China will boost spending on basic research during the next five years to hasten the country’s emergence as a “science and technology power,” Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday, reported Caixin.
The country will increase the proportion of basic research within the overall R&D sector from the current 6%, Li said, noting that developed nations typically assign 15% to 25% of total R&D spending to basic research.
Additionally, China will give scientists more autonomy to decide how to spend grant money so they expend less energy on “filling out forms” and more on “actually doing research,” Li said at a press conference at the end of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature.