China’s top scientific institutes are trying to get the private sector more involved in the country’s research and development push by awarding more honorary titles to its high achievers. At least seven private sector specialists have been nominated for such titles by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) since the start of the year, according to their websites. The CAS and the CAE are China’s top two scientific organisations and provide policy advice to the government. Appointing honorary academics from the private sector would be an unusual move for the academies – those roles usually go to academics at research institutes and universities, and experts from state-owned enterprises. It follows a call in January from the China Association for Science and Technology – which represents scientists and engineers – for the CAS and the CAE to appoint more specialists from the private sector. The CAE responded positively, saying engineers who had made an outstanding contribution should be given more consideration for positions at the academy. Li Jin, chief researcher at the non-governmental China Enterprise Research Institute, said recognising the contribution of the private sector was “major progress”. “This means the [professionals] working in the private sector will have the same opportunity as those working at state-owned enterprises to take up these roles at China’s best scientific institutes,” Li said. That recognition would also help to boost investment in technology and encourage more talent to get involved in R&D in the private sector, as well as help transfer knowledge and skills from research institutes to business, Li said. Can China’s tech industry up its game and take the lead when it comes to innovation and research? China has made clear in recent years its ambition to become a global tech superpower, with top leadership including President Xi Jinping saying science and technology was one of the main battlefronts of the economy. Part of the campaign is the controversial “Made in China 2025” strategy unveiled in 2015, which aims to break the country’s reliance on foreign technology in sectors such as robotics, aerospace and new-energy vehicles. Spending on R&D has been gradually increasing in the past two decades. Last year, China spent 1.96 trillion yuan (US$291 billion) on research and development, an 11.6 per cent increase from 2017, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That represented 2.18 per cent of the country’s GDP – up from just 0.05 per cent of gross domestic product in 1995. This year the funding target is 2.5 per cent of GDP . Private companies have also been encouraged to play a bigger role in innovation. In the past decade, private manufacturers’ spending on R&D as a proportion of GDP went up by about 0.3 per cent, while that of state-owned enterprises fell, according to Hao Jingfang, a researcher at the China Development Research Foundation. “Private enterprises are the major driver behind the growth of China’s R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP,” Hao told a forum in Beijing in December. But while the move to get the private sector more involved in R&D was welcomed by researchers, concerns have been raised about the selection process. Of the seven people from the private sector nominated for honorary titles at the two academies, five are chairmen or founders of their companies and may not have a big role in technological innovation at the firms. Tang Dajie, secretary general of Beijing-based think tank the China Enterprise Institute, warned of potential corruption in the selection process, saying there had been cases of people buying votes to secure such positions. “These two academies are China’s highest research institutions, so they must have the highest requirements for their academics,” Tang said. In 2014, Zhang Shuguang, a former deputy chief engineer of the disbanded railways ministry, was given a suspended death sentence for taking 47 million yuan in bribes – 23 million yuan of which he reportedly used to secure a CAS membership.