Shanghai key to basic research lead

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By XU XIAOMIN and ZHOU WENTING in Shanghai (China Daily) 08:38, April 17, 2025

Shanghai's leading role in ensuring China's global preeminence in basic scientific research got off to a stellar start this year, with four major papers published in a single issue of the prestigious journal Cell in late January.

The papers were from teams at the Synthetic Science Innovation Research Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, or SJTU, the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the CAS' Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology.

Also, in the first two months of this year, researchers from Shanghai's Fudan University published six papers in the world's top three journals — Cell, Nature and Science — while another four papers have been accepted. As of early March, researchers from SJTU had published seven papers in these journals.

All the research projects focused on significant scientific questions and clear prospects for industrial applications.

With the surge in these publications, Zhao Weishu, an associate researcher at SJTU's School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, believes the brightest era for the country's basic research is about to arrive.

"With the current breadth of research, sample size, and industrialization capabilities, we are on the verge of a qualitative leap — perhaps a landmark scientific event, such as the emergence of a new theory. This should be something that all scientists work together toward," Zhao said.

"And amid this wave of scientific research, Shanghai, as an important center of basic research in China, shoulders the mission to promote breakthroughs with innovation at the source," she said.

Bao Wenzhong from Fudan University's State Key Laboratory of Integrated Chips and Systems explains the latest development in chip tech during a news conference in March. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

Paper trails

In 1997, Chinese researchers' original research papers published in Nature accounted for about 0.4 percent, data from the Springer Nature Group showed. By 2016, Chinese contributions had risen to around 11 percent.

Fast forward to 2023, when Chinese researchers published over 110,000 papers in leading international journals, representing roughly one-third of the global total, according to the latest annual report released by the China Institute of Scientific and Technical Information in September.

These papers were cited over 818,000 times, ranking China at the forefront globally, the report said.

Researchers said it is no accident that Chinese universities and institutions, especially those in Shanghai, have recently produced world-class research in batches. These achievements are underpinned by a systematic research support mechanism that attracts top talent, while encouraging innovation.

"Last year, 158 papers by scientists from the city were published in Cell, Nature, and Science, accounting for 30 percent of the country's total. They were published at a rate of one paper every two or three days," said Luo Dajin, director of the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

James Crabbe, a supernumerary fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University, and a former editor-in-chief of an international academic journal, said the situation is "quite different" from the past, when Chinese submissions were sometimes of a lower quality.

Since then, remarkable improvement has been seen, he said.

"There are now more scientific papers published by authors from China than in the United States, which is wonderful. That's a tremendous testament to the value China has given to the world in our science understanding," Crabbe said.

Academic freedom

Since 2014, when Shanghai began to build itself into an international science and technology innovation center, the city's total investment in basic research has grown by 13.8 percent every year.

Last year alone, the proportion of the city's investment in research and development reached about 11 percent, higher than the national level of 6.91 percent.

This year's Shanghai Government Work Report proposed speeding up the construction of basic research pilot zones, strengthening organized scientific research, and continuing support for high-risk, high-value research.

Shanghai's adherence to large-scale, long-term investment to support scientists conducting high-risk, high-value, and long-cycle research is beginning to pay off, experts said.

Outstanding young scientists in Shanghai are aiming to make breakthroughs and provide solutions to academic challenges and benefit the world.

"A large number of outstanding talented people, especially the young and middle-aged who are at the peak of their creativity, have returned to China in the past decade," said Jin Shi, dean of the Institute of Natural Sciences at SJTU.

"Their return represents the future, and is an important sign of the vitality of Chinese science," he said.