China Education Television:

As we all know, first-class universities are the main force of basic research in universities and the birthplace of major scientific and technological innovations. We would like to know, what measures will the MOE take to promote the integration of science and education and further develop scientific and technological innovation capacity to tackle bottlenecks in key and core technologies? Thank you. 

Huai Jinpeng:

Thank you for your question. It's a major issue of great concern to all. Mr. Wu will share his answers with us.

Wu Yan:

I'm glad to answer your question. First-class universities are the main force of basic research and the birthplace of major scientific and technological breakthroughs. Over the last period, the MOE has vigorously promoted the integration of science and education to enhance the ability of independent innovation and improve the quality of independent talent training. In the field of basic research, we have produced many original achievements of great significance, as seen in the quantum anomalous hall effect. At the same time, we have gathered strength to make breakthroughs in scientific research and built a number of advanced equipment for the country, including the cutter-suction dredger Tianjing and the high temperature gas cooled reactor, making significant contributions to tackling bottlenecks in key and core technologies.

In a bid to provide support for achieving breakthroughs in key and core technologies, we have mainly adhered to two orientations: goal-orientation and problem-orientation. We have encouraged universities to make scientific research breakthroughs in an organized manner. Over the last period, the MOE has concentrated its efforts on formulating the outline for building China into an educational powerhouse and made specialized arrangements in the work of scientific technological innovations for universities.

In the next step, we will provide support to realize scientific and technological independence and advancement at a higher-level, speed up well-organized scientific research at universities, promote integration of science and education, and gather strength to make breakthroughs in key and core technologies. As universities represent the birthplace of major scientific and technological breakthroughs, one of our major tasks is to effectively address the urgent needs of the country and tackle a batch of bottlenecks in key and core technologies. 

Since last year, we have made an intensive effort to conduct scientific research in an organized manner, aiming to gathering scientific strength from universities to remedy the insufficient ability to serve the major strategic needs of the country. We have also fostered a number of major research projects focusing on basic, strategic, and pioneering industries, and concentrated our efforts on making breakthroughs in scientific research. We will also deepen the integration of projects, platforms, and teams, regard major projects as the main driving force, accelerate the integration of platform resources, strengthen the construction of integrated platforms for key and core technology breakthroughs and engineering research centers under the MOE, and build multidisciplinary teams to generate great synergy. We will also upgrade the evaluation system, strengthen the guarantee of policy resources, and establish an evaluation mechanism that is compatible with the organized scientific research model, especially the contribution- and quality-orientated evaluation mechanism on landmark achievements. At the same time, we will ensure the allocation of educational and scientific resources, such as the talent planning and graduate enrollment programs, favors major scientific research tasks. 

To make breakthroughs in key and core technologies, we should not only make vigorous efforts but also create a great synergy, which means enhancing industrial application of such technologies and generating new momentums of high-quality development in various industries. We will actively reach out to industries and enterprises, put enterprises at the forefront of our scientific research, send good teachers and students where they can put their knowledge to real use, transform technology into products, turn products into industries, and turn the potential of scientific research and innovation in colleges and universities into real productive forces to promote the high-quality development of industries so as to create a new prospect featuring deep integration of industry, universities, and research institutes. We will carry out a new round of strategic cooperation agreements with provincial regions, conduct in-depth cooperation with relevant provinces and municipalities, actively respond to the needs of industry, enhance innovation capacity through organizational strength, better integrate into regional economic development, and become the power source of regional economic and social development.

Last but not the least, to provide high-quality talents to advance key and core technologies, we should strengthen the training of top-notch innovative talents to improve their real ability in solving complicated problems. As the old Chinese saying goes, "a sword is sharpened on a stone, and a man is tempered in bitterness." The cultivation of top-notch innovative talents should be realized through high-level innovative practices. We should abide by reality and bring teachers and students closer to the frontline of production. As I just mentioned, we should solve practical issues and produce concrete results. Hereby, I would like to share some good news with you all. This year, we have made a major breakthrough by conducting strategic cooperation with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). We have released the funds of the NSFC on an earlier stage, further enhanced support for outstanding doctoral students, and jointly launched a pilot program to fund outstanding undergraduate students. This is a brand-new exploration in the path and method of training top-notch innovative talents. We will further implement the national strategic action for cultivating top-notch talents in basic disciplines and the plan for building core elements for cultivating top-notch innovative talents. We will also work on the establishment of the national innovation zone for the integration of science and education, accelerate the layout in areas where strategic scarcity are seen and emerging cross-cutting areas, and comprehensively improve the ability and quality of independent training of top-notch innovative talents.

Thank you.