Lawmakers and scholars yesterday urged the National Science Council to revise its existing award system to encourage higher quality work from Taiwan's researchers.
If a better system is not brought about relatively soon, the lawmakers said the annual NT$800 million given by government would be frozen.
Responding to the criticism, vice chairman of the council Wu Maw-kuen (吳茂昆) conceded that there are flaws in the evaluation system, but said the council has been working to implement a new system by the end of the year.
The award program, which was unveiled in the 1980s to encourage professors to engage in research, is under attack for its lack of an impartial evaluation system.
The program has mutated into a way to increase the salaries of "a few particular scholars," according to the legislators and academics.
"Ninety percent of the scholars receiving the research awards win every year. Given the fact that the winners do not pay taxes on the salary increases, it is like the government is creating a legal channel to evade taxes," said DPP legislator Chen Chin-jun (
Every year the council grants two types of awards to scholars who have produced quality research work -- "the general research award" and "the outstanding research award."
Winners of the former award are given an amount ranging from NT$90,000 to NT$144,000, while winners of the latter are given NT$300,000. Individuals who win the outstanding research award can receive the honor two years in a row without undergoing another evaluation.
Chen questioned the fairness of the system, saying the existing program is set up "to ensure a few particular scholars continue to receive benefits."
The lawmaker also condemned the council for granting the awards according to the quantity -- not quality -- of the reports produced by scholars.
They said the system encourages professors to mass-produce research papers of poor quality.
In support of Chen, Chen Kuo-cheng (
The quality, however, is highly dubious in view of the fact that they are rarely cited in international academic journals.
Acknowledging the defects of the current system, Wu told the Taipei Times that the council is fully aware of the problems and is in the process of mapping out a more rational scheme.
"The formation and rationale [of the current system] was shaped based on the temporal and spatial frame some 20 years ago when the government had to use money as an incentive to spur professors to conduct research," Wu said.
"But money is no longer such a strong consideration. What professors care about more is recognition. As a result, we know we have to revise the system so that the winners consider it a real honor," he said.
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