MOST By-law on S&T Assessment
To promote the healthy and sound development of China's scientific and technological assessment activities, Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has recently published its Interim Methods on the Management of Scientific and Technological Assessment. The new by-law is of 38 articles framed in seven chapters. These chapters include general principles, These chapters include general principles, types and scopes for assessment, organization and management, assessment institutions and personnel, assessment procedures, legal liabilities and appendix. The by-law stipulates that the prediction, decision making, management, supervision and approval check sponsored by governmental agencies, enterprises, other social organizations or individuals on scientific and technological assessment activities can be consigned to qualified assessment institutions. The so-called scientific and technological assessment can be divided into pre-assessment, mid-course assessment, aftermath assessment and tracking assessment in terms of managing procedures. The assessment of major S&T projects calling for public S&T investment or having implications for public interests shall be consigned to the certified assessment institutions.
The by-law also stipulates that the Ministry of Science and Technology is the governmental agency in charge of S&T assessment activities, responsible for the overall organization, management, guiding, coordination and supervision of the S&T assessment activities in the country. The assessment agencies engaged in S&T assessment shall be certified by the S&T assessment certificates issued by MOST.
S&T assessment may practice on a charged basis. The state will impose the so-called credit management system on assessment agencies. The by-law says that assessment agencies can either be the institutions of legal entities or a subsidiary body engaged in S&T assessment. The services of S&T assessment agencies shall not be confined by regional restrictions. not be confined by regional restrictions. S&T assessment personnel shall be experienced in basic S&T assessment operations, knowledgeable about the basic principles not be confined by regional restrictions. S&T assessment personnel shall be experienced in basic S&T assessment operations, knowledgeable about the basic principles of S&T assessment, methodology and skills and they should also have university degree, possess certain special S&T knowledge, have professional training certified by MOST and pass relevant examinations and screening. S&T assessment personnel shall strictly abide by relevant national laws and regulations and implement relevant national policies and stick to the principles of being independent, objective, fair and scientific.
863 Achievements Exhibition in Beijing
863 Achievements Exhibition in honor of the 15th anniversary of Chinese National 863 Program lifted its curtain at Beijing Exhibition Hall on Feb. 26, 2001. Occupying an area of 14,000 square meters, the exhibition has vividly demonstrated the brilliant fruits achieved by National 863 Program in the high tech areas in the last 15 years.
With nearly a thousand of the high tech displays in real objects, models, poster and multimedia as were presented by Beijing, Shanghai, Shaan'xi and Shenzhen delegations, the Exhibition was divided into categorized areas such as general applications, biology, information, automation, new materials, energy, marine technology, industries, local achievements, future perspectives, superconductors and fund raising.
During the session, the seminar on High Tech in the 21st Century and People's Life, nine dedicated scientific lectures on biology, information, new materials, energy, automation, marine technology and among others were organized. In the meanwhile, scientists involved in 863 Program were invited to address audience on hot topics such as genetically modified food, nuclear energy utilization, digitalized life, wide band network and nanometer technologies.
Intellectual Properties Protected
To implement the Decisions on Strengthening Technological Innovations, Developing High Technologies and Realizing Industrialization issued by the Chinese State Council and to further strengthen the protection and management of the technical innovations and the S&T related intellectual property rights, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology has recently published the Comments on Strengthening the Protection and Management of S&T Related Intellectual Property Rights.
The Comments believe that the policies on the ownership of S&T results' intellectual property rights constitute an important leverage balancing the technical and economic interests of the ones who are engaged in S&T research and development and associated results spinning-off. Effective measures will be adopted in the near future to re-adjust the policies of S&T results ownership on a steady basis. The intellectual property rights of S&T results derived from implementing national S&T projects shall, except those serving the purpose of major national interests, security and public social interests, be owned by the institutions who implement the projects.
The Comments stipulate that the S&T authorities at different levels shall continuously strengthen the protection and management of the S&T related intellectual property rights and guide research institutions and high tech industries to improve their awareness, management and protection of intellectual property rights.
High tech enterprises shall be guided, through formulating sound intellectual property rights policies, to re-adjust their products compositions and become the intellectual property rights friendly community of original inventions and improve their dominance over high tech industrial competition. Funds shall be listed, in accordance with the concrete situation of the S&T projects, to subsidize the implementing agencies in applying for and maintaining the intellectual property rights.
The Comments underline that research institutions and high tech enterprises shall enhance their self-consciousness and initiatives in intellectual property protection and management and make the generation, application and management of intellectual property rights the agenda in their R&D and results spin-off activities. Research institutions shall further improve S&T management, changing the simple procedures which request that the research team or the individuals undertaking the projects file the intellectual property applications and bear the associated costs, but rather taking the initiatives assigning the tasks and requirements on intellectual property rights and bearing the costs on their own.
