post Friday January 27, 2012
China has generated a medium and long-term talent development plan spanning the years from 2010-2020 in which they outline specific focus areas.
China has indicated that they are striving to have 3.8 million researchers by the year 2020, with 40,000 global ‘thought leaders’ in their respective areas of expertise. Although China today has more researchers total than Europe and US together, the ratio of 1.5 researchers per 1000 citizens remains relatively lower than these other nations. For example, the Netherlands’ ratio of researchers is 5 out of 1000 citizens, while Germany’s ratio is 7 out of 1000, and Finland and the US with even more at 14 researchers out of every 1000 citizens.
In 2008, to incentivize those Chinese students who have gone abroad for their studies to return home shortly afterward, China set up a ‘Thousand Talent Program’ to facilitate (including financially) the homecoming of their heroes.
In its Medium-term Plan for scientific and technological development, China’s ambition is to have 2.5% of the gross national product allocated to R&D operations, an increase of 1% of the current allocation. The latter number is 75% funded by private initiatives, i.e. this means that the Chinese government cannot carry this ambition on its own and therefore has created various facilities to attract more ‘high end’ type of operations – like R&D – to China.
Recent results China has experienced from increasing yearly R&D expenditures (which in 2011 totaled 70 billion Euros spent on science and innovations) include:
- Beido 2: a new navigation system;
- Xiaoyan, 4, 5, 6, 51 and 81: new types of grain;
Although most of the top 10 breakthroughs in 2011 were non-Chinese, it is expected that the enormous investment and drive by China to increase R&D investments and other innovations on the global map will start paying off.
[Source: all of the above ‘development’ plans published by Chinese government]
Image by seaskylab
