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Silos hamstring Chinese plant biotech sector

Nature Biotechnology volume 30, pages 749–750 (2012)Cite this article

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To the Editor:

Although multinational companies dominate research and development (R&D) on genetically modified (GM) crops elsewhere in the world, GM crop R&D in China is mainly conducted by the public sector1,2. Since 2008, Chinese R&D on GM crops and animals has been spurred by $3.8 billion of new funding from the National GM Variety Development Special Program (GMSP), which supplements existing public funding mechanisms for this type of research. We set out to assess the innovativeness and focus of China's public R&D program on crop biotech by surveying 147 colleges in universities and public research institutes that engaged in the recent GMSP. Our results suggest that the widespread siloing of expertise in different aspects of GM crop R&D may be thwarting the efficient coordination of research efforts nationally. Overcoming these silos may therefore represent an important goal for the Chinese public agbiotech sector.

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References

  1. Cohen, J.I. Nat. Biotechnol. 23, 27–33 (2005).

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  2. Huang, J.K., Rozelle, S., Pray, C. & Wang, Q.F. Science 295, 674–676 (2002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China

    Ruifa Hu & Jinyang Cai

  2. Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Ruifa Hu, Jinyang Cai, Jikun Huang & Xiaobing Wang

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  1. Ruifa Hu
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  2. Jinyang Cai
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  3. Jikun Huang
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  4. Xiaobing Wang
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Correspondence to Jikun Huang.

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Hu, R., Cai, J., Huang, J. et al. Silos hamstring Chinese plant biotech sector. Nat Biotechnol 30, 749–750 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2323

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