The Comments have also proposed explicit requirements on protecting technical serets in the course of S&T personnel mobility, encouraging the earning on knowledge and technology based equity and the construction of intellectual property right brokerage firms and sectional associations.
China's New Superconductor
The Institute of Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has recently made the debut of its newly developed high quality superconductor made of magnesium diboride. Experts believe that the said development will lead to the discovery of new superconductors.
CAS' National Key Lab on Superconductivity has synthesized the high quality single phase sample with the help of constant and high pressures and conducted the associated studies of their physical properties. The samples' structure diffractive spectrums have proved extremely pure with its superconducting transit temperature at 40 K, resistance transit temperature lower than 1K and Meissner magnetic resistance reaching 100%. The samples synthesized under high pressure have, in particular, demonstrated its extreme fine compactness which shows the shinning blare similar to that of metal surface after polishing. The critical current density (non-granule internal critical current density) measured on the samples at 20K hysteresis cycle reaches 100000A/cm2, ranked the internationally advanced.
In the next phase of the studies, Chinese scientists will focus on increasing the said superconductors' temperature, improving the understanding of the superconductor mechanism on the basis of current materials and working out associated thin films. The papers on the results will soon be published in China Physics Review and the English edition of China Physics Bulletin.
China Advanced 3-D Laser Manufacturing
The high power 3-D laser manufacturing technology developed by Beijing Polytech University has recently passed the approval check. Its achievements include: 1) proposed for the first time in the world the theory on high power mixed CO2 laser beams transmission and focusing, calculated the sectional energy distribution variations of high power CO2 laser beams, their optical parameters and focus deviations, and defined 3-D laser processing range on the basis of laser beam qualities, which provides the theoretical support for the applications of high power 3-D laser processing of flying optical system; 2) established for the first time in the world the numerical and physical models on high power 3-D laser welding and cutting techniques through integrating mixed parameters such as laser beams, focus, materials and processing techniques, and shaped up the practical experts system of the independent intellectual property rights, realized the intelligent process of complicated processing techniques; 3) developed CAD/CAM software dedicated to 3-D laser processing of the independent intellectual property rights on the basis of theoretical and technological development, making the online distant processing possible; 4) successfully designed and materialized laser processing system of extensive ranges applicable to flying optical system, making the 3-D processing of car body and covering components possible. China's applications of these technologies and techniques have reached today's internationally advanced level.
It is reported that the said results have found extensive applications in No.1 Sedan Car Manufacturer subordinate to No.1 Auto Co. Ltd. and greatly reduced the number of moulds needed by developing a new car as are required previously, which will lead to a saving of RMB 70 million and more. In the meanwhile, it has shortened sedan cars development cycle. With the help of 3-D laser processing techniques, the sedan car manufacturing can be improved from simple meeting customers' demand to meeting their satisfaction.
China's Breakthroughs in Gallbladder Surgery
The Surgical Treatment and Experimental Research of Liver and Gallbladder Stones completed by the researchers of the No. 3 Military Medical School has recently been granted with the First Prize of National Science and Technology Advance Award, which marks China's internationally advanced level in the field.
The studies have for the first time in the world proposed the concept of liver-gallbladder stone and created a brand new area studying liver and gallbladder. The researchers have in the first place found three basic pathological factors generating the diseases and five major clinical pathological symptoms. They also created an effective surgical operation approach treating liver-gallbladder stones and associated complications and solved many key technical difficulties affecting and restricting the treatment and opened up a series of forbidden areas for surgical operations and made pioneering efforts in the world for the surgical treatment of complicated gallbladder diseases by liver surgical means. They have established the gallbladder surgery of Chinese characteristics and successfully cured domestic patients and recorded the best domestic treatment results, which have made the long-term curing-up rate jump from 10% to 87%, remarkably higher than that recorded by developed countries such as Japan, France and the United States.
The extensive diffusions and applications of the results have achieved great social and economic benefits. Experts and scholars involved in the research have published 156 papers in academic journals both at home and abroad and 13 monographs that are deemed as the classic works for China's gallbladder surgery. And about 250,000 copies of the works will be printed.The chair of the research project has made 9 presentations at International Surgery Conference with the results recognized by his international counterparts. The surgical means have also found their applications in US, Japan, France, Italy, Australia and Southeast Asian countries. In the meanwhile, they have paid great attention to the diffusion and application of the research results by sponsoring 6 rounds of workshops for the civil and military sectors in the country and training 721 students and 135 post-graduate students, of whom 248 have become the academic leaders of the gallbladder surgery over the different parts of the country.
