Is there any time to buy rice for cooking?In fact, every scientific research team needs this position

Text | "China Science News" Chen Bin

After more than a month, Liu Xuan (a pseudonym) will return to his alma mater with the arrival of the autumn semester. However, his identity will no longer be a student, but a scientific research assistant of his master's degree instructor.

Not long ago, seven departments such as the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education jointly issued the "Notice on Doing a Good job in the development and implementation of scientific research assistants' posts", which requires all departments to be universities, central scientific research institutes, central enterprises, etc. Among the various major innovation base platforms for the planning project and construction layout, actively absorb college graduates to participate in scientific research, and reasonably set up new scientific research assistants.

In fact, many domestic universities have expanded the scale of scientific research assistants in recent years. On April 14 this year, the Executive Meeting of the State Council also clearly proposed that "research projects to absorb graduate programs and develop 100,000 scientific research assistants' positions." With the release of the latest policies, more and more people joined by Liu Xuan.

The role of "storage tank"

One year ago, Liu Xuan, who was about to graduate from a master's degree, originally wanted to follow the tutor to continue his blog, but for some reasons, he did not wish.

After graduating, he went to work in a company for a while, but he still couldn't let go of his wish. After discussing with the mentor, he became a scientific research assistant of the research team.

"For me, this is just a temporary job.

The tutor's arrangement also hopes that I can use this time to participate in the research group research on the one hand, and on the other hand, accumulate academic capital for Kaobo. "In an interview with the Journal of China, Liu Xuan admitted.

When Liu Xuan was actively prepared for the work of scientific research assistants, Wang Yina, who was just employed by the post of scientific research assistants in the Agricultural University of China, was working hard to adapt to her new job.

Wang Ya was recruited into the Nong University in March this year. She had worked in an enterprise for a while before. However, compared to the fierce workplace in the "inner volume", she prefers the relatively simple scientific research environment of interpersonal relationships.

After coming to the research group, Wang Yina was mainly responsible for the financial reimbursement of the research group, the application for daily meeting, and some external work. She is very satisfied with her current working state.

Liu Xuan and Wang Ya can be regarded as the two typical representatives of the current scientific research assistant group.

According to the "Administrative Measures (Interim)" issued by the Ministry of Education in 2010, scientific research assistants of colleges and universities refer to the school's research, experimental (engineering) technology and scientific research based on the needs of the school's long -term development of scientific research tasks and the long -term development of school science and technology. Auxiliary personnel are an important part of the school's full -time scientific research team.

It can be seen that the scientific research assistant work responsibilities of colleges and universities in my country are not limited to participating in scientific research assistance, but include a series of tasks such as experimental facilities management and maintenance work, academic exchanges, and scientific research and financial assistants.

In this regard, Zhang Duanhong, deputy director of the Tongji University Higher Education Research Institute, who has been paying attention to the related issues related to scientific research assistants for a long time, said that the scope of scientific research assistants is very large.

"Scientific research assistants can absorb some researchers with high education and other high -education and have considerable scientific research capabilities to participate in scientific research activities; they can also absorb a master's degree with a certain level of professional technology and conduct certain scientific research assistance work; in addition, some are responsible for administrative nature. The scientific assistant of the work can also include some undergraduates and even college students into it, and even hire those retired college administrators. This makes the scientific research assistant cover the scope of the crowd very widely. "Zhang Duanhong said.

On the other hand, for many young scholars who have academic ideals like Liu Xuan, scientific research assistants can be used as temporary work to provide a "buffer period" for them.

Zhang Duanhong once promised to his students that if the students did not have a good way out for the time being after graduation, they could go to his research team to engage in a year of scientific research assistants; For those who work at the atmosphere of colleges and universities, this can be a relatively long -term job, thereby solving the employment problem of some people.

"At present, scientific research assistants have played an important role in assisting scientific research institutions and research groups; at the same time, due to their own institutional flexibility, they also play a role in the movement of talents and employment." Zhang Duanhong Said, this is an important reason why relevant departments vigorously promote the absorption of scientific research assistants.

Regarding the role of science and technology assistants, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Science and Technology also said: "Scientific research assistants effectively mobilized the enthusiasm of scientific researchers, met the needs of high -quality completion of scientific research project tasks, promoted the adjustment of the funding structure of scientific research projects, and solved the scientific researchers of universities' '' I have money to buy rice, I do n’t work to cook 'and so on. "

"Money" problem

In 2011, Zang Yufeng was hired to come to the Institute of Psychological Sciences of Hangzhou Normal University and obtained a scientific research funding provided by the school.

After getting the money, the recruitment of scientific research assistants became one of his important tasks for his formation team.

"This is needed by every scientific research team, but there are too few scientific research funds before, and it can't be hired." Zang Yifeng said.

