China makes big leap forward in basic research spending
- Official data shows basic research reached 6.5 per cent of the country’s overall R&D outlay last year
- The total is nearly 24 per cent higher than a year earlier
Basic research accounted for 6.5 per cent of China’s overall R&D expenditure last year, as the country moved closer to its goal of 8 per cent by 2025.
In all, the country spent 182 billion yuan (US$26.4 billion) on basic research in 2021, an increase of nearly 24 per cent from the previous year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. The growth rate was well above the 9.8 per cent increase from 2019 to 2020.
In 2020, basic research accounted for 6.01 per cent of China’s overall R&D expenditure.
Basic research aims to better understand the fundamentals of how nature works, such as astronomy and mathematics. It often has no immediate applications, but can form the basis of scientific and technological innovation.
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