group discussion held in the afternoon, Chen Shi, vice director of the State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, and Dai Jie, deputy director of the Section of Science and Technology of Beijing Normal University join in the group discussion of 36 state key laboratories from the field of geosciences. Suggestions raised by attendees mainly emphasize on fund administration and performance evaluation, including evaluation of objective achievement, reducing process intervention and endowing state key laboratories with decision making power. This session of working conference of state key laboratories not only expresses and clarifies the administrative measures issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Finance, and further specifies the construction objective and requirements for state key laboratories, but also collects suggestions and comments from each state key laboratory, which will facilitate the standardization and administration of state key laboratories and promote the development of these key laboratories.