Profile of 973 Program

The Origin and Strategic Significance

The National Basic Research Program (also called 973 Program) is China's on-going national keystone basic research program, which was approved by the Chinese government in June 1997 and is organized and implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The 973 Program is created on the basis of existing research activities and deployments made by the National Nature Science Foundation and major dedicated pre-studies, to organize and implement basic research to meet the nation's major strategic needs. The Program has gathered together strong expertise to launch innovation studies of major scientific issues relating to sustainable development such as agriculture, energy, information, resources and environment, population and health and materials in line with the national goals and tasks for the economic, social and S&T development. Stipulation and implementation of the 973 Program is an important decision of our country to carry out the two development strategies of " Rejuvenating the country through science and technology " and " sustainable development", as well as to further reinforce basic research and science and technology work. It is an important measure of our country to achieve the great objectives of China's economic, scientific & technology, and social development by 2010-2050 , to upgrade the sustainable S & T innovative capabilities and to meet the challenges of the new century. Through the organization and implementation of the 973 Program, we will create an excellent scientific research environment, intensively support a group of outstanding scientific research teams, conduct important innovation research, and scale the peak of the world's science, thus promoting the magnificent development of the China's basic research and the hi-tech industries. This is of much significance for fulfilling the national strategic objectives.

The Objectives and Tasks

The strategic objectives of the 973 Program are to strengthen the original innovations and to address the important scientific issues concerning the national economic and social development at a deeper level and in a wider scope, so as to improve China's capabilities of independent innovations and to provide scientific support for the future development of the country.

This program has four main tasks. The first is to conduct multidisciplinary comprehensive research and provide theoretic and scientific foundations for the settlement of the important scientific issues regarding the development of the national economy and society as well as the science itself in the fields of agriculture, energy, information, resource and environment, population and health, materials, and etc. The second is to deploy relevant, important and explorative forefront basic researches. The third is to nurture a number of outstanding personnel with high scientific qualification and creative capability, whom could be to meet the requirements of development in the 21st century. The fourth is to built a group of high-level scientific and technological assignments of the country, thus constituting some interdisciplinary scientific research centers.

Overall Deployment of the 973 Program

Since the implementation of the 973 Program, we, in accordance with the principles of adopting a broad overview of the present situation and giving prominence to the focal points, and in line with the macroscopic guidance of national objectives, have defined the overall work deployment and made reasonable arrangement, reflecting the Chinese government's requirements of providing momentum and headspring to technical innovations, and providing support to the sustainable development of economic and society. Over years of evaluation of the research projects, we've already put 133 projects under the authorized program by the end of 2002, including 17 projects in the agricultural sector, 15 in the energy, 18 in the information, 24 in the resource and environment, 21 in the population and health, 19 in the material, and 19 in the synthesis and frontier science. We've appointed 175 chief scientists for the projects, and made financial investment of 2.5 billion RMB in the Ninth Five -Year Plan. 973 Program not only absorbs the largest investment from the central government among China's basic research programs since the founding of New China, but also is composed of single projects with the largest investment by the Chinese government. On average, every single project enjoys a strong support of up to 20-30 million RMB over a span of 5 years.

In the course of arranging 973 Program, we have not only intensified the analysis of and strategic research on the important demands of the country, but also conducted research on some important issues, such as industrial restructuring of the national economy, the development of new and high-tech industries, the economic and social informatization, the improvement of people's health and living standards, the natural resources and their effective utilization, the harmonious development of ecology, environment and society, the great development of the regions and etc.

Organizing and Managing the 973 Program

Establish a high-level advisor committee

In accordance with the decisions made at the third meeting of the former National Scientific and Technological Steering Group, the Ministry of Science and Technology has set up a high-level advisor committee through appointing two groups of eminent scientists numbering 33 successively, who not only have profound understanding of the basic research and important national demands, but also can fully reflect the opinions of the scientific and technological society. This committee is responsible for offering consultation advice, assessment and supervision on the stipulation of the National Key Basic Research Development Program, and the organization and selection of the research projects of the 973 Program, so as to fully assure the scientific, democratic and impartial feature when evaluating and putting the 973 projects under the authorized program. In recent years, under the leadership of Professor Zhou Guang-zhao, the advisor committee has made arduous efforts in facilitating the start-up and implementation of the 973 Program, and played an extremely important directive and advisory role.

Implement a mechanism of expert management of projects and supervision on the operations In the course of organizing and implementing 973 Program projects, we rely on the experts and give full play to them. We appoint chief scientist for the 973 Program projects, who are entrusted with full power of leadership. We've also established expert teams for the research projects, which offers much more room for the chief scientists and expert teams to make decisions by themselves, so that the research plans and preset objectives of the projects can be achieved successfully. A number of effective measures have also been taken to encourage and motivate all participants' enthusiasm and creativity.

In order to strengthen the dynamic management, supervision and inspection on the whole courses of implementing the 973 Program projects, we have also established excellent supervisory mechanism for the projects operations. We set up a consulting group, which appoint senior experts and scholars from relevant fields to conduct follow-up observation and research during the implementation of the projects. These experts in turn put forward their comments and suggestions directly to the Ministry of Science and Technology, so as to help chief scientists and project expert teams to fulfil the preset objectives more effectively. Carry out "2+3" new mode of project funding

For the funding of 973 Program projects, we adopt a new mode of "2+3", namely, a stage-by-stage funding. Two years after each project is implemented, a mid-term evaluation and inspection should be conducted. Based on the actual performance and the evaluating comments of a special expert group, the decision will be made on whether the preset tasks should be continued, or whether the preset amount of funding should be adjusted in the next three years. By doing so, we can avoid the situation that great efforts are made to put the project into the authorized program, while "research subject and team becomes rigidity and the thinking becomes ossified" during the implementation of the project. Hopefully this mode will help keep its fresh energy and vital force while promoting the competitions among different projects and subject teams.

Implement subject management system

In accordance with the international practice in the financial management of scientific and technological projects, we firstly implement the "subject management system" for funding the 973 Program projects in China. Namely, we conduct the total fund budgeting by subjects calculation, process control and full cost accounting inside of the projects. This gives chief scientists and subject leaders bigger decision-making power to employ high-level scientists from home and abroad to join the projects. Also, the allowances and wages of the employees can be defined and clarified through contracts. As an important breakthrough in the financial management of China's scientific and technological projects, this practice further embodies the actual value of the scientists and technicians engaged in the program and greatly motivates their activity and creativity.

The implementation results of the 973 Program

Over the past five years, the organization and implementation of the 973 Program has been going on successfully, which has drawn close attention and high recognition from China's scientific society, particularly those scientists who are engaged in the basic research. Furthermore, it has resulted in a bunch of exciting research achievements in a short period of time. According to incomplete statistics of the 87 projects of the 973 Program over the past four years, various scientific and technological articles releases home and abroad have totaled up to 15500, including more than 7300 SCI and EI articles and 221 relevant research books. And 485 patented technological inventions have also been licensed in the same period. (责任编辑：泉水)