Science program names 35 new fellows

China's New Cornerstone Investigator Program, one of the country's largest privately funded initiatives for basic science, named 35 new fellows on Monday, and pledged to offer 10 years of stable support for 200 to 300 leading scientists.

The program, funded by Chinese tech company Tencent Holdings in 2022 with a pledge of 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) over a decade, offers some of the most generous grants available for fundamental research in China. Researchers each receive 25 million yuan over five years, while theoretical researchers are granted 15 million yuan, with an option to apply for renewal after the first term.

Tencent Chairman and CEO Pony Ma said in a statement that the program focuses on the next 10 to 20 years, which will be critical for China to stand tall in global science.

"Feedback from the first two cohorts shows the program truly helps scientists pursue original breakthroughs. This gives us confidence to make a long-term commitment beyond commercial boundaries," he said.

The third cohort's average age is 45, well below the program's upper application limit of 55 and younger than last year's average of 47. Nine of the appointees qualify as young scientists, making up a record share of more than one quarter.

The program also named its first foreign researcher, Yuval Rinkevich of the Chinese Institute for Medical Research, whose work focuses on organ repair after injury.

Shi Yigong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chair of the program's scientific committee, said: "China's basic research has made great progress in the past decade. This year's new fellows are outstanding and at the frontiers of their fields. We hope they aim at big problems and deliver original breakthroughs."

In developed countries, nongovernmental sources or social capital play a substantial role in supporting basic research and scientific breakthroughs. In China, however, the vast majority of funding for such innovations comes from the central government.

China is also encouraging private enterprises, especially platform-based companies, to give full play to their role in supporting technological innovations, as per the country's latest efforts to promote the development of the private sector.

"Although the R&D intensity of China has been continuously increasing, the country's investment in basic research is insufficient, which directly leads to a relative lack of innovations based on complex, underlying supporting technologies and scientific research," Liu Qiao, dean of the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, said in a note.

Liu said China's position index in the global value chain, or GVC, in 2018 was 0.01 while the US index was 0.29. Thus, the US continues to be at the absolute upstream of the GVC, with strong control over core technologies and raw materials. This gives it the power to create constraints downstream for other countries and economies in the GVC.

"To change this situation, China must increase investment in basic R&D and promote Chinese industries to move upstream in the global value chain. Only when breakthroughs are achieved in basic research can we truly break developed countries' vice-like grip on key technologies," he said.