"What is the scientific research system of the Chinese Academy of Sciences? How can your small team run so many big projects? " Going out for academic exchanges, Du Qiang, a researcher at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics of Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics), is often asked questions outside this academic field.
A team of more than 60 people has undertaken research and development projects of various types of aero-engines. Almost everyone is a multi-functional person, spanning several types, opening roads on every mountain and bridging bridges when encountering water … Du Qiang has become accustomed to such a working state.
"Except for a few people who undertake management work, most people devote themselves to scientific research, which can ensure the investment time of core technicians from the system design." Du Qiang told the China Science Journal.
To build such a dedicated research team is inseparable from the guarantee of the mechanism behind it. Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has been ahead in the reform of scientific research system, has continued to play the leading role of "pioneer" and "reduced the burden" for scientific and technological workers in the practice of "I do practical things for the masses" to stimulate stronger innovation vitality.
In order to hand over satisfactory answers to the country
Du Qiang has always had a dream: independently develop high-performance and high-reliability aero-engines to fill the shortcomings of China’s industrial system.
Gas turbines and aero-engines are known as "flowers of industry" and are high-end manufacturing industries with extremely high thresholds. The difficulty of research and development can be imagined. As the deputy director of the laboratory and the deputy chief engineer of the model, Du Qiang shoulders a heavy burden.
Recently, however, his management work has been a lot easier-in order to better support the model task, the quality office of the institute and the major special office have been deeply involved, sharing the routine work of the research team’s key models, such as external coordination and liaison, meetings, and document sorting.
"It really helped us share a lot of trivial matters, so that researchers can better focus on the main business." Du Qiang said, "The mission orientation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences leads us to be a’ national person’ and shoulder the’ national responsibility’ and fully solve the national needs."
Huang Congli, secretary of the Party Committee and deputy director of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, said that "scientific research service comes first" is the focus of the institute’s practical activities of "I do practical things for the masses", which will give full play to the role of grassroots party organizations as fighting bastions and pioneers in party member, and ensure the effectiveness of "I do practical things for the masses" with practical actions.
For a long time, China has been restricted by the blank of high-power gas turbine test equipment. In order to solve this bottleneck, the country has started the construction of a major scientific and technological infrastructure-high-efficiency, low-carbon gas turbine test equipment. In order to hand over a satisfactory answer sheet to the country as soon as possible, the Party Committee of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics decided to merge 12 management support party branches, party member, into the high-efficiency and low-carbon gas turbine party branch, and at the same time, all the staff of the major facilities department moved to the laboratory to work with researchers. Thanks to everyone’s concerted efforts, the scientific apparatus has recently completed all the design of the experimental platform, and the supporting projects have started in an all-round way.
Such unreserved support not only reassured the researchers, but also ensured the efficient progress of the project. In the development of a certain type of gas turbine, the scientific research team encountered the dilemma that there was no suitable test bench in China. Time waits for no one, and Lan Kaiwei, director of conditional construction project of Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, went to the outfield to coordinate and advance.
At the scene in Jinan, Lan Kaiwei quickly organized everyone to identify the problem, make plans, coordinate and promote, and solve the problem of buck passing. For more than three months, he worked overtime with the construction workers and did not rest for a weekend. In the end, with the cooperative efforts of many teams, the gas turbine bench, which usually takes several years to complete, was built in only three months, and "China Speed" shone on the engineering site.
Before leaving Jinan, the head of the base who "fought" together grabbed Lan Kaiwei and took a work photo hand in hand under party flag. Looking at the photo at the end of the year, this old party member, who has been a party member for 15 years, broke down in tears. Lan Kaiwei likened himself to "a grain of sand"-it can be more powerful than granite if it is melted into the cement mortar of the team.
Return the time to the researchers.
At 11: 23 on April 29, 2021, "Tianhe" went to heaven!
The successful launch of the core module of China Space Station not only marks the full-scale construction of the space station in orbit, but also means the official opening of China’s space laboratory.
For this day, the research team of space science experiment cabinet of Chinese Academy of Sciences has worked hard for more than 3,000 days. But they have no time to relax, because the task has just been completed 1/10.
