last week China’s Ministry of Education issued an Administrative Note, aiming at improving Chinese university’s research project management. According to the note, a profound research project management system should be strengthened in each university that carries out research projects, under which the university, relevant departments involved in research management and individual research team leaders are all held responsible for high quality research output and for reasonable use of research funds.
The note also calls for all-round project management and supervision by the universities starting from the selection of research topics, preparation of research proposals throughout each phase of the project implementation. The research proposals will be strictly checked to avoid any conflict of interests (of applicants and funding agencies). It is emphasized that any change to the project design in the course of implementation (aim, methodology, expected results etc.) must be reasonably justified and carefully assessed. Upon completion, projects will be evaluated based on scientific project evaluation tools.
The note also pays attention to the impact of research result to societal and economic development as well as to the protection of IPR resulted from the research. According to China Daily news, China spent 868.7 billion yuan ($137.89 billion) on R&D in 2011, of which the universities spent 68.89 billion yuan.