Big horizons for a giant of science

Established in 1949, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is the nation’s most prestigious research institution. CAS researchers are dedicated to addressing both theoretical and applied problems. Their breakthroughs have contributed to China’s rise as a research powerhouse, and have driven innovation in China and beyond.

CAS currently encompasses three universities and 100-plus research institutes across China. It leads the world in volume of scientific output, and has established research strengths in a number of natural science fields, including chemistry, physics, material science, and Earth sciences.

CAS’s scale coupled with decades of generous financial support from the government have helped to drive the total number of papers. But does this translate into high-quality research? Does CAS exhibit balanced growth in all research fields? And how does CAS compare with the other leading research institutions around the world?

Science and technology also drive societal impact. To boost its capacity for innovation, CAS has launched new initiatives to restructure its institutes, optimize its management systems, and enhance international collaboration. This report will examine the patterns of growth in scientific publications over the past 10 years to see whether these initiatives have had an effect. While this is not a comprehensive assessment of innovation capacity, examining how CAS balances applied versus basic research and how it is diversifying its output gives a hint of how effectively CAS is addressing societal needs.

This report considers the volume and growth of CAS’s research output, first, by broad research fields. It then drills down into high-quality research, as tracked by the Nature Index, and delves into research sub-specialities to identify areas of strength and growth potential. The report also compares CAS’s research output with that of the world’s other leading research institutions to assess where CAS leads and where it trails. These data analyses are accompanied by case studies on the outstanding specialities that account for the largest volume, the fastest growth, or the highest concentration in high-quality research output.

The aim is to identify CAS’s research strengths and its growth patterns, particularly, in applied fields, suggest reasons behind the trends, and draw lessons for the future growth of CAS and of other research institutions.