context: Hefei is a major hub for scientific labs, including quantum communication research. This event reveals deep-rooted issues in the state R&D environment: (basic) research funding is up but some subjects are neglected, researchers get more autonomy but also engage in unhealthy competition, research institutes hire university graduates to combat unemployment and yet talents are leaving the CAS system, and researchers get a larger share of on-the-job inventions but still earn not as much as the private sector counterparts.
90 researchers jointly left an unspecified department of CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) HIPS (Hefei Institute of Physical Science), announced CAS, confirming online rumours. HIPS is one of CAS' largest branches, reports Science and Technology Daily, with its 'comprehensive national science centre' gaining official recognition from NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission) and MoST (Ministry of Science and Technology) in 2017. The Party cell of CAS sent an inspection team on 19 July, led by Wang Keqiang 汪克强. Liu He 刘鹤 vice premier requested State Council, MoST and CAS to send a joint inspection team on 21 July.
Online reports suggest the unspecified department is the Nuclear Safety Technology Research Institute, says Science and Technology Daily. Rumours circulated on forums populated by researchers
- the collective action suggests that the researchers, most of whom are early-career, have a plan, such as joining a company with one of their former superiors, speculate online commentaries cited by both Science and Technology Daily and Yicai
- the institute was working on lead-bismuth cooling reactors, adds Yicai, noting it lacked the labs to develop a working model
- the institute should have stuck to theoretical research, quipped an insider cited by Yicai, noting it failed to set up collaborations with state-owned nuclear energy firms
- the institute was shedding researchers, another insider told Science and Technology Daily, as it failed to secure sufficient central government research funding, and arguing it was down to a hundred staff from its heyday of 400 employees.
- the institute suffers from an apple polishing culture, insiders told Caijin, as the nuclear facility's director demands reverence from researchers
- CAS institutions are cliquey, suggest former CAS institution employees
- reforms spearheaded by the new HIPS director, which intend to create a flat organisational structure via the PI (principal investigator) institutions, discourages researchers from constructive collaboration