Yang Zhenbin and Ding Kuiling: Strengthening Independent Innovation in Science and Technology and Independent Cultivation of Talents
On April 7, General Secretary Xi Jinping replied to a letter from the faculty and students of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Xi’an Jiao Tong University, Southwest Jiao Tong University, and Beijing Jiao Tong University. He expressed earnest expectations for the development of these universities, emphasizing the need to "focus on major national strategic needs, strengthen independent technological innovation and the autonomous cultivation of talent, achieve more breakthroughs in promoting the deep integration of industry, academia, and research, and make new contributions to the building of a leading country in education, science and technology, and talent." The General Secretary’s important reply is grounded in the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation. It sets forth clear requirements for universities in the New Era to properly answer the fundamental educational question of "for whom, what, and how to cultivate" [1], and to support high-level technological self-reliance and strength through high-quality school governance. It points the way forward for accurately grasping the synergistic relationship between education, technology, and talent, and for promoting the benign interaction between independent technological innovation and the autonomous cultivation of talent.
"We must strengthen basic research with greater intensity and more concrete measures, enhance our country's capacity for original innovation, and further consolidate the foundation for building a global power in science and technology." "We must advance the development of education, technology, and talent as an integrated whole." On April 30, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized these points at a symposium on strengthening basic research.
At present, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating, and international competition is increasingly manifested as competition in education, technology, and talent. Facing the goals and tasks of economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period [2], universities must proactively integrate their own development into the overall national development framework. They must accurately understand the internal logic and practical requirements of "strengthening independent technological innovation and the autonomous cultivation of talent," and firmly grasp the objective laws of the internal consistency and mutual support between educational development, technological innovation, and talent cultivation. By closely integrating teaching, research, and talent recruitment with major national strategic needs, universities can continuously transform China's advantages in education, technology, and talent into strategic advantages for achieving high-quality development.
Anchoring Development Goals and Consolidating the Foundation of Self-Reliance
General Secretary Xi Jinping noted: "Only through innovation can we achieve strength and take the lead. We must unswervingly follow the path of independent innovation and keep the initiative of innovative development firmly in our own hands." Strengthening the "two autonomies"—independent technological innovation and the autonomous cultivation of talent—is key to seizing the initiative in development and dominance in competition. Currently, as changes unseen in a century accelerate, international competition for technology and talent is becoming increasingly fierce. For China to achieve high-level technological self-reliance and strength, it must ultimately rely on high-level innovative talent. We must place greater importance on the autonomous cultivation of talent and the nurturing of a scientific spirit, innovative capacity, and creative thinking.
Strengthening independent technological innovation focuses on enhancing the capacity for autonomous innovation. Practice has proven that key core technologies cannot be asked for, bought, or begged for [3]; blindly following others leads to a dead end. The more we face complex changes in the external environment, the more we must persist in the path of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics to form an innovation base that supports long-term development. By improving the new-type system for mobilizing resources nationwide [4], coordinating the construction of national strategic technological forces, and strengthening original and leading technological breakthroughs, we can accelerate the resolution of problems such as China's relatively weak original innovation capacity and the fact that some key core technologies are controlled by others [5]. This allows us to truly keep the lifeline of science and technology firmly in our own hands. At the same time, it must be recognized that strengthening independent technological innovation does not mean developing behind closed doors. Rather, it means persisting in independence within a framework of high-level opening up, enhancing innovation resilience through open cooperation, and cultivating strategic resolve amidst global technological competition.
Strengthening the autonomous cultivation of talent focuses on accelerating the construction of national strategic talent forces. Innovation-driven development is, in essence, talent-driven development. Without a large number of autonomously cultivated top-notch innovative talents, outstanding engineering talents, and highly skilled talents, it is impossible to form a continuous supply of innovation. Universities can only improve their talent supply capacity by centering on national strategic needs and technological trends, improving mechanisms for adjusting academic disciplines and talent cultivation models, and strengthening basic, emerging, and interdisciplinary subjects. Young talent is the most vital and creative group. More attention must be paid to forging their practical abilities, originality, and cross-disciplinary integration. They should be guided to integrate personal growth into national needs and academic pursuits into the mission of the times, growing their talents while serving the overall situation and tempering their skills while overcoming difficulties.
Strengthening independent technological innovation and the autonomous cultivation of talent is an inevitable requirement for seizing strategic initiative and enhancing core competitiveness. Facing the current global technological trends, when deploying major technological tasks for the frontier, we must simultaneously deploy the construction of talent echelons. While promoting industrial innovation in key areas, we must simultaneously advance high-quality talent cultivation. How to transform talent advantages into innovation advantages, innovation advantages into industrial advantages, and industrial advantages into development advantages is a defining question of the times that education, technology, and talent work in the New Era must answer. China possesses the advantages of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, a supersized market, a complete industrial system, and rich talent resources. These ensure we are fully equipped to form our own characteristics in independent technological innovation and autonomous talent cultivation. To transform existing advantages into actual victory and developmental efficacy, we must seize the strategic initiative—basing ourselves on the present to mend shortcomings and strengthen weak links, while looking to the long term to build systems and nurture ecosystems. This will continuously enhance the source-supply capacity of independent technological innovation and the long-term support capacity of autonomous talent cultivation.
Promoting Benign Interaction and Activating the Momentum of Integration
General Secretary Xi Jinping’s emphasis on "promoting the benign interaction between independent technological innovation and the autonomous cultivation of talent" points the way forward and provides the fundamental guidance for building a leading country in education, technology, and talent. Enhancing a systems perspective to accurately grasp the relationship between these "two autonomies" helps facilitate the integrated advancement of education, technology, and talent.
