Take the lead, increase opportunities, reduce assessments, preserve time, and strengthen body and mind——
The burden is reduced one step further, and the "green pepper" adds power
"Guangming Daily" (August 23, 2022 Edition 07)
This past summer vacation, Wu Enxiu, who was born in the 90s, had almost no rest.
Busy with topic research, holding online group meetings with students, and guiding students to do literature reviews... Just graduated with a Ph.D. last year, Wu Enxiu directly got the title of associate researcher at the School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronic Engineering, Tianjin University, which made him feel every day a kind of "I don't want to wait for the time." "The sense of urgency: "This is something I didn't dare to think about before, but can't I roll up my sleeves and work hard?"
Wu Enxiu's "lucky" benefited from Tianjin University's reform of breaking the "four uniques" and emphasizing ability - as long as you have the ability, qualifications, education, and experience are not a problem.
Statistics show that by the end of 2019, my country's scientific and technological human resources under the age of 39 accounted for 78.39%.
Another data shows that the best age group for scientific and technological workers to make significant contributions is 25 to 45 years old. The average age of Nobel Prize winners in the 20th century when they were engaged in award-winning research was 38.7 years old.
How to make young talents burst out with the greatest vitality in the golden stage of scientific research?
Recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China jointly issued the "Notice on Carrying out Special Actions to Reduce the Burden of Young Researchers" (referred to as "burden reduction action 3.0").
Compared with the previous two rounds of burden reduction actions for scientific researchers, this round of actions focuses on the group of young researchers for the first time, and has introduced "exclusive" burden reduction policies from five aspects: leading the way, increasing opportunities, reducing assessments, ensuring time, and strengthening body and mind.
What burdens do young researchers face in their growth and development?
For this "special burden reduction", what are they most concerned about?
What are the expectations?
The reporter visited young researchers and listened to their voices.
1. Young researchers face five burdens
In the first year of his stay at the school, Wu Enxiu encountered a difficult problem-the application for the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Fund has been closed, and there is no scientific research funding support in the short term. How can the research be carried out?
Just when he was worried, the independent innovation fund of Tianjin University and the open fund project of his laboratory sent the "first pot of gold", which laid a solid scientific research foundation for him.
Wu Enxiu is researching new two-dimensional semiconductor devices. After a year of exploration, he has not only made many breakthroughs in this field, but also deployed topics in the frontier field of the Internet of Things.
"Young teachers have no project support, it is difficult to have high-quality 'output', and no output is easy to be eliminated in the first employment period." Wu Enxiu told reporters that the work pressure is high, the income is relatively low, and it is difficult to apply for topics, etc. "Growing pains" always go hand in hand with young researchers.
The reporter visited and investigated and found that the current growth and development of young researchers are facing five burdens.
First, it is difficult to emerge.
When young researchers enter the scientific research position, it is very difficult to independently create laboratories and teams. Most of them carry out scientific research work in the team in the role of "research assistants". Competing with senior researchers on the same stage is often at a disadvantage, and there are few opportunities to conduct independent research and open up academic fields.
"Young scientific researchers who have just entered the industry basically have to join a scientific research team before they can start their scientific research career. It is often difficult to get the opportunity to undertake projects and show themselves." Liu Feng (pseudonym), a young teacher from a university in Jiangsu told reporters that the qualifications of young researchers It is very difficult to win the support of national scientific research projects, especially the scientific researchers under the age of 35 are often difficult to obtain funding.
Second, the growth channel is narrow.
"Some young researchers have just entered the workplace, and the research funding is only about 20,000 yuan a year. It costs 3,000 to 4,000 yuan to buy experimental instruments and reagents. It is difficult to maintain research independently." Some researchers told reporters that in Under this circumstance, some young people have to find ways to "finance" and "run projects" everywhere, paying a lot of extra time and energy for this.
Some researchers said that the vast majority of various scientific research projects are competitive projects, and the projects that take the time to "grab" may not be the research direction they need, and it is difficult to guarantee the continuity of research, let alone "concentrate on research".
The third is frequent evaluation and assessment.
Li Huaqing (pseudonym), a young teacher from a university in Guangdong who was evaluated on the same platform, set of indicators and in the same way as senior researchers, felt that he was "under a lot of pressure": "We implement the 'pre-employment system', and the evaluation period has been extended, However, the workload of the assessment is higher. Under the competition, colleagues are also very 'introverted', many people simply publish articles for the sake of publishing articles, one-sided pursuit of 'short, peaceful and quick', it is difficult to do research calmly."
There are also researchers who report that the current evaluation system cannot fully reflect the actual contributions of young researchers: "Young researchers undertake a lot of specific research work in team projects, but because they are not core team members, they are not included in papers, patents, awards and other achievements. Under the current assessment and evaluation system of 'recognizing only the results of signatures', the work and actual contributions are not reflected, which directly affects the assessment results and project award declarations."
Fourth, unnecessary transactional burdens.
One year after joining the company, "running errands" and other transactional work occupied a lot of Liu Feng's working time: "Running signatures, issuing certificates, doing reimbursement, filling out forms, writing applications, and writing summaries... My own scientific research had to stand aside, or even only It can be done at night.” Some young researchers who have already led a team independently reported that due to the small team, lack of manpower and tight funds, in order to save costs, they need to find suppliers and do market price comparisons when buying equipment, instruments, and reagents. , which takes up a lot of research time.
Fifth, work and life anxiety is heavy.
The survey shows that young scientific researchers, as a highly educated group, have high expectations from society and individuals, but in reality, there is a large gap between young scientific researchers in terms of income security and social status. The high pressure has affected their attitude towards scientific research and their physical and mental health.
