my country urgently needs to establish a new scientific and technological achievement evaluation mechanism

A group of experts organized by relevant agencies of the administrative department will listen to reports, review materials, ask questions, etc., and examine perhaps only one aspect of the results, such as advancement, and then give scores, compare with requirements, and draw conclusions.

As a result, scientific and technological achievements labeled as "international leading level" and "international advanced level" have come into people's view.

However, for the market, this evaluation conclusion has been criticized. There are many subjective factors, lack of effective information, and few evaluation methods... These problems directly point to the shortcomings of the existing scientific and technological achievement evaluation mechanism. Reform is imperative and is underway.

As an important link in the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements, objective and fair evaluation methods and approaches for scientific and technological achievements are highly anticipated.

Recently, the national standard "Guidelines for Economic Value Assessment of Scientific and Technological Achievements" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines") has finally come out after many years of development.

According to the Guidelines, the standard provides guidance on the terms and definitions, evaluation methods, evaluation agencies and evaluation procedures involved in the economic value evaluation of scientific and technological achievements. What is the significance of the Guidelines for establishing a new scientific and technological achievement evaluation mechanism? To this end, China Science Daily reporters interviewed relevant experts.

A product of transition

Similar to other national standards, the preface of the Guidelines indicates the drafting units and main drafters of the standard. One of its biggest features is that about half of the drafting units are agricultural institutions, such as the China Rural Technology Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Technology Transfer Center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, etc.

Why is this?

The reporter learned that this can be traced back to the national standard "Technical Specifications for Evaluation of Agricultural Science and Technology Achievements" (hereinafter referred to as the "Technical Specifications"), which was issued at the end of 2015 and officially implemented on February 1, 2016. This is the first national standard in my country's agricultural science and technology achievement evaluation field.

"The relevant departments of the Ministry of Science and Technology generally recognize the "Technical Specifications", but hope that it will not be limited to the evaluation of agricultural scientific and technological achievements." Dai Zhang (pseudonym), a professor at a certain university and one of the main drafters of the "Guidelines", told China Science Daily that he participated in the drafting of the "Technical Specifications".

Therefore, the relevant departments of the Ministry of Science and Technology convened relevant drafters of the "Technical Specifications" for discussion. According to Dai Zhang, because the scope of scientific and technological achievements is wider, many units and personnel were involved in the discussion at that time, "the drafting units and main drafters who were finally written should have been deeply involved in the preparation of the "Guidelines"."

It is reported that it took three years from the project establishment to the official release of the "Guidelines".

In fact, during the writing of the "Guidelines", the reform of my country's scientific and technological achievement evaluation mechanism began to accelerate.

The most iconic reform move was the abolition of the "Measures for the Appraisal of Scientific and Technological Achievements" and other regulations by the Ministry of Science and Technology in June 2016, making the appraisal of scientific and technological achievements organized by government science and technology departments a thing of the past.

Dai Zhang believes that during the transition period, the evaluation of scientific and technological achievements also requires a guiding document.

"The theoretical scope is too narrow. It would be more reasonable to call it economic asset evaluation of scientific and technological achievements." Liu Yan (pseudonym), a person engaged in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said that if it is just an asset evaluation, it will not have much effect in promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

Liu Yan explained to China Science Daily that currently in universities, research institutes and state-owned enterprises, in order to cope with the need for state-owned asset management, they find an asset appraisal agency to conduct an assessment of intangible assets before the transformation of scientific and technological achievements begins, which serves as the basis for transaction pricing in order to avoid management responsibilities.

It can be said that asset evaluation is just a "tool" to avoid responsibility, which is different from the evaluation of scientific and technological achievements to achieve transformation value. People with asset evaluation qualifications do not fully understand scientific and technological achievements, and their evaluation results have little reference value other than "toolization".

The experts interviewed told reporters that the Ministry of Science and Technology organized experts to write the "Guiding Opinions on the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Achievements" in 2019, hoping to standardize the evaluation of scientific and technological achievements, but for some reason it has not yet been released.

“Not truly market-oriented”

In accordance with the requirements for the reform of the scientific and technological achievement evaluation mechanism, the scientific and technological achievement evaluation work shall be carried out by a third-party professional evaluation agency entrusted by the client, and shall be subject to self-discipline management by industry organizations or intermediary agencies.

Over the years, Dai Zhang has participated in the evaluation of scientific and technological achievements organized by third-party professional organizations many times. However, he found that whether it is direct or indirect intervention, the shadow of the government exists to a greater or lesser extent, and "it is not yet market-oriented in the true sense."

This has also been criticized. However, if the government just lets things go, chaos will easily occur.

Experts believe that appropriate supervision is necessary. Since the multiple application purposes of scientific and technological achievement evaluation reports require that the evaluation conclusions should have a certain degree of fairness, the key point of the government's supervision of third-party evaluation agencies should be the fairness of the evaluation conclusions.

For government departments, it is necessary to balance decentralization and supervision. In the view of Ruan Hang, director of Qingdao Technical Service Center, "standardization" of the evaluation process is an important way to achieve the combination of decentralization and supervision.

The "Qingdao Model" of scientific and technological achievement evaluation, especially the standardized evaluation system, has been recognized by local science and technology management departments for its practicality.

At the beginning of the reform, Qingdao introduced an advanced standardized evaluation system for scientific and technological achievements, and on the basis of this system, organized an expert team to conduct in-depth research and development on evaluation indicators and evaluation methods, forming a new standardized evaluation system with maturity, innovation and advancement as core indicators. Then, through theoretical research and practical experience summary, local standards were formed and then elevated to group standards.

With the maturity of the standardization evaluation system, the government's supervision of the "Qingdao Model" has become increasingly simple and controllable; at the same time, by optimizing the services of third-party evaluation agencies and personnel, the professional level and credibility of the standardization evaluation system have also been improved.

Therefore, the "Guidelines" also made three explanations on the assessment agencies, which can be summarized as "one necessary and two important".

That is, it is necessary for the assessment agency to conduct its business independently, objectively and impartially; it is important for the assessment agency to establish and improve internal management systems, supervise the implementation of the standards by its assessment professionals, and be responsible for their professional conduct; it is also crucial for the assessment agency to strengthen industry self-discipline and accept business guidance and supervision from relevant competent authorities.

Supporting market-oriented institutions to have a market

However, it is currently difficult for third-party assessment agencies to survive.

Liu Yan told China Science Daily that in the past, the appraisal of scientific and technological achievements received national financial support, but now there is less support for market-oriented institutions, and the things they evaluate are rarely recognized, "market-oriented institutions have no market."

First, there is no market for the suppliers of scientific and technological achievements. At present, universities and research institutes still use the number of papers, impact factors, and patent output as important indicators for evaluating scientific researchers.