国家科技重大专项

Under a strict top-down design and supervision, Megaprojects abide by the following principles, in line with the country’s major socio-economic development needs:

• Fostering of a series of strategic industries which might lead to the realisation of indigenously-generated intellectual property (IP), at the same time stimulating the indigenous innovation capabilities of enterprises;
• Realisation of breakthroughs in key generic technologies which might substantially increase the country’s industrial competitiveness;
• Solving major issues and bottlenecks inhibiting socio-economic development;
• Promoting and intensifying civil-military integration to further strengthen national security.

A total of 16 vanguard Megaprojects were established. Ten belong to civilian application (“Civilian Megaprojects”); the remaining six belong to civil-military integration or pure military application (“Military Megaprojects”). Among the six Military Megaprojects, three have never been publicly announced by relevant authorities and currently remain classified for national security concerns. A full list of Megaprojects currently existing can be found in the section “List of Megaprojects currently existing” below).

MOST leads the overall management, implementation and supervision of Civilian Megaprojects, together with NDRC and MOF. The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), and the Central Military Commission’s Equipment Development Department are the managing authorities for the Military Megaprojects.

Over the past decade, a total of 127.4 billion RMB (around 16.5 billion EUR) was allocated by the central government alone, more than half of which was for the 10 Civilian Megaprojects during the 12^th Five-year period (2011-2015). These were coupled by an additional 208 billion RMB (around 26.9 billion EUR) of extra funds provided by various enterprises and local governments implementing specific research activities. Such massive investments have generated an output value of over 1.4 trillion RMB (around 181 billion EUR), and have mobilised over 240,000 scientists and personnel in total, contributing to over 11,000 patents obtained by enterprises and universities, and 8,478 technology standards formulated.

Under the firm leadership of the Communist Party and the State Council, MOST, NDRC and MOF have forged a synergic cooperation chain coordinating the efforts of several other ministries and departments, local governments, SOEs, private enterprises, universities and research structures. The most significant achievements realised can be found in the section “Main achievements of Megaprojects” below.

Note: the Guide for EU stakeholders available for download on this website provides specific case studies for three Megaprojects: ICT, Water, and Large Aircrafts.

The main legal framework governing Civilian Megaprojects is the Management Regulations of (Civilian) National S&T Megaprojects, jointly issued by MOST, NDRC and MOF at the end of June 2017 (no regulations have ever been published online for Military Megaprojects). The Management Regulations outline the Civilian Megaprojects’ management structure, the division of responsibilities among different government bodies.

The Management Regulations also specify the processes and procedures for:

• Application to new tenders (see section “Rules of participation and eligibility requirements” below)
• Evaluation of application proposals: a preliminary list of selected proposals is submitted by the professional management agencies to MOST, NDRC and MOF for final approval. The final lists of approved proposals should be published online;
• Supervision and evaluation of project implementation: MOST, NDRC and MOF can conduct a selective examination and inspection of ongoing projects, independently or through third-party agencies; units applying to or implementing Megaprojects are managed by a credit rating system;
• Management of project results, IP, and technology transfer: intangible assets generated during the implementation of Megaprojects are managed and utilised by consortium leaders. Agreements on intended IP ownership and utilisation among the consortium members should be submitted as part of the application materials (note: other relevant regulations state that any IP can be unconditionally used by the State – or by other actors on the State’s behalf – in case of major national needs; those IPs involving national security belong directly to the State).

Several additional ad hoc regulations were also published for Civilian Megaprojects, regulating other aspects such as IP management; fund management; reporting and archives management; the procedures through which experts evaluating application proposals are selected; project conclusion procedures; etc.

