Research丨Classification characteristics and overall distribution of major scientific and technological innovation platforms in my country

As an important tool for promoting the construction of national scientific and technological innovation capabilities, scientific and technological innovation platforms play an important role in promoting scientific innovation in my country and supporting social and economic development. They have become an important force in improving my country's overall national competitiveness. However, at present, whether from the national strategic level or the academic research level, there is still a lack of comparative analysis and comprehensive investigation of the overall situation of my country's major scientific and technological innovation platforms. For this reason, this study focuses on five major scientific and technological innovation platforms, including national major scientific and technological infrastructure, national key laboratories, national engineering technology research centers, national engineering laboratories, and national engineering research centers, and examines the classification characteristics and overall distribution of the above-mentioned scientific and technological innovation platforms in my country from a more macro perspective.

Entering the 21st century, while China's economy is accelerating its integration into the world, it is also facing a new round of scientific and technological competition worldwide. In order to actively respond to global economic integration and increasingly fierce scientific and technological competition, my country issued the "Outline of the National Medium- and Long-Term Science and Technology Development Plan (2006-2020)" in 2006, proposing to "substantially increase investment in science and technology and strengthen the construction of basic scientific and technological conditions and platforms." The "13th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of National Science and Technology Innovation Bases and Conditions Guarantee Capabilities" issued in 2017 pointed out that science and technology innovation bases, major national scientific and technological infrastructure, and the construction of science and technology basic conditions guarantee capabilities are important carriers for enhancing national innovation capabilities. It can be seen that my country's series of science and technology innovation platforms (hereinafter referred to as science and technology platforms) as an important means to promote the construction of national science and technology innovation capabilities have become an important force in improving the country's comprehensive competitiveness.

At present, the competition in the field of science and technology is becoming increasingly fierce among countries in the world. my country has also attached more and more importance to improving the national science and technology innovation system and enhancing the national science and technology innovation capabilities. This has put forward higher requirements for the science and technology platforms that support and serve the country's major science and technology development strategies. However, due to the top-level design, overall coordination, and classified funding methods that are not perfect, the existing various science and technology innovation bases have problems such as duplication, dispersion, closure, and inefficiency. There are also prominent problems such as multiple application projects and fragmented resource allocation, which cannot fully meet the requirements of innovation-driven development in the new era. To this end, the country is promoting the optimization and integration of national science and technology innovation bases, and further exploring and improving the construction of the national science and technology innovation platform system.

By the end of 2016, my country had 58 major national science and technology infrastructures, 254 national key laboratories, 360 national engineering technology research centers, 217 national engineering laboratories, and 131 national engineering research centers. These science and technology platforms are distributed in different regions and industries, managed by different departments, and have different supporting units. Existing studies in my country have conducted separate or comparative analyses of multiple national science and technology platforms, including major national science and technology infrastructures, national key laboratories, national engineering technology research centers, national engineering laboratories, and national engineering research centers. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive analysis and investigation of the above-mentioned science and technology platforms, both from the national strategic level and the academic research level. Therefore, this study focuses on the classification characteristics and overall distribution of my country's science and technology platforms from a more macro perspective.

1 Data Sources and Analysis Methods

1.1 Data Source

Data on the platform names and supporting units of multiple national science and technology platforms, such as national major scientific and technological infrastructure, national key laboratories, national engineering technology research centers, national engineering laboratories, and national engineering research centers, were collected from the official websites of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as relevant public literature information. The relevant information of 1,019 science and technology platforms was queried one by one through online search engines (according to the evaluation results of national key laboratories in 2018, the number of national key laboratories was adjusted to 253), and a total of 8,152 pieces of data such as construction year, discipline or technical field, location, competent department, and unit nature were collected.

1.2 Analysis methods

The purpose of this study is to place the above five types of technology platforms on one dimension for consideration. The difficulty lies in the lack of evaluation indicator data and the difficulty in obtaining them. This is one of the reasons why such studies are rarely reported. Therefore, this study attempts to examine the comprehensive situation of my country's major technology platforms through limited evaluation indicators. First, we selected four aspects, namely, total investment scale, funding support, open cooperation mechanism, and supporting and leading role in innovation, as evaluation indicators, and assigned weight ratios to each indicator according to the weighting principle that the weight of "objective indicators" is higher than that of "subjective indicators". Then, based on the experience of many experts, we scored each indicator of the five types of technology platforms within a scoring range of 1 to 10, and finally calculated the weight scores of various types of technology platforms. The weight score of a technology platform can reflect the value or influence of the technology platform on the technological innovation of the industry to a certain extent, and the sum of the weight scores of a region can reflect the overall strength and influence of the technology platform in the region to a certain extent. The calculation method is as follows:

