In recent years, the State Council released a slew of policies to remove barriers against innovation, thus providing benefits to scientific researchers.
According to the policies, the overall budget of scientific projects can be adjusted by research institutions themselves and the surplus can be carried over to the next year.
Service fees for researchers will be raised and there will be no limits on expenditure ratios. This also applies to postgraduates, postdoctoral researchers, visiting scholars, and other hired researchers participating in the projects.
Financial assistants will be provided to help manage fiscal budgets, expenses and settlement for research institutions. Meanwhile, the reimbursement system for transportation and accommodation expenses during meetings will be improved.
The State Council also decided to boost researchers’ income level by increasing basic wages and performance-related pay step by step, encouraging generation of income from transformation and commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.
The incentive mechanism of share ownership, including stocks, options and share dividends, will be improved to encourage technological innovations and commercialization.
State-owned enterprises, the main market entities, have been given the leeway in income distribution, establishing a middle-to-long term incentive mechanism for researchers. Universities and research institutes are encouraged to set up special positions for technology transformation.
Major national research infrastructure and large-scale research instruments, in principle, should be open to and shared with the public, providing services to universities, research institutes, enterprises and individuals, especially small and micro-sized startups.
With the consent from their employers, researchers in national R&D institutions, colleges and universities are allowed to generate income by taking part-time jobs related to the transfer of scientific and technological achievements, or starting their own businesses.
