China universities waste millions, fail to make real use of research, audit finds in indictment of tech-sufficiency drive
- A review by the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region found that an alarming number of colleges are underproducing, and a professor says it’s because China’s higher-level research system is flawed
- Worrisome findings seen ‘reflecting a nationwide trend’ at a time when attaining hi-tech self-sufficiency has never been more important for China
Universities in a southern Chinese region are not doing enough to turn academic research into market applications while maintaining large piles of idle funds, and the findings could raise questions about the nation’s ambitious tech self-sufficiency drive.
According to a new audit report by the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region for 2022, nine universities in the region had extremely low conversion rates in bringing inventions to the market – below 1 per cent – from 2020 to 2022. Among them, one university saw no successful industrial applications out of 862 implemented research projects funded with a total of 131 million yuan (US$18.2 million).
The findings spotlight a long-standing weak link in China’s push to strengthen basic research, which it views as crucial to becoming a tech superpower by the middle of the century, and to breaking free US tech-containment measures.
“Essentially, this reflects a nationwide issue,” said Liu Ruiming, a professor with the National Development and Strategic Research Institute at Renmin University.
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The 15,000-word audit report briefly appeared two weeks ago on the website of the Audit Office of Guangxi before being removed, but the key takeaways have circulated online. The audit results appeared to reflect only the nine cited universities, and it was unclear if others would be reviewed.
The main assessment indicators and incentive measures for Chinese university professors are often based on fundamental theoretical research, but such endeavours are normally challenging to convert into practical applications, he said.
“Researchers appear to be conducting basic theoretical research, but often they produced a large quantity of useless research output that is primarily focused on paper-centric assessments,” he said. “These outputs are neither purely beneficial for advancing fundamental theories nor directly convertible into practical applications. Therefore, this represents a state of idle and less-effective research.”
Universities should reform the evaluation system for research talent that is excessively based on academic papers, according to 25 scientists and entrepreneurs who jointly published an article in March in China Science Daily.
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An over-reliance on papers and an ignorance of practical outcomes strike at the heart of China’s technological aspirations, Liu said, adding that incentive mechanisms that adhere to such standards are at risk of encouraging subpar research.
Many universities and research institutions in China prioritise the quantity of research projects in their annual work assessments, the provincial Communist Party in Zhejiang said on Tuesday in a WeChat post about the use of scientific research funds and converting tech research into practical applications.
Additionally, in the absence of systematic organisation, researchers tend to work individually and produce fragmented short-term research results, the statement says, adding that this makes it more difficult to achieve breakthroughs in critical areas.
Beijing has long called for reinforcing basic research to achieve high-level self-reliance in science and technology, and for China to become a leading global technological force.
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China’s total research and development expenditures rank second in the world, tripling that of 2012, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
China also ramped up investments in turning scientific and technological achievements into profit-oriented projects, with a targeted state fund reaching 62.4 billion yuan (US$8.7 billion) by the end of 2022.
However, a total of 66.82 million yuan (US$9.3 million) has gone unused over an extended period at four universities, according to Guangxi’s audit report. Additionally, in two universities, 22 research projects were budgeted for research-project funds that were not aligned with actual needs. The budget and actual expenditure discrepancy reached as high as 69.24 per cent, resulting in 9.14 million yuan (US$1.3 million) worth of idle funds.
The conversion of scientific and technological achievements into practical applications could be a crucial driving force for China during an economic downturn, Professor Liu said.
Policy restrictions [create] a significant constraint in China’s current situation
“It is deemed crucial because it represents a new lever for reform,” Liu said.
Yet, China now lacks a nationwide and global unified market for trading scientific and technological achievements, Liu argued – one in which enterprises can access these achievements and researchers understand the needs of businesses.
“There are policy restrictions that need to be overcome, such as limitations on cross-domain trading, which hinders the construction of a unified national market,” Liu contended. “This is a significant constraint in China’s current situation.”
Boosting the conversion rate of research outcomes does not mean taking it as the sole orientation of China’s tech-development drive, according to the WeChat post by Zhejiang authorities. Instead of heading to another extreme, Chinese research bodies should build up a more diverse and reasonable research-evaluation system, it said.
