效能提升视角下政府科研项目资助与管理机制分析： 以“揭榜挂帅”“赛马制”和“首席制”为例

Analysis on the Funding and Management Mechanisms of Government Scientific Research Project from the Perspective of Efficiency Improvement: Taking the Mechanisms of “Open Competition Mechanism to Select the Best Candidates”, “Horse Racing “, and “Chief System” as Examples

摘要:

在当前财政收入增速放缓、社会经济发展对科技创新需求空前高涨的背景之下，如何有效选择科研项目的资助与管理机制，通过向管理要效率，提升政府科技投入效能成为政府项目资助与管理面临的重要问题。“揭榜挂帅”等新的科研项目管理机制自提出和进行实践探索以来，已有相关研究缺乏对其具体模式进行综合性比较分析，特别是缺乏对其使用条件和选择依据等方面的研究。为此，从政府科研项目的科学目标确定性与资源充分性出发构建政府科研项目资助与管理机制的二维分析模型（以下简称“二维模型”），并基于此以“揭榜挂帅”“赛马制”和“首席制”等3种典型的项目管理机制为例进行比较分析。根据二维模型，政府项目管理机制的重点，对于资源充足、资助目标明确具体的项目主要在于如何快速达成目标，对于资源充足、资助目标不够明确具体的项目在于过程管理，对于资源有限、资助目标明确具体的项目在于如何利用有限的资源最大限度完成资助目标，而对于资源有限、资助目标不够明确的项目则通常不考虑进行资助。综合比较来看，“揭榜挂帅”极其注重研究成果，属于出口竞争，适用于政府资源充足且资助目标明确具体的情境；“赛马制”将资源聚焦优势主体，偏向于出口竞争，适用于政府资源相对有限而资助目标明确具体的情境；“首席制”强调首席角色的战略眼光及个人能力，属于入口竞争，适用于政府资源充足而目标宏观的情境。最后，从理清政府资助目标与和资源、基于实际需求有针对性地选择适宜模式并动态灵活调整管理机制，以及兼顾政府宏观指导与市场配置资源作用等方面，提出新形势下中国政府科研项目资助管理机制选择的政策建议。

Abstract:

Under the background of the current slowdown in fiscal revenue growth and the unprecedented high demand for scientific and technological innovation in social and economic development, how to effectively choose the funding and management mechanism for scientific research projects, and improve the efficiency of government science and technology investment by seeking efficiency from management, has become an important issue faced by the current government project funding and management. Since the proposal and practical exploration of new scientific research project management mechanisms such as “open competition mechanism to select the best candidates”, there has been a lack of comprehensive comparative analysis of its specific patterns in existing research, especially in terms of their usage conditions and selection criteria. Therefore, starting from the certainty of scientific goals and resource adequacy of government scientific research projects, a two-dimensional analysis model(hereinafter referred to as “two-dimensional model”) of the funding and management mechanism of government scientific research projects is constructed, and based on this, a comparative analysis was conducted using three typical project management mechanisms: “open competition mechanism to select the best candidates”, “horse racing” and “chief system”. According to the two-dimensional model, the focus of government project management mechanism is mainly on how to quickly achieve goals for projects with sufficient resources and clear funding objectives. For projects with sufficient resource and unclear unspecific funding objectives, process management is the key. For projects with limited resources and clear funding objectives, how to maximize the use of limited resources to achieve funding objectives is the key. For projects with limited resources and unclear funding objectives, funding is usually not considered. Overall comparison shows that “open competition mechanism to select the best candidates” places great emphasis on research results, belongs to competition at the exit, and is suitable for situations where government resources are sufficient and funding objectives are clear and specific; “horse racing” focuses resources on advantageous entities, leans more towards competition at the exit, and is suitable for situations where government resources are relatively limited and funding objectives are clear and specific; “chief system” emphasizes the strategic vision and personal abilities of the chief role, belongs to competition at the entrance, and is suitable for situations where government resources are sufficient and the objectives are macroscopic. Finally, from the aspects of clarifying government funding objectives and resources, selecting appropriate models based on actual needs and dynamically adjusting management mechanisms, as well as balancing the role of government macro guidance and market resource allocation, policy recommendations are put forward for the selection of Chinese government scientific research project funding management mechanisms under the new situation.