Just as Zang Yifeng's joining Hangzhou Normal University two years ago, in 2009, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education and other departments jointly issued the "Several Opinions on Encouraging Scientific Research Project Units to absorb and stabilize the employment of college graduates", and proposed to hire college graduates as research assistants Or auxiliary personnel participate in the research work. This has become the starting point for my country to promote the work of scientific research assistants at the government level.

Behind this point, there is a bigger background, that is, after years of development, the funds of my country's scientific research institutions are gradually suffering. In fact, as the year before the opinion, the Ministry of Education announced that the total amount of scientific research funds through various channels through various channels reached 65.45 billion yuan, an increase of 20%over the previous year.

"The growth of scientific research funds provided certain conditions for the recruitment of scientific and technological recruitment of scientific and technological personnel, but at that time, the relatively strict funding provisions of the use of funds were largely restrained to the recruitment behavior of the scientific research team." Zhang Duanhong said.

Taking Zang Yifeng as an example, the scientific research assistants he hired at that time were more funds in the name of the school rather than in the name of the research group.

Because according to regulations, the labor costs of national funds only account for less than 15%, and the funds of the research group cannot be used in large quantities of personnel recruitment.

This issue did not get the "Several Opinions on Further Improve the Policies of Funding the Central Financial Research Project" of the Central Office and the State Office in 2016, and allowed "buying soy sauce money for vinegar". solve.

Since then, in August 2021, the General Office of the State Council also issued the "Several Opinions on Reform and Improve the Management of the Central Financial Research Fund", which proposed 25 measures from 7 aspects of expanding the autonomy of scientific research project funding management autonomy and improving the funding mechanism for scientific research project funding. , Further use the "loosening" for the funding of scientific researchers.

"For each scientific research team, scientific research assistants are almost necessary. As for whether they can recruit, it is still a question of 'money'." Zang Yufeng said.

However, in Zhang Duanhong's opinion, an important obstacle to hindering the recruitment of scientific research assistants in some colleges and universities is still here. "At present, the distribution of scientific research funds of domestic universities is largely in line with '28 laws'. A small number of universities and related research groups have most of the resources. The uneven distribution of this resource allocated has led to lack of sufficient funds in many research groups."

According to the data provided by Zhang Xiaofeng, assistant researcher of the Institute of Science and Technology of Beijing University of Science and Technology, in a article, in 2018, the total amount of scientific research expenses of domestic universities has reached 205.269 billion yuan, of which about 110 original "211 Engineering" universities and provincial and ministerial were co -constructed. Universities, accounting for more than 65% of the total scientific research funding year, with a total of 133.559 billion yuan.

This has led a small number of universities to have sufficient funds to set up scientific research assistants, while more than 1,800 universities have weak actual ability to establish related positions.

In addition to funding factors, the concept of some research group leaders also has certain deviations.

"For example, in the case of increasing scientific research expenses, some research team leaders considered not to improve the existing team structure by setting up scientific research assistants 'positions, but to think about whether to allow graduate students to continue' part -time 'administrative work, or' 蹭 蹭 蹭 蹭'Let's take a look at the college's other scientific research secretaries. "Zhang Duanhong said that this can be regarded as a" small farmer awareness "in scientific research management. I only saw funding expenditure, but did not realize the improvement of scientific research assistants on the overall scientific research efficiency of the team. In the end It is "greedy and cheap to eat big losses."

Core

Not long ago, Yanbian University issued an announcement of a scientific research assistant position.

It is mentioned that the monthly salary of doctoral, master, and undergraduate graduates is 4,000 yuan, 3,000 yuan and 2500 yuan, respectively. This low salary standard has once again triggered public discussion.

In this regard, Zhang Xiaofeng said that the state's current regulations for scientific research assistants must not be lower than the local minimum wage standards, and at this stage, most universities are often hired in the form of personnel agency and labor dispatch due to their preparation quotas.

This makes welfare benefits from scientific research assistants and schools' wages, medical care, housing, and children's enrollment.

In addition to the treatment, due to the difference in the content of the scientific research assistant, different people's awareness of their work is different. After all, students who are interested in continuing to study are exactly different from students who want to work in administrative positions in the future. This has made scientific research assistants' significance of the career planning of graduates.

However, in Zhang Duanhong's opinion, the above issues all stem from the characteristics of the inherent posts of scientific research assistants. The latter has a certain rationality and is difficult to change.

"At present, a considerable proportion of scientific research assistants are originally temporary and transitional. For scientific research assistants in these positions, their future way out is not in the post itself, but after a period of precipitation, find a new way out. "He said that as for certain non -transitional positions, the recipients had to reach an agreement with the project team in terms of treatment and other aspects before joining the job. As long as the two parties have reached an agreement, this work is not much different from other administrative work.

