Wu Chen: Three Dimensions of Promoting the High-Quality Development of Scientific Research in Universities
Investment in science and technology continues to increase: in 2024, total social R&D investment exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 48% over 2020; the total number of R&D personnel ranks first in the world; and the number of high-level international journal papers and international patent applications has ranked first in the world for five consecutive years. At a recent series of themed press conferences on "High-Quality Completion of the 14th Five-Year Plan," the achievements of China's scientific and technological innovation development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period were inspiring. Behind these eye-catching figures, what should our scientific research pursue more earnestly? The author believes that in the new stage of achieving high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and comprehensively building a world power in higher education, we must take the pursuit of excellence in research quality as our central task, regard "management of the world for practical use" [1] as the fundamental mission of scientific research, and take the leading of international scientific research as our direction of endeavor. Only in this way can China's scientific research undertaking obtain a continuous stream of sustainable development momentum, and lay a solid foundation for the construction of a leading power in education, science and technology, and talent.
Taking the Pursuit of Excellence in Research Quality as the Central Task
Since the Reform and Opening-up, China's higher education and scientific research undertakings have achieved rapid development. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, China has further accelerated the pace of building a world power in higher education. Among the many tasks of building a power in higher education, scientific research occupies an important position. Judging from the historical laws of the development of world higher education powers, only those countries that can continuously produce world-class academic research results and become world centers for scientific research can be called world powers in higher education. In recent years, the scale of scientific research in China's higher education has expanded rapidly, and its level has also been significantly improved. A major manifestation of this is the leapfrog improvement in both the quantity and quality of international publications of academic papers, which now rank among the top in the world in terms of volume.
However, from the perspective of the basic laws of scientific research, the quantity of papers does not equal quality, nor can it be simply equated with core competitiveness and influence. Although China's scientific research has made great achievements, there is still a large gap in overall quality compared with countries with developed higher education. Despite our leading position in paper publication, we still need to catch up in basic, curiosity-driven research. On average, the citation counts of Chinese papers are still lower than those from the United States, the United Kingdom, or the European Union, and the number of publications in the two top journals, Nature and Science, is still less than that of traditional academic powers. Furthermore, judging from the number of internationally recognized major science prizes won, such as the Nobel Prize and the Fields Medal, there is still a significant gap between China and developed countries. To this end, in the new stage of higher education development, Chinese universities can only further consolidate the foundation of scientific research for building a world power in higher education if they continue to produce academic research results with world influence and competitiveness.
Moving forward, we need to take the pursuit of excellence in research quality as our central task, clearing obstacles in terms of philosophy of school operation, resource investment, and evaluation systems. In the philosophy of school operation, we must break the inertia of "performance-first" thinking, create a more relaxed and free academic atmosphere for researchers, and come up with practical measures to provide sufficient institutional and material guarantees for "honing a sword over ten years" [2] and "sitting on a cold bench for ten years" [3]. In particular, we must cultivate and protect the "idle curiosity" of researchers, allowing them to propose interesting and cutting-edge scientific questions and conduct long-term, continuous exploration, avoiding the blind pursuit of fast and voluminous results under the pressure of research KPIs. Regarding the resource investment model, we must abandon short-termist behavior focused on immediate input-output ratios and focus more on long-term funding for researchers, especially for basic, frontier, and curiosity-driven research. Because scientific research itself is characterized by uncertainty and significant risk, we need to further downplay short-cycle evaluations and frequent process evaluations for basic theoretical research, allowing researchers to establish a "long-termist" research attitude. Regarding the reform of the academic evaluation system, the core lies in abandoning the inherent orientation of "judging success or failure by the number of papers published and the rank of journals." On the one hand, we must stimulate the endogenous motivation of researchers to brave the frontiers of science and technology and explore "no man's lands" [4] through systematic institutional design; on the other hand, we should further explore a new value-centered academic evaluation model, making the innovative contribution and practical significance of research the key measurement standards. For example, the key achievement of Shimon Sakaguchi, winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which changed the course of immunology research, was published in 1995 in the Journal of Immunology, a journal currently ranked in the third tier by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This case exactly illustrates that the evaluation of academic value should not be limited to journal rankings, but must focus on the breakthrough significance of the research itself.