"Tianhe has brought two experimental cabinets to the sky, and nearly 20 are being integrated and debugged. Now our task is very tight, and we work almost until late at night every day." Kelly, director of the Integrated Technology Center of the Space Application Engineering and Technology Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Space Application Center), told the China Science Journal.
In fact, from 2015 to now, the Kelly team hasn’t had a full day off.
According to the plan, China’s space station will be built around 2022 to realize the dream of a space laboratory. However, the development of more than 20 multi-disciplinary scientific experimental cabinets is an innovative road from scratch. In order to get through this road, a large number of researchers have devoted themselves to studying and tackling problems unremittingly. Where did all their time go? Countless holidays, rest days and sleepless nights, they all stick to their jobs.
Zhao Guangheng, secretary of the Party Committee and deputy director of the Space Application Center, said that as a research institute born with the mission of major national tasks, the Space Application Center comprehensively sorted out and optimized the work processes of various functional departments in this year’s "I do practical things for the masses" practice, improved the level of digital and intelligent services and efficiency, and returned the time to researchers to the greatest extent.
To this end, the Space Application Center System Working Group has held seven special meetings, sorted out and optimized the work processes of various functional departments one by one, revised 22 systems, reduced unnecessary "signatures" as much as possible, and freed researchers from the cumbersome process.
The Space Application Center has also built and implemented an office automation system, transforming the offline approval of daily comprehensive affairs into online information customized services. Up to now, online processing has accumulated more than 2,000 businesses such as "leaving Beijing for approval", "information release approval", "visiting during the epidemic" and "official car".
In this regard, Kelly said: "I do practical things for the masses" is very powerful! Our research room has a lot of business trips. Every day, one-fifth of people are outside, and there are many urgent tasks. Now automation, informationization and paperless office are of great help to us, which can also effectively strengthen management and improve work efficiency. "
Do a good job of "subtraction"
Doing a good job of "subtraction" and "loosening" scientific and technological personnel is not only the consensus of all institutes and affiliated units of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, but also the key project of the practice of "I do practical things for the masses" of the party group of the Chinese Academy of Sciences this year-actively promoting management innovation, further implementing the "streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services" reform, and freeing scientific and technological personnel from the cumbersome and unnecessary institutional constraints.
In the management of the strategic pilot science and technology project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the competent department has received more than 120 feedback opinions after extensively listening to the opinions of the masses, and will revise the management measures and relevant system rules accordingly. It is reported that the revised method will optimize the management process, expand the scope of "green channel" in the process of project demonstration and mid-term inspection, give leading scientists and research institutions more authority to manage personnel and property, and provide institutional guarantee for high-quality implementation of pilot projects.
Popularizing intelligent technical services to solve the problem of "complicated reimbursement" is also an important measure to further implement the "streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services" policy in the practice of "I do practical things for the masses".
In the Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the allocation ratio of scientific research financial assistants to scientific research groups has basically reached 1: 1, forming full coverage of scientific research topics and effectively reducing the burden on scientific researchers. The team of scientific research financial assistants is all held by employees, and the composition of the team is stable. Liu Xuelu, a senior engineer, said that this has effectively reduced the burden on researchers and enabled them to devote more time and energy to scientific research and innovation activities.
In Shanghai Institute of Silicate, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in view of the pain point of "complicated audit" such as the need to concentrate on transferring a large number of vouchers and copying and stamping in a short time for special audit of scientific research projects, the institute promoted the establishment of "accounting voucher image information scheme". The goal is to establish a electronic certificate database that meets the requirements of electronic archives of Chinese Academy of Sciences and provide data support for scientific research project audit at any time. According to reports, the institute has photographed and uploaded about 260,000 vouchers, and it is expected to provide services to researchers from March next year, which will fundamentally solve the problem of difficulty in accessing vouchers. Yang Jinjing, a senior engineer, said that the visualization of vouchers is the biggest improvement of office automation and data, which allows researchers to focus more on scientific research.
(Originally published in China Science Journal, 4th edition, December 22, 2022)