Wang Yina came to the research group with such a mentality. At present, her monthly income can basically meet her expectations, and there is no plan to change jobs in a short time.

Zhang Duanhong admits that behind these disputes, the public's perception of scientific research assistants is still a bit vague.

"In foreign countries, the positioning of the positions of scientific assistants in universities is very clear -although they will also engage in certain scientific research work, it is essentially the manpower services purchased by relevant institutions for their scientific researchers. . "Zhang Duanhong said that service nature is the primary nature of scientific research assistants. This is what we need to learn from.

He explained that scientific researchers from domestic universities were often based on "personal combat", and most of their scientific research organizations were composed of teachers and their students. The structure was relatively simple and primitive. However, with the development of scientific and technological innovation models to a new stage, colleges and universities have undertaken more and more tasks for serving major national strategic needs and key areas of key areas.

Carrying out "organizational scientific research" has also become an inherent need for the evolution of the scientific research organization model of colleges and universities.

"In this context, university scientific research organizations need to gradually develop into a standardized scientific research organization composed of project leaders or chief scientists, full -time teachers, full -time scientific researchers, postdoctoral students, graduate students, and scientific research assistants." He said, under this organizational model The personnel of different positions are responsible for their responsibilities, and their job responsibilities should not be missing nor generalized.

"To put it more straightforward, we must pay special attention to we can't alienate the scientific research assistant into 'quasi -academic positions', and then start from the nature of this post, and make unrealistic expectations for scientific research assistants."

Zhang Duanhong said that the biggest value of scientific research assistants is not how much contribution to scientific research itself, but to make "labor" and "service" in the university by setting up the position, and In the process of modernization model transformation, the role of "catalyst" is the core of the scientific research assistant system.

Space

The reason why Wang Yina is relatively satisfied with her current working status is that in addition to the good treatment, Fan Shenggen, the head of his research group and professor of Chinese Agricultural University, also has a lot to do.

"Teacher Fan is very good and cares about me very well, and the cooperation between team members is also tacit." She said, "Mr. Fan had to work for a long time in this research group, so I don't intend to leave."

The reporter found in the interview that in the scientific research team, the scientific research assistant was influenced by the team leader than other positions. Just as some scientific research assistants said in response to questions from netizens, "" Follow a good person in charge is more important than anything. "

Zang Yufeng said that scientific research assistants are a very "personalized" position.

Because the object of its service is mainly a member of a specific scientific research team, the team members, especially the team leader's satisfaction with the team leader, directly determine the work of scientific research assistants.

From this perspective, the flexibility of the position of scientific research assistants, and even "lack of norms" in some aspects, is understandable.

However, this does not mean that the relevant system of scientific research assistants does not need to continue to improve.

In an interview with the media, Zhong Baichang, a professor at the School of Education and Technology, South China Normal University, bluntly stated that to establish a long -term mechanism for the construction of scientific research assistants, it is necessary to solve the problems, funding issues, and institutional issues. Institutional guarantee.

According to Zhong Baichang, universities in developed countries generally divide 3 to 4 levels of scientific research assistants, such as "help -management -research -researcher (postdoctoral) -Sehished researchers", each level has different requirements for the academic qualifications and ability of scientific research assistants, but They are all temporary contract systems, and generally follow the project.

"In China, it is necessary to establish a guidelines for the classification classification of scientific research assistants that are in line with national sentiment and different from the teacher title system, so as to provide clear guidance for the development of scientific research assistants." He said.

Zhang Duanhong also said that at this stage, many people's basic understanding of scientific research assistant positions is relatively vague.

This requires relevant departments to have a clearer positioning of scientific research assistants, and prevent people from being unrealistic about the system at the institutional level.

At the same time, through the system regulations, a framework system for scientific research assistants management enables team members to regulate the management of scientific research assistants while forming certain consensus.

"The reason why it is said to formulate a framework is because scientific research assistants are still very personalized positions. It can be said that each scientific research team has different requirements for scientific research assistants. Therefore, relevant regulations must be left for different teams to be available for different teams. How to find a balance between specified and personalized is still the challenge we need to face. "Zhang Duanhong said.

"China Science News" (2022-07-19 The 4th edition of the 4th edition of the original title "Research Assistant: Let the" Organizational Scientific Research "really happened")

Edit | Fangyuan

Capture | Zhihai

Data-nickName = "Science Network" Data-ALIAS = "ScienceNet-Cas" Data-Signature = "In-circle major events, industry insights, occasionally gossip ... Produced from the world's largest Chinese science community, Chinese Science News Agency. Contact us: Cooperation: Cooperation: Cooperation:[email protected]; submitting [email protected]. "Data-from =" 2 " /> Cooperation matters: [email protected]

Submission: [email protected]

Like this article?Praise + watch support!

- END -