Formula (1) Science and technology platform weight score = total investment scale score × 0.4 + funding support strength score × 0.3 + open cooperation mechanism score × 0.2 + innovation support role score × 0.1

The basis for the index scoring mainly includes: in terms of total investment scale, the higher the investment scale, the higher the index score. The total investment scale of the projects of the National Engineering Technology Research Center, the National Engineering Research Center and the National Engineering Laboratory is in the order of hundreds of millions of yuan. The total investment scale of the National Key Laboratory is slightly higher than that of the above platforms as a whole. The total investment scale of the National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure is in the order of tens of billions of yuan; in terms of funding support, the more stable the funding source, the higher the index score. The National Key Laboratory has stable special funding support from the national finance. The management methods of the National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure clearly state the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China for scientific research based on the facilities. The National Engineering Technology Research Center, the National Engineering Research Center and the National Engineering Laboratory are given one-time support by the national finance according to a certain proportion of the total investment scale. In terms of open cooperation mechanism, the special funds of the National Key Laboratory include open operating expenses for supporting the laboratory's open topics and organizing academic exchanges and cooperation. The management methods of the National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure clearly state the working mechanism of opening to the society and sharing and sharing. The higher the degree of open cooperation, the higher the index score. Since the three science and technology platforms of National Engineering Technology Research Center, National Engineering Laboratory and National Engineering Research Center are relatively consistent in terms of functional positioning, mission objectives, overall investment scale, open cooperation mechanism, etc., they are given the same score in this study. Based on the above basis and combined with the expert experience score, the evaluation index scores of each science and technology platform are finally obtained (Table 1).

This study used Excel and R language programs for data analysis and drawing. This study does not involve data from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Since there is no such technology platform in Tibet, no statistical analysis was performed.

2 Classification characteristics of my country’s major science and technology platforms

According to the management methods and supporting policies of the corresponding science and technology platforms issued by the relevant management departments, we have compared and classified the main science and technology platforms in my country from different dimensions and perspectives, so as to more clearly reflect the characteristics of different science and technology platforms. From the perspective of platform type, major national science and technology infrastructures belong to national public facilities, while the rest belong to national science and technology innovation bases. Among them, national key laboratories belong to science and engineering research science and technology innovation bases, while national engineering research centers, national engineering laboratories, and national engineering technology research centers belong to technology innovation and achievement transformation science and technology innovation bases.

From the perspective of macro-management departments, the National Development and Reform Commission takes the lead in the construction and management of major national scientific and technological infrastructure, and is responsible for the planning, construction, operation and decommissioning of the facilities together with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and other departments, as well as the scientific research work carried out based on the facilities. The National Development and Reform Commission is the management department of the National Engineering Research Center and the National Engineering Laboratory, which is responsible for formulating and issuing relevant policy documents for the engineering center, and guiding and organizing the review and evaluation of the engineering center. The National Key Laboratories and the National Engineering Technology Research Center are managed by the Ministry of Science and Technology, which is responsible for formulating relevant policies and plans, guiding construction and operation, and organizing evaluation and inspection.

From the perspective of funding sources and uses, the national key laboratories are provided with conditions during the construction period by the competent departments and supporting units, and are equipped with special funds from the central government to support their operation in a long-term and stable manner. The scope of funding expenditure projects is relatively large, and the use of funds is relatively flexible. Major national scientific and technological infrastructure is mainly invested and constructed by the state, and local governments, competent units, and supporting units provide corresponding supporting funding support. The Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, competent units and other departments support the scientific research work carried out by the supporting facilities. The construction funds of national engineering research centers, national engineering laboratories, and national engineering technology research centers are funded or subsidized by the state in a certain proportion.

From the perspective of scientific research goals and project scale, national major scientific and technological infrastructure and national key laboratories focus on basic research and applied basic research. In addition, national major scientific and technological infrastructure usually has a huge construction scale, a large number of participants, huge investment, and a high social influence. It mainly conducts comprehensive scientific research and focuses more on completing major scientific goals and meeting national strategic needs; national key laboratories usually involve relatively single disciplines, relatively few participants, and relatively small capital investment scales, and focus more on breakthroughs and innovations in disciplinary theories and technological frontiers. National Engineering Research Centers, National Engineering Laboratories, and National Engineering Technology Research Centers focus on applied research and development research. Their scientific research goals are closer to market demand, and the project scale is related to the comprehensive strength of the supporting units and the corresponding overall investment.