China's HF Landwave Radar
High Frequency Landwave Radar Based Marine Environment Monitoring Technology, a major project under Chinese National 863 Program undertaken by Wuhan University has recently passed the approval check. The two sets of radar system developed by the University are able to measure ocean surface currents, wave heights and winds in a range of 200 km with its system and applications software reaching internationally advanced level. Relevant data has shown that the maximum range measuring sea waves by overseas manufactured HF landwave radar is only 100 km.
Experts believe that the technology has become mature enough to be put into practical applications for many areas such as marine environment monitoring, marine severe weather forecasting, marine oil drilling, harbor construction, ocean shipping, exploitation of marine resources, marine fishing and cultivation.
Experts deem that the technology is of broad application perspectives. China is a developing nation with long coastlines and vast marine territories frequented by many marine disasters. The long measuring ranging HF landwave radar of high accuracy and extensive coverage can be used to monitor China's special economic marine zone, safeguard its national interests and protect the marine environment. It is reported that upon into operation, its expected annual sales may reach RMB 130 million with the profit of RMB 35 million a year.
China's Hydrogen Auto
Shanghai-based Shenli Science and Technology Co. Ltd. has recently unveiled the debut of China's first hydrogen fueled automobile. The said vehicle is able to directly transfer hydrogen and air into electric power through chemical process with its exhaust being only pure water. The new environment-friendly auto has the merits of fast starting, smooth running and flexible wheeling. The heart of the car is hydrogen-based proton fuel cells. The chemical process may directly turn the hydrogen and air into electric power without combustion. In plain words, it is literally a hydrogen generator. It may produce electric power on a non-stop basis if it is fed with hydrogen continuously. The said generator is of fine safe performance with zero pollution emission.
Authorities concerned have conducted strict technical testing and verification of the technical indicators of the generator's cell modules. The retrieval results made by Shanghai Information Research Center under Chinese Academy of Sciences have shown that its technical indicators have reached the leading position dome stically and the advanced internationally.
China Owns Key DVD Technologies
The development of visible DVD laser unit undertaken by the Institute of Semicon ductors under Chinese Academy of Sciences has witnessed breakthroughs, which has made China a possessor of the independent intellectual property rights on DVD laser head. It is briefed that the said breakthroughs will soon make the homemade process of DVD laser heads in the country possible.
The said project has achieved the full range indicators defined by both National 863 Program and the Chinese Academy of Sciences with its components performance reaching current internationally advanced level. The project has passed the trial applications of DVD optical head manufacturer and developed the technological and manufacturing capacity of experimental scale for 650nm LDs. The said manufacturing system has passed the verification of ISO9001. The technology will find extensive applications in manufacturing different electronic gears such as DVD, laser pointer, bar code scanner, measuring instrument, laser printing system and medical instruments and become a competitive substitute for the imported goods, marking its great significance to the development of China's DVD localization and industrialization.
China's First IC Silicon Line in Operation
8 inch-in-Diameter Polished Single Silicon Crystal Manufacturing Line, a national high tech demonstration project undertaken by Beijing Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals was completed and put into operation on Feb. 27, 2001. The development has indicated China's world advanced level in manufacturing super integrated circuits at deep sub-micron level. Reflecting the research results and industrial experience of the Institute in the last several decades in silicon area, the project is of a designed annual capacity for 60 million square inches of 8-inch single silicon crystals. Equipped with the advanced technologies and the techniques of China's own independent intellectual property rights and internationally advanced facilities, the said manufacturing line has become the first of its kind producing 8-inch polished single silicon crystals needed by 0.25-micron integrated circuits.
China's Solar Handy Batteries
Shanghai based Shanli Energy S&T Co. Ltd., has recently worked out new generation mobile phone batteries utilizing solar energies. With a built-in light sensing chip and the help of external light sensing cover, the battery is able to get charged through light sensing silicon battery in addition to regular power sources. Thanks to the new technologies applied such as photo-electricity conversion, pressure lifting, adversary current prevention and overcharging protection, the charging time can be varied with fast light-power conversion efficiency and adoubled life span against regular lithium battery. Ranked in the leading position in the world, the new solar mobile phone battery is of the merits of energy efficiency, pollution free, easy charging and long life. The said product has been granted with national patent and guaranteed by China People's Insurance Corporation.
Comments or inquiries on editorial matters or Newsletter content should be directed to:Mr. Yuang Shuguang, Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road Beijing 100862, PR China Tel: (8610)68512650 Fax: (8610) 68512594, or Mr. Wang Jianping, Editor,NEWSLETTER, 15 Fuxing Road Beijing 100038, PR China, Tel:(8610) 68515544 Ext. 2580
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