2. The "exclusive" burden reduction policy directly points to the blocking point
Under the heavy pressure, the burden reduction action 3.0 made many young researchers bluntly "excited".
"As a scientific research force with the most creative potential, young researchers are facing increasing pressure. It is important to work hard to solve their worries, ensure that they devote their main energy to scientific research, and enhance their sense of gain and satisfaction. Necessary and timely." According to Xu Xiaoming, a professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, this "special burden reduction" will help cultivate young talents' ability to overcome difficulties and shoulder heavy responsibilities.
The reporter found that aiming at the above five "burdens", targeted measures were put forward for this "burden reduction".
For example, focusing on the problem of "coming a new talent", the action proposed that the proportion of young talents under the age of 40 serving as project (project) leaders and backbones of the National Key R&D Program should be increased to 20%; the Chinese Academy of Sciences' strategic pilot special project The newly established project clearly defines the project responsibility. The proportion of young scientific researchers under the age of 45 among the people is not less than 50%; in the new national major science and technology infrastructure engineering headquarters of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the newly established deputy chief engineer position is held by young researchers under the age of 45.
For another example, in response to the problem of "narrow growth channels", the action proposed to promote basic scientific research business fees, natural science funds, etc. to increase support for young researchers, and provide more funding and exchange opportunities for young talents, postdoctoral fellows, female scientists, etc.; proposed The proportion of the basic scientific research business expenses of central-level public welfare scientific research institutes and institutions of higher learning directly under the central departments to the funding of young scientific researchers is generally not less than 50%; to promote qualified scientific research institutions to set up special projects for early-career youth talent training, and for new scientific research positions. Doctoral graduates and postdoctoral fellows will be given non-competitive scientific research funding support for no less than 5 years.
According to Li Ronggui, Director of the Research Office of Qingdao University, these "incremental" opportunities are the biggest "variable" for the growth of young researchers: "Youth is the most active period of scientific and technological innovation. If young researchers cannot undertake projects for many years, they will It is also gradually away from the frontier of science and technology or social industries, and it is easy to 'lay flat', and it is significantly more difficult to stimulate its vitality again."
The issue of evaluation and assessment is the most concerned by young researchers.
"This burden reduction action focuses on young people and solves the problem of the growth of young scholars. It grabs the 'bull nose' of evaluation and assessment, which not only connects with the previous burden reduction actions, but also solves the problem of growth channels for young scholars." China Guo Yingjian, a professor at the School of Foreign Languages at Renmin University, said.
The reporter noticed that while taking the lead and increasing opportunities, "reducing assessment" has become the focus of this round of "burden reduction action". National science and technology projects and funds will establish a due diligence exemption mechanism, and simplify the number and length of process inspection reports. request etc.
The action will also promote scientific research units to reduce the frequency of assessments for young researchers, implement mid- and long-term assessments such as employment period assessments and project cycle assessments, and reasonably evaluate the actual work contributions of young researchers.
In addition, it is also clearly proposed to liberate young scientific researchers from unnecessary transactional work, and promote scientific research units to establish a "information only once" mechanism to solve problems such as multiple, temporary, and repeated submission of information on scientific research results by young researchers.
"Compared with the past, this round of burden reduction also focuses on the anxiety of young researchers in work and life, and proposes to strengthen career enlightenment training, equip high-level scientific research and entrepreneurial mentors, and promote scientific research units to regularly organize psychological counseling and cultural activities. Advocate activities such as 'exercise 1 hour a day'." In addition to the rigid policy, Li Ronggui also praised the warmth, "Guaranteeing scientific research time and caring for growth will help young researchers in their physical and mental health and ease their psychological anxiety."
3. The pressure of scientific research is not reduced, and the policy needs to be refined
At the same time, many scientific research workers also said that in the context of the current high scientific research pressure in universities and scientific research units, to promote the implementation of the action, it is necessary to further explore and refine the specific ways of reducing the burden of young scientific research workers.
To this end, they have made suggestions.
"After the release of the 'burden reduction policy', many young teachers in the school came to chat with me. First, they hope to see the establishment of new projects for young scientific and technological personnel as soon as possible. Second, they expect the local government to issue similar policies at the same time. Burden reduction policies and detailed implementation rules will be introduced to provide a good environment for the sustainable development of young scientific researchers." Li Ronggui believes that in the training of young scientific researchers, building a platform, pressing the burden, and paving the way are indispensable.
According to Zhou Chengxiong, a researcher at the Institute of Science and Technology Strategy Consulting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the key to reducing the burden is to further improve the science and technology ecology.
He said: "For example, in terms of reducing the assessment of young researchers, the assessment pressure faced by universities and scientific research institutions will remain unchanged, and these pressures will inevitably be transmitted to young researchers; for example, to ensure the research time of young researchers, it is necessary to Completely avoid the bad phenomenon in talent assessment and assessment, so that young researchers no longer need to participate in social activities."
From lecturers, associate professors, and professors along the way, Xu Xiaoming of Beijing University of Science and Technology has enjoyed the "bonus" of the first two rounds of "burden reduction actions", and also knows the hardships of the growth and development of young scientific research talents.
He called for a more diversified evaluation method in terms of professional titles and talent evaluations that young researchers care about while "reducing assessments", "The current assessment conditions require young researchers to develop in an all-round way, but everyone's The strengths and strengths are different. I suggest establishing and improving a personalized selection model to stimulate their development potential in their respective advantageous fields. There are many 'good seedlings' among young researchers. Some objective conditions miss the opportunity for talent evaluation."
Our reporter Deng Hui Yang Shu