| Science and technology award system (CSTAS) gives honor and security to the people, who make prominent contributions to the scientific and technological activities, by the whole social system according to certain rules. The nature of CSTAS is to acknowledge scientific and technical workers themselves and their corresponding achievements. The main functions are to inspire creativity, promote spread and application of science and technology, etc. From the perspective of psychology, sociology and the subject of science and technology awards, the understanding in operational mechanism of CSTAS can be deepened. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese CSTAS has generally experienced three phases:the phase of start-up and exploration (1949-1976), the phase of adjustment and development (1977-1998) and the phase of reform and improvement (since 1999). In the phase of start-up and exploration, the government becomes the dominating awarding organization in CSTAS; the basic operational procedures of review are established; both material and mental rewards are valued. In the phase of adjustment and development, the awarding levels of CSTAS become richer and the rewards are more targeted; the procedures of review are more rigorous; both the honor of mental rewards and the amount of material rewards promote gradually. In the phase of reform and improvement, the frame of subject and object in CSTAS forms and improves unceasingly; the review focuses on not only the orientation of science and technology, but also the fairness; and the awards emphasizes on input-output. During the evolutionary process of these three phases, Chinese CSTAS presents the evolution orbit. That is, to continuously improve in the tortuous path and enhance its efficacy. There are five aspects of motivations leading to its evolution:economic development and social progress, inner desire of the rewards by the scientific and technical workers, the short-term science and technology awards program implemented for the sake of periodic purpose by the nation, the negative effects generated during the operation of science and technology awards, and the influence by the adjustment and improvement of foreign CSTAS. Through the analysis of historical evolving process and realistic condition, the current existing problems of Chinese CSTAS are discovered. They mainly refer to insufficient efficacy of the orientation of original innovation, illogical dominant role of awarding organizations, deficient incentives to the scientific and technical workers, incomplete review mode and dissatisfactory actual benefits after awarding. The future reforming trend of Chinese CSTAS will be presented as follows:to enhance the inclination of the original innovation awards, to change dominating awarding status between government and social forces gradually, to stress more on incentive effects, to strengthen the standardization of evaluation, and to promote complementation of CSTAS and National Innovation System. To adapt to the future reforming trend and the needs to promote scientific and technical innovation, objectives and principles regarding the establishment of high-efficient CSTAS should be further determined. Besides, some effective measures should be adopted. That is, to reinforce the guidance of original innovation, to accelerate the awarding speed of social forces, to expand the levels and fields of awards setting, to optimize the bonus distributional plan, to ameliorate the scientificity of reviews and to increase CSTAS profits which generate after awarding. |
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