According to the Management Regulations of (Civilian) National S&T Megaprojects, topics under Megaproject tenders feature one of the following three modalities of application:

• “Directionally-entrusted” applications (定向委托): consortium leaders are already decided and specified in the tender. Usually being state-owned actors, they are entrusted by line agencies to identify and recruit consortium members. The final composition of the consortium and of the specific R&D tasks to be implemented must be approved by the Megaproject’s expert committee after different rounds of evaluation. This category of application aims to strengthen top-down design and coordination. Units interested in this category of projects should contact and coordinate with the “directionally-entrusted” unit;
• “Directionally-selected” applications (定向择优): applicants interested in this category of topics can apply independently. After a first evaluation of all applications, the Megaproject’s evaluation committee appoints different consortia, selecting a consortium leader and putting together different and complementary consortium members according to their strengths and weaknesses. The selected consortium leader will then coordinate with the other members and draft a detailed project implementation proposal, which must be approved by the expert committee after different rounds of evaluation. This category of application aims to strengthen top-down design and coordination.
• “Openly-selected” applications (公开择优): already-formed consortia apply as a whole to particular tender topics. Detailed technical and financial proposals must be submitted. After two rounds of evaluation, the most competitive proposals are approved.

Applications, therefore, can only submitted to those topics which feature the latter two modalities of application. Eligibility requirements that applicants must possess are specified in individual tenders published and eventually in each specific topic, but generally include:

• Requirement to possess legal personality in mainland China;
• Official endorsement and support from local government departments which have jurisdiction over the applicant.* These shall also provide additional funding;
• Additional funding provided by applicants, and possession of good financial capabilities;
• Previous experience in implementing major research projects;
• “Industry-University-Research cooperation” is often particularly encouraged.

Other requirements on the nature of the consortium leader might also be present for specific Megaprojects (e.g. third-grade class A hospital or clinical research centres for the Major New Drugs Megaproject, etc.).

In some cases, international cooperation is also explicitly encouraged (more details in the section “international participation” below).

* For instance, applications to the ICT Megaproject must be endorsed and supported by local industry and information technology departments in the province or municipality where the applicants are registered.

Tender guidelines are not published according to regular annual cycles. Any information is in any case published on the Megaprojects’ website. The tender cycle can be summarised as:

The application deadline is, in principle, no less than 50 days from the date of publishing of tender guidelines. Unlike the National Key R&D Programmes (NKPs), Megaprojects do not follow the practice of publishing previous calls for comments on draft versions of the tender a few months in advance, so do not allow potential applicants to start preparing applications in advance.

In reality, relevant information available on Megaproject tender cycles remains relatively fragmented and still scarce – although improving, as it is becoming integrated within the “National Science and Technology Information System, Public Service Platform”.

It is also noteworthy that trainings or various information sessions on specific Megaprojects, or on Megaprojects in general, are occasionally organised by MOST or relevant departments. Similarly to NKPs, the procedures for participating in such events are not clear, nor it is clear whether foreign entities are welcome to participate or not.

The Management Regulations of (Civilian) National S&T Megaprojects explicitly encourage consortium leaders to launch international cooperation and exchange activities, under the supervision and after the approval of the Megaproject’s line agency. These should be based on equality and mutual benefit, emphasising secondary innovation (i.e. introducing, digesting, absorbing and re-innovation), and should strictly abide by relevant foreign affairs and confidentiality provisions. Several individual tenders or project topics under different Megaprojects also actively encourage international actors to participate in consortiums. These are:

• Prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and other major communicable diseases (example at this link);
• Development of major new drugs (example at this link);
• New generation broadband wireless mobile communication networks (example at this link);
• Water pollution control and treatment technologies (example at this link) – its legal framework further encourages:
• High-level foreign talents to participate in relevant R&D tasks;
• Joint applications with German partners.*

Although informal consultations with the project team or general media resources highlighted the existence of a limited number of international (including EU) actors currently participating in some Megaproject topics, no concrete instances of international participation have nevertheless been identified by the project team.**  In any case, the participation of China-based international actors is expected to be limited to minor roles only as consortium participants rather than as consortium leaders, and is also likely to depend on the provision of additional funding. The nature and the purpose of Megaprojects – intense R&D to enhance China’s indigenous innovation capabilities – also result in strict requirements related to IP ownership and utilisation (a clear, written agreement on IP ownership and utilisation among the consortium members should be submitted as part of the application materials).