3 Overall distribution of major scientific and technological platforms in my country

3.1 Regional distribution of the overall weight of my country’s major technology platforms

The overall weight score of my country's major science and technology platforms (the sum of the weight scores of five types of science and technology platforms) is 3626, and the weight of each region ranges from 0.1% to 28.5% (Figure 1). Taking the top 10% and top 50% nodes as the two dividing points, different regions can be divided into three echelons. The first echelon includes Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu (purple column in Figure 1), with weight scores of 1035, 382 and 244 respectively, accounting for 28.5%, 10.5% and 6.7% respectively. The total weight score of the three is 1661, accounting for 45.8% of the total. The second echelon (blue column in Figure 1) includes Guangdong, Hubei, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Hunan, Anhui, Jilin and Heilongjiang, with a total weight score between 67 and 191, and a total weight score of 1516, accounting for 41.8% of the total. The third echelon (yellow column in Figure 1) includes Gansu, Chongqing, Henan, Fujian, Yunnan, Hebei, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Hainan, and Qinghai, with a total weight of 450, accounting for 12.4% of the total.

Combined with the National Bureau of Statistics' division of my country's east, west, central and northeastern regions, we can see that among the 10 provinces in the east, Fujian, Hebei and Hainan are in the third echelon, and the remaining provinces are in the second echelon or above; for the six provinces in the central region, Hubei, Hunan and Anhui are in the second echelon, while Henan, Jiangxi and Shanxi are in the third echelon; for the 12 provinces in the west, Sichuan and Shaanxi are in the second echelon, and the rest are in the third echelon; Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang in the northeastern region are all in the second echelon.

In combination with the national regional development strategy, among the 11 regions covered by the Yangtze River Economic Belt, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, Shanghai and Jiangsu are in the first echelon, Zhejiang, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan and Sichuan are in the second echelon, and the rest of the regions are in the third echelon; in the Yangtze River Delta region in the downstream of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui have a total weight score of 814, accounting for 22.5% of the total, and are all in the second echelon and above, and the distribution of science and technology platforms is relatively balanced; Guangdong in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has a science and technology platform weight score of 191, accounting for 5.3% of the total, ranking first in the second echelon; the science and technology platform weight of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei is 1183 in total, accounting for 32.6% of the total, but its distribution is less balanced, with Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei in the first, second and third echelons respectively.

3.2 Weight distribution of different types of technology platforms in different regions

Figure 2 shows the proportion of different types of technology platforms in the weight of each region's technology platform, and marks the data of the technology platform category with the highest proportion in each region. For the first echelon, the weight of national key laboratories in the technology platforms of Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu is the highest, ranging from 42.7% to 47.0%. For the 12 regions in the second echelon, the weight of national major scientific and technological infrastructure in the technology platforms of Sichuan and Anhui is the highest; the weight of national engineering technology research centers in the technology platforms of Shandong and Hunan is the highest; the weight of national key laboratories in the technology platforms of the remaining 9 regions in the second echelon is the highest. For the 15 regions in the third echelon, the weight of national key laboratories in the technology platforms of Gansu, Chongqing, Fujian and Shanxi is the highest; the weight of national engineering laboratories in the technology platforms of Yunnan Province is the highest; the weight of national engineering technology research centers in the technology platforms of 10 regions of Henan, Hebei, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Hainan and Qinghai is the highest, among which Ningxia, Hainan and Qinghai only have national engineering technology research centers, so their proportion is 100%.

3.3 Distribution of the competent departments and supporting units of my country’s major science and technology platforms

From the distribution of the comprehensive weights of my country's major science and technology platforms among different competent departments (Figure 3), 70.0% are concentrated in central management departments and 30.0% are distributed in local management departments. Among them, the national key laboratories in the science and technology platforms under the central management departments have the highest weight, accounting for 53.4%, while the national engineering technology research centers in the science and technology platforms under the local management departments have the highest weight, accounting for 58.5%.

From the distribution of the comprehensive weights of my country's major science and technology platforms among different types of supporting units (Figure 4), 75.5% are concentrated in universities and research institutes, and 24.5% are distributed in enterprises. Among them, among the science and technology platforms undertaken by universities and research institutes, the national key laboratories have the highest weight, accounting for 51.7%, followed by national major scientific and technological infrastructure with 18.6%; the science and technology platforms undertaken by enterprises only include national engineering technology research centers, national engineering laboratories and national engineering research centers, with weights accounting for 51.1%, 26.2% and 22.7% respectively.

The results of Figures 3 and 4 show that the distribution of the comprehensive weights of my country's major science and technology platforms among different competent departments is very similar to the distribution among different types of supporting units. We further analyzed the relationship between the types of supporting units of science and technology platforms and the competent departments and found that among the weights of science and technology platforms under the jurisdiction of central management departments, 89.7% are distributed in universities and research institutes; while among the weights of science and technology platforms under the jurisdiction of local management departments, 57.6% are distributed in enterprises (Figure 5).

4 Summary and Outlook

This study observes and analyzes my country's five important scientific and technological platforms on the same dimension, and the specific conclusions can be summarized as follows.

First, the regional distribution of major science and technology platforms in my country has a clear gradient differentiation. From the perspective of regional distribution, the weight of science and technology platforms in the first echelon of Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu accounts for 45.8% of the total, of which Beijing accounts for 28.5% of the total. From the perspective of the national major regional development strategy, among the three regions of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao, the total amount of science and technology platforms in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is the highest, but the three regions of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei are located in three different echelons, with weak balance, which is not conducive to the coordinated development of regional innovation; the Yangtze River Delta region is not as good as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in terms of total volume, but the total weight of science and technology platforms in its three provinces and one city are all in the second echelon and above, and the good balance gives it a huge advantage in supporting regional innovation and coordinated development by relying on science and technology platforms. Guangdong, located in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, ranks fourth in the total weight of science and technology platforms, and the distribution of different types of science and technology platforms is relatively even. On the one hand, it benefits from the scientific and technological talents and innovation vitality brought about by the rapid economic development, and on the other hand, it benefits from the large investment of Guangdong Province in major national science and technology infrastructure in the past decade. Taking into account the trend of my country's economic center moving southward in recent years, and the strategic positioning of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as an international science and technology innovation center given by the state, Guangdong Province has great space and potential in building high-level universities and research institutes, and it is bound to usher in a period of rapid development in the construction of scientific and technological platforms.

Second, the regional distribution characteristics of my country's science and technology platforms show a strong correlation with the distribution characteristics of different types of competent units and supporting units. Existing studies have shown that nearly half of the national key laboratories are supported by universities directly under the Ministry of Education. Therefore, provinces with more universities directly under the Ministry of Education, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hubei and Shaanxi, have shown advantages in the total weight of science and technology platforms. In addition, it is worth noting that in the science and technology platforms of Sichuan and Anhui provinces, the weight of national major scientific and technological infrastructure accounts for the highest proportion, accounting for about 40% of the total, showing the advantages of the two provinces in carrying out basic frontier scientific research based on large-scale scientific research facilities; the platform weight of Shandong Province is concentrated in technology innovation and achievement transformation technology platforms, and the combined weight of the National Engineering Technology Research Center and the National Engineering Laboratory accounts for 76.5%, which indirectly reflects the advantages and characteristics of Shandong Province's science and technology platforms in scientific and technological innovation and achievement transformation.

Third, the total weight of science and technology platforms managed by central departments is about 2.3 times that of local management departments, and nearly 90% of the weight of science and technology platforms is concentrated in public departments such as universities and research institutes. Universities and research institutes are more suitable for scientific research in basic frontier fields with relatively long research periods, large investments and high risks, and promote the overall economic development of society through the spillover effect of scientific and technological achievements. The science and technology platforms managed by local governments focus on technological innovation and achievement transformation, and are more likely to be built and operated by enterprises, so that they can more flexibly and efficiently meet the ever-changing market needs and promote the development of science and technology in related industries.

At present, social and economic development increasingly relies on scientific and technological innovation, and the country also attaches more and more importance to scientific and technological innovation. At the beginning of 2019, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at a special seminar for provincial and ministerial leaders that it is necessary to reorganize the national key laboratory system, build major innovation bases and innovation platforms, and improve the collaborative innovation mechanism between industry, academia and research. This fully reflects the important position of science and technology platforms in the construction of the national innovation system. It can be foreseen that science and technology platforms, as an important force for the country to cultivate scientific and technological innovation talents, enhance my country's independent innovation capabilities, and support social and economic development, will usher in new development opportunities in the third decade of the 21st century. How to form a more open, orderly, focused, distinctive and efficient science and technology innovation platform system in the future will become one of the important propositions for promoting my country's innovation-driven development.

References: Omitted

Author: Di Yuebao, Zhao Lixin, China Association for Science and Technology Innovation Strategy Institute

This article is reprinted from the WeChat public account Scientists and was originally published in Today's Science and Technology, Issue 3, 2020