Taking "Management of the World for Practical Use" as the Fundamental Mission of Scientific Research
The term jīngshì zhìyòng (经世致用) [1] was proposed by thinkers such as Wang Fuzhi during the transition between the Ming and Qing dynasties. They believed that studying and citing the writings and deeds of the ancients should prioritize governing affairs and saving the world, opposing the impractical and empty learning of the "pseudo-Neo-Confucians" of that time. The publication of academic papers is only one form of expression of scientific research; the fundamental purpose and ultimate value of scientific research lie in helping humanity understand and transform the world, contributing to the progress and development of human civilization, with "management of the world for practical use" as its fundamental mission.
In today's world, competition between nations is becoming increasingly fierce. China's researchers must take the prosperity and progress of the country and the nation as their mission, struggling continuously through their own scientific research activities to enhance the country's comprehensive competitiveness. While the publication of academic papers can strengthen communication among academic peers and promote the progress and prosperity of the academic system, it is not the endpoint of scientific research activities, let alone its fundamental mission. Especially in an era where science and technology are the primary productive forces, importance must be substantively placed on improving the country's technological innovation capabilities and comprehensive national strength. Next, we need to further strengthen the historical transition from international paper publication to "management of the world for practical use," and accordingly produce systematic designs in terms of scientific research models, resource investment, and evaluation systems.
First, we must further construct a practice-oriented scientific research model, taking major national needs and the requirements of economic and social development as the logical starting point for research. We should build a "trinity" model of "basic theoretical research – technological achievement development – applied technology transformation." We must both "break through the sky" [5] in basic theoretical research to achieve innovation in academic theory, and "take root downward" in applied technology transformation to solve practical problems.
Second, in terms of resource investment, research management departments and universities should further direct precious research resources toward core and key fields that restrict national economic and social development. By establishing major research platforms and undertaking major research projects, they should solve major practical problems.
Finally, regarding academic evaluation, we must abandon evaluation systems that use the number of papers published or journal rankings as standards. We should further use what theoretical or practical problems the research has solved and what substantive contributions it has made to promoting national economic and social development as the basic basis for measuring the value of researchers and their activities.
It must be clarified that the value orientation of research for "management of the world for practical use" is not contradictory to "free exploration"; the two possess internal logical consistency and self-consistency. The former means that scientific research should aim to fundamentally solve practical and theoretical problems, while the latter emphasizes respecting the subjective initiative and creativity of researchers, also aiming to fully stimulate their innovative capacity to produce better research results.
Taking the Leading of International Scientific Research as the Direction of Endeavor
From the perspective of developmental laws, world higher education centers and scientific research centers often show a high degree of consistency. To become a world center for scientific research, a basic prerequisite is the ability to lead world scientific research. At a time when a new round of technological revolution, represented by artificial intelligence, is in the ascendant, China's scientific research must strive to realize the lofty ideal of leading the international community through methods such as "changing lanes to overtake" (换道超车) [6]. Specifically, efforts and explorations need to be made in the following aspects.
First, keep a close watch on the frontiers of world scientific research and produce academic research results with global leadership. Currently, China has to a certain extent completed the accumulation of total scientific research volume. Next, we need to keep a close eye on the frontiers of world research and actively plan and explore in fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum physics, controllable nuclear fusion, and hydrogen energy development and utilization, so as to continuously gain a leading position in world scientific research.
Second, actively carry out a transformation of scientific research paradigms to lay the foundation for leadership. Currently, research paradigms are undergoing drastic changes, mainly reflected in three aspects: solving systemic and complex problems has become the main driving force for paradigm change in the New Era; simulation and data science may become effective breakthroughs; and the innovation of organizational forms for research activities has become the foundation. The 2024 Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry were awarded to scientists related to Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is a clear illustration of this drastic change. Therefore, China's scientific research must seize this strategic opportunity and achieve strategic leadership through paradigm transformation.
Finally, China's scientific research workers must also have the bold courage and ability to be the first, actively opening up new fields of research and braving "no man's lands" to achieve "lane-changing overtaking." In fact, looking at the list of winners of top international natural science awards over the years and examining the winners and their achievements, we can find that being at the frontier, pioneering, and leading are their basic value orientations—and this is also the direction in which China's scientific research undertaking continues to seek and explore.