Scientists monitor the operation of China's Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) at the Institute of High Energy Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, capital of China, Feb 18, 2021. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

China's research and development personnel witnessed rapid growth during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), with an annual average of more than seven percent, CPPCC Daily reported, citing a report released by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

As per the China Science and Technology Talent Development Report, the number of full-time equivalent R&D personnel rose to 5.09 million in 2020 from 3.88 million in 2016. China has maintained the world's largest pool of R&D personnel for several years.

China's R&D personnel headcount in basic research, application research and experimental development all kept a sustained upside trend in recent years, according to the report. Among them, the basic research saw the biggest growth.

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Data showed that in 2019, the number of people working in basic research rose 87,000, or 28.5 percent year-on-year to 392,000. Its proportion among the total R&D personnel have surpassed 6 percent for 10 years in a row, while in 2019, the figure was 8.2 percent.

Guided by the policies unveiled by the government to strengthen basic research, this sector experienced rapid growth, becoming a cluster for science and technology talents, said Chen Baoming, deputy director of the talent center of the Ministry of Science and Technology .

With improved macro scientific research environment, more people choose to work in basic research, laying a foundation for development and breakthrough of China's basic research. Meanwhile, the country is in urgent need of basic research talents with original innovation, which required more exploration in personnel training, Chen added.

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Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, the layout of technological talents continued to optimize, with more young people becoming the main force in scientific research.

The report showed that in recent years, the proportion of R&D personnel with doctoral degree increased rapidly. In 2019, the number of people working in research and development reached 7.13 million, among which the ratio of people with bachelor degree or above stood at 63.6 percent, compared with 50.5 percent in 2015.