EU actors interested in participating in Megaprojects are recommended to identify the key major players within each respective Megaproject. As demonstrated by the fact that applications and consortiums for numerous topics under different Megaprojects need to be organised by key influential actors in the field (i.e. “directionally-entrusted” and “directionally-selected” methods of application), these often have large influence in deciding the final composition of the consortia. In many cases, such key players are explicitly specified in individual tender guidelines, or are easily identifiable in relevant news on the Megaprojects’ website. A close R&D partnership with them should be cultivated. EU actors should in any case possess all the requirements that other general applicants must meet to apply, especially legal personality in mainland China.

* A series of recently-signed bilateral agreements (e.g. art. 53 and 54 of the 2014 China-Germany Cooperation Action Plan; MOST-BMBF Joint Declaration of Intent on Initiating the S&T Cooperation for the Water Megaproject; China-Germany MoU on Cooperation in the Field of Water Resources; etc) resulted in the explicit requirement to involve at least one German partner in some of the Megaproject’s topics in 2017 and 2018 (the German partner should, however, provide additional funding). It is not clear whether partners from other European countries are also encouraged to participate, but there are no indicators suggesting they are not.

** During a press conference on the status of implementation of the ICT Megaproject held in January 2017, the Director of MIIT’s Communication Development Department stated that several foreign enterprises have participated within the R&D activities under the ICT Megaproject. Source at this link.

The 13^th Five-year period (2016-2020) will be the last quinquennium of implementation of the sixteen currently-existing Megaprojects. By 2020, the final objectives set for each of them should have been achieved.

According to the 13^th Five-year Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation published by the State Council in August 2016, during this period the sixteen Megaprojects will gradually be replaced by a new category of Megaprojects, reflecting and incorporating new developments and trends in both national and international S&T priorities and needs. Fifteen new “2030 Innovation Megaprojects” (科技创新2030——重大项目) were listed in the document’s chapter 4, with the implementation period ending in 2030; the sixteenth programme on artificial intelligence (AI) was then later introduced in July 2017.

(*) Refers to those 2030 Innovation Megaprojects for which preliminary work from relevant authorities has already started, and which are expected to be fully launched within the next two years.

(**) This new Megaproject was introduced by the State Council’s Development Plan for New Generation Artificial Intelligence, published at the end of July 2017, as part of what is referred to as a “forward-looking ‘1+N’ project cluster layout”, where ‘1’ refers to the new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Megaproject; and ‘N’ refers to the several new AI-related tasks to be included in other currently-existing national STI projects.

The New Generation Artificial Intelligence Megaproject was officially launched in November 2017. A call for comments on the tentative annual research subjects and topics to be funded in 2018 was published in September 2018, followed by the official tender document in October 2018. It is not clear when will the other 2030 Megaprojects be launched: relevant information refers to a first group of other new Megaprojects for which their overall development plan and implementation schemes are being finalised and are therefore expected to follow soon (marked with * in the above table). Other scattered pieces of news also provide evidence of substantial preparatory activities in some of these areas, such as the establishment of the CAS Institute of Quantum Information and Quantum Science within the Hefei National High- and New-Technology Zone (HNTZ), also thanks to a 1 billion RMB grant received by the central government. Other developments were registered in the area of Aircraft Engines and Gas Turbines, with the establishment, by the CAS Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, of the CAS Guanneng Gas Turbine Co. Ltd within the Shenyang HNTZ. These are expected to be the main bases and actors central to their corresponding new Megaprojects.

It also remains unclear whether the 2030 Innovation Megaprojects will be divided into Civilian and Military projects, as their predecessors were.