On Developing Scientific Research At Local Colleges/Universities

A systematic study of developing scientific research at local colleges/universities is of urgent demand for their own self-development and fulfilling social services. On the basis of the analysis of the current situation of scientific research at these colleges or universities, this paper intends to explore the functions, status, characteristics and orientation of scientific research and to illustrate strategies and measures for scientific research development. Furthermore, focusing on the major factors affecting and deciding the development of scientific research, the author seeks to construct a steering system so that a new insight can be provided for the sake of its leap-forward development.The human resources engaged in research and development programs of science and technology and social sciences as well as the number of personnel involved in research and development at the local institutions of higher learning account for more than half of the total of all colleges and universities in China, while the outlay for their research activities accounts for only 30 percent. The output of their scientific activities accounts for 50 percent or so, some of them for as much as 80-90 percent. Local colleges or universities definitely have some strength and advantages in scientific research. Meanwhile, irrational collocation of their human resources, insufficient exertion of their overall strength, severe deficiency of their research funds, considerable differences between themselves, scarcity of higher-level research programs, miniaturization of research items, weakness of their research institutions, fewer academic exchanges, low-leveled research results, and incapability of technology transfer—all these restrict the scientific research development at local colleges and universities.The exertion of their research potential should comply with the internal logical requirements of their self-development and the demands for their serving the local economy, social development and scientific innovations. Local colleges and universities, should put emphasis on subject construction and higher-level talents training, especially the training of research leaders and scientific research corps; and focus on providing talents and technological support for regional economy, society, scientific development in terms of serving local economic construction and social progress. Therefore, in the national and local innovation systems, local colleges or universities are the key bases for training innovative talents, one of the principal parts of knowledge innovations, fresh troops for scientific innovations, and major forces for technological innovations.Besides having such qualities as their multi-leveled research tasks, multi-layered research teams, diverse scientific orientations, extensive research areas, superior materialistic conditions, these colleges and universities are characterized by being regional in research contents and pragmatic in research goals. Hence, close research modes, dispersive research resources and short-termed research directions. So their scientific research orientations should comply with their own research functions and characteristics. And they should seek their appropriate locations in scientific research by starting from the demands of the local economic construction and social development, from the development of the local cultural heritage and natural resources and from the intersecting and infiltrating of different subjects and preponderant scientific research directions.Scientific research leaders are the core of scientific research, the key to knowledge innovations, scientific innovations and technological innovations, and the decisive factors for scientific development and the cultivation of scientific research characteristics. Research leaders include subject foregoers and academic foregoers. The lack of higher-level scientific research leaders is the key restriction to the scientific research development at these local colleges or universities. So, the training of scientific research...