The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was founded in Beijing on 1 November 1949, one month after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
In the early days, the CAS was mandated as the key force of the new China’s scientific research system, undertaking missions of defining scientific research orientations, restructuring its research institutions, encouraging and helping overseas Chinese scientists to return home, training and properly allocating professionals, outlining strategies for the nation’s future scientific and technological development while contributing to the national economic and social development. Since China adopted the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970’s, the CAS has been devoting itself into the reform and innovation for social and economic development, as a major driving force in the reform of the national scientific and technological system and the rejuvenation of the country’s hi-tech industry, just in the wake of the world’s science and technology development. The CAS, at present facing a new era of development, is now targeting at the national strategic needs and world frontiers of science, striving to accomplish world-class science and to continuously make fundamental, strategic and forward-looking contributions to national economic construction, national security and social sustainable development by strengthening original scientific innovation, innovation of key technologies and system integration.
As the nation’s highest academic institution in natural sciences and its supreme scientific and technological advisory body, and national comprehensive research and development center in natural sciences and high technologies, it consists of the Academic Divisions and various subordinate institutions.
The Academic Divisions are composed of all CAS members. The life-long honor of CAS member is the highest academic title set up in science and technology in China. The CAS membership system includes members, emeritus members and foreign members. It has now 694 CAS members in total. At present, there are six academic divisions, functioning as the national scientific think-tank, providing advisory and appraisal services on issues stemming from the national economy, social development and S&T progress.
Today’s CAS has 12 branch offices, 117 institutes with legal entity, more than 100 national key laboratories and national engineering research centers, and about 1,000 field stations throughout the country. Its staff even surpassed 50,000.
For the past six decades, a vast number of scientific professionals in the CAS have lived up to the expectation of revitalizing the nation through the science and technology development and have always been at the forefront in the development of science and technology with their pioneering and relentless efforts. The CAS has accomplished a number of world-renown scientific achievements including theory of functions of several complex variables over classical domains, the Goldbach Conjecture, the finite element method, the mathematics mechanization, the anti-sigma minus hyperon particle and the total synthesis of bovine insulin.
In 1998, with the approval of the Chinese Government, the CAS launched the Pilot Project of the Knowledge Innovation Program (PPKIP) in an effort to build China’s national innovation system.
In order to be better suited to the national strategic needs and the progress of world science and technology, the CAS has adjusted its long-held operation model in which research institutes were set up based upon scientific discipline and has made profound and extensive adjustments in disciplinary deployment and organizational structure. These adjustments are based upon its continuous downsize and identification of scientific objectives with the aim to set up a new management mechanism and operational model in the CAS. Together with some local governments, ten new independent institutes were built throughout the country, covering multi-disciplinary and frontier research fields.
Since the launch of the Pilot Project of the Knowledge Innovation Program, the CAS has made a series of major scientific breakthroughs in basic and cutting-edge research, bio-medical sciences, strategic high-technology, and research on sustainable development, thus making important contributions to China’s economic development, social progress and national security.
Especially in 2008, scientists successfully developed the world’s first quantum relay instrument, and also completed the construction of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), the Cooling Storage Ring of the Heavy-Ion Research Accelerator Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL-CSR), the first Pressurized Ash Agglomerating Fluidized Bed (AFB) coal gasifier demonstration plant. In the biomedical field, a cerebral cortical neuron radial migration guidance mechanism was discovered, pluripotent stem cell lines were generated from adult rat cells, a novel fluoroquinolone anti-bacterial drug was developed. In the agricultural area, a rice gene named GIF1 was identified as a key regulator of the entire grain-filling process, and slow release fertilizers were developed and applied throughout the country. Up to 2008, the CAS has received 50% of the total National Natural Science Awards.
Meanwhile, obvious achievements have also been made in the facilitation of the growth of high-technology industries. In 2008, the sales of CAS spin-off companies reached 171.57 billion RMB Yuan, with pretax profits of 4.1 billion Yuan. In 2008, through technology transfer, CAS facilitated local enterprises to achieve sales in the total of 96.4 billion Yuan with pretax profits around 13.5 billion Yuan.
The CAS has also realized the transition between generations of researchers with the human resource structure optimized. There are totally 328 members either of the CAS or of the Chinese Academy of Engineering working in CAS institutes, and 703 recipients of the National Outstanding Youth Funds in the academy. Through the talent introduction programs, the CAS has recruited 1,416 excellent young talents in the past few years. Among those employed in the whole Academy’s innovative posts and positions, 77% have Doctor’s and Master’s degrees, and researchers who are younger than 45 account for 79.1% of the total.
In the past half century, the academy has also trained a large number of scientific and technological talents for the country, with the affiliated University of Science and Technology of China and CAS Graduate School. The total number of graduates in the whole academy has now reached 43,000 and the total number of outstanding Ph.D. thesis awards it gets every year account for 18.3% of the country’s total.
The CAS attaches great importance in international cooperation and exchanges. International cooperation and exchange activities with CAS scientists’ participation expanded from 10,000 person/times in 1998 to 24,000 person/times in 2008. By 2008, the CAS has signed 181 cooperation agreements at the academy level and over 835 exchange agreements at institute level with international organizations. The CAS affiliates jointly established more than 92 research institutions with their foreign counterparts. About 1,000 scientists in those international collaborations are taking executive positions in international science organizations or institutions. In 2008, it hosted 345 international conferences and bi-lateral academic conferences.
The CAS comprehensively reviewed its own strategy for international cooperation, to strengthen partnership with the countries of advanced science and technology in Europe, America, Japan, Russia and Australia, while promoting exchanges and cooperation with the developing countries, especially neighboring countries, and developing cooperative relationship with key international scientific organizations. Based on the understanding of the present situation and the need for international cooperation for the academy, the CAS attaches much importance to the key international cooperative activities and projects, reinforcing strategic partnership with key research institutions through high-level exchange visits, organizing high-level strategic fora, academic symposia on frontier research, implementing several recruitment projects attracting top talented professionals from abroad. Besides, better cooperative working mechanisms were also set up, leading to harmonious and effective teamwork, and raising the mutually beneficial outcomes of these collaborative projects to a new level.
In order to acknowledge and reward foreign experts in fields of science, technology and management who have made excellent contributions in international or bilateral cooperation, the CAS Award for International Cooperation in Science and Technology was set up in 2007. The five winners of the award in 2007 and 2008 were also rewarded by national awards.
To attract overseas scientists and cultivating talents through international exchange, the CAS fellowships and cooperative programs were established, including the Einstein Professorship, the Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists, Programs for International Partnership Groups, Fellowships for Young International Scientists and TWAS-CAS Fellowships for Visiting Scholars, Postgraduate and Postdoctoral.
For years, the CAS has been actively involved in developments in China’s modernization drive. In 2009, Science & Technology in China: A Roadmap to 2050 series has outlined major scientific issues and critical technical problems in China’s modernization process, and made suggestions on how to resolve them, ensuring the contribution of science and technology in realizing China’s modernization goals by 2050.
The world development requests us to enhance our scientific innovation capability. The CAS aims to build itself into one with “first-class achievements, first-class benefits, first-class management and first-class talents” and into one that strives to reform and innovate for harmonious development, thus ensuring the CAS always in a state of being able to continuously make major fundamental, strategic and forward-looking contributions to China’s economic construction, national security and social sustainable development.
