Taiwan’s long-term technological competitiveness could be undermined by a decline in government funding for basic university research, Minister of Science and Technology (MOST) Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) warned yesterday.
Basic research lays the foundation for technological innovation and industrial transformation, Chen said at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee, adding that he hopes lawmakers would unfreeze some of the ministry’s funds.
The amount in the national budget allocated to technology has grown from NT$94.2 billion (US$3.03 billion) in 2010 to NT$115 billion in this fiscal year, the highest in 10 years, Chen said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
However, the percentage of funds allocated to basic research has fallen from 10.2 percent of the national budget in 2008 to 7.8 percent in 2017, the lowest over the period, he said.
Since March 2014, when the National Science Council was reorganized as the Ministry of Science and Technology, the government started to slip in its support of basic university research, while the number of research papers began to fall at about the same time, he said.
Taiwan used to publish more research papers than Switzerland, but since 2013, Switzerland has surpassed Taiwan, he said, citing data compiled by the ministry’s National Applied Research Laboratories.
The decline in basic research is a bad indicator for long-term technological development, as countries with advanced technology — Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, the US and China — consider it the key to boosting national competitiveness, Chen said, adding that among the countries, Taiwan’s allocation for basic research is only lower than China’s.
However, China has plenty of public funding for universities, Chen said, adding that Tsinghua University in Beijing has an annual budget of more than 20 billion yuan (US$2.91 billion), almost double the allocation for basic research in Taiwan.
Many academics have complained about shrinking public funds and the unfair distribution of resources. In January, Chen vowed to increase the budget for basic research by 10 percent a year.
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