The "two autonomies" are intrinsically unified. Independent technological innovation expands the goals, content, and practical scenarios for the autonomous cultivation of talent, while the autonomous cultivation of talent provides continuous dynamic support for independent technological innovation. Without high-level independent innovation, talent cultivation risks becoming detached from reality, the frontier, and national needs, making it difficult to form a cultivation system geared toward the future. Without high-quality autonomous talent cultivation, technological innovation lacks a stable source of talent, sustained team support, and autonomous knowledge production capabilities.
Promoting the benign interaction of the "two autonomies" essentially means promoting the integrated development of education, technology, and talent, and the deep coupling of technological innovation, talent cultivation, and the construction of a modernized industrial system. Currently, the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation places new demands on the organization of innovation, the optimization of talent growth paths, and the level of institutional synergy. Isolated, fragmented, and siloed methods of technological innovation can no longer meet these needs. Further innovating organizational methods and promoting the benign interaction of the "two autonomies" will help China's technological innovation leap from point-based breakthroughs to systemic elevation. This places higher demands on deepening the integrated reform of the systems and mechanisms for education, technology, and talent. We must answer how to further smooth the connections between the innovation chain, talent chain, and industrial chain; how to improve the adaptability of discipline settings and talent models to technological change; and how to transform research advantages into educational advantages to enhance the overall effectiveness of education serving innovation and innovation feeding back into education.
In his reply, General Secretary Xi Jinping called for upholding the schooling tenet of "seeking practical learning and engaging in practical industry" [6]. This provides important guidance. "Seeking practical learning" focuses on respecting laws, tempering skills, and consolidating foundations, requiring that autonomous talent cultivation be based on real scholarship, real problems, and real abilities. "Engaging in practical industry" focuses on serving the country, meeting needs, and promoting transformation, requiring that both technological innovation and university governance reflect a practice-oriented and contribution-oriented approach. For high-level research universities, "practical learning" and "practical industry" form an organic whole, unified in the practice of serving major national strategic needs. Only by more closely connecting classrooms, laboratories, engineering sites, and industrial frontlines can we truly form a benign cycle where innovation promotes cultivation and cultivation strengthens innovation.
The General Secretary also called for "achieving more breakthroughs in promoting the deep integration of industry, academia, and research." Universities must continue to focus on the integration of technological and industrial innovation, centering on collaborative research, cultivation, and transformation in key areas to build innovation consortia led by leading enterprises and supported by universities and research institutes. We must strengthen the alignment of planning, policy synergy, resource coordination, and evaluation linkage to form a work pattern that advances education, technology, and talent in unison. We should improve the mechanism for adjusting discipline settings driven by technological development and national strategic needs, turning more research projects and innovation platforms into educational platforms. By building systems for joint school-enterprise cultivation and the integration of industry and education, we can ensure that problems from the innovation front enter the classroom and that talent cultivation is plugged into scientific research.
Upholding Party Leadership and Gathering Strength for National Rejuvenation
The key to doing China’s affairs well lies in the Party. Strengthening the Party's leadership over universities and improving Party building in universities is the fundamental guarantee for running universities of socialism with Chinese characteristics well. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must fully recognize the strategic leading position and fundamental supporting role of science and technology, anchor the strategic goal of becoming a technological power by 2035, strengthen top-level design and overall planning, and accelerate the realization of high-level technological self-reliance and strength." Looking ahead, whether in seizing the commanding heights of technological development, fostering new quality productive forces, or shaping new drivers of development, we cannot succeed without the benign interaction of the "two autonomies." Firmly upholding the comprehensive leadership of the Party provides the fundamental guarantee for this. To this end, we must organically combine ideological and political education with value-shaping, capability cultivation, and knowledge transfer, guiding young people to establish the ambition to serve the country.
By adhering to the socialist direction of schooling and cultivating talent for the Party and the country, we can unite teachers, researchers, and students under the Party's banner. Integrating the promotion of the "Westward Migration Spirit" [7] with the spirit of scientists and educators will better guide them to keep the motherland in their hearts and serve the people, ensuring that innovation and talent cultivation always proceed in the right direction. We must give full play to the role of Party committees in "setting the direction, managing the big picture, making decisions, and ensuring implementation," focusing on optimizing the ecosystem and activating vitality. Respecting the laws of teaching, research, and talent growth means further reducing the burden on researchers, allowing them to focus on scholarship and research with peace of mind.
Strengthening independent technological innovation and autonomous talent cultivation requires that we persist over the long term. Universities must more consciously link their governance with national strategic needs, their talent cultivation with industrial upgrades, and their development with social progress. In recent years, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has transformed major projects and engineering works into educational platforms, letting students grow their talents by solving "real problems." We have integrated engineering education, industrial practice, and frontier research to enhance students' comprehensive literacy in multi-disciplinary and multi-scenario practices.
Promoting the benign interaction of the "two autonomies" also requires universities to participate in the global innovation network at a higher level while remaining self-reliant. we must organically unify opening up and exchange with independence, persisting in "opening up and cooperation centered on our own needs" [8]. We should actively carry out international academic exchanges and joint research, becoming adept at learning and drawing lessons from open cooperation to better gather world-class educational resources and innovation elements, strengthening independent technological innovation and autonomous talent cultivation with a more composed and determined posture.
(The authors are respectively the Secretary of the Party Committee and the President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
Source: People's Daily (May 7, 2024 [9])