How to ensure the funding of science popularization at the grassroots level? China Science and Technology Association: continue to improve the guarantee mechanism.
Over the past decade, the central government has strongly supported the free opening of science and technology museums across the country. On January 15th, the Law Working Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress organized a collective interview on the Science and Technology Popularization Law. Gu Yanfeng, deputy director of the Science Popularization Department of the China Association for the Advancement of Science, stated that to ensure that grassroots science popularization activities are not restricted by funding shortages, the central government has been continuously improving the funding guarantee mechanism for science popularization and increasing its investment.
On December 25th, 2024, the newly revised “Science and Technology Popularization Law of the People’s Republic of China” will be officially implemented. The new law clearly states: “Science popularization is a public cause and an important content of the construction of socialist material and spiritual civilization. The development of science popularization is a long-term task of the country, and the country promotes the comprehensive integration of science popularization into economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological civilization construction, building a collaborative promotion pattern of science popularization development involving the government, society, and market.”
Pengpai News noted that the revised Science and Technology Popularization Law has been expanded from 6 chapters with 34 articles to 8 chapters with 60 articles, and September has been established as National Science Popularization Month.
Li Xin, an official from the relevant department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, explained that China’s science popularization work has long been primarily focused on public welfare. However, with changes in economic and social development and the needs of the public, the socialization, marketization, and industrialization of science popularization is an inevitable trend.
The new law, while emphasizing that science popularization is a public cause, explicitly requires the establishment of a “national encouragement and guidance for social capital investment in science popularization”. It stipulates that enterprises should carry out science popularization activities in conjunction with scientific research and production, and encourages non-governmental forces to establish science popularization awards in accordance with the law.
Regarding how to ensure that grassroots science popularization activities are not restricted by funding shortages, Gu Yanfeng stated that the central government has been continuously improving the funding guarantee mechanism for science popularization, increasing investment to support the high-quality development of science popularization and enhancing its strategic position. In 2024, an allocation of 2.889 billion yuan was made for the “Science Popularization” related funds at the central level, an increase of 175 million yuan from the previous year, representing a growth rate of 6.4%.
Meanwhile, the central government actively supports local science popularization work through transfer payments in this field. In 2024, a total of 1.317 billion yuan was allocated for transfer payments such as补助资金 for free museum opening and funds for grassroots science popularization initiatives, which are used to support the enhancement of public science popularization capabilities at science museums, mobilize the enthusiasm of local science popularization organizations and all sectors of society to carry out grassroots science popularization public services, and promote the improvement of scientific literacy among urban and rural residents. When allocating relevant funds, the allocation method was optimized to increase support for underdeveloped areas in the central and western regions.
In addition, tax incentives such as donations for science popularization are implemented to support diversified input from enterprises. To support the development of public welfare undertakings, the state has issued policies for税前扣除 for public welfare donations. According to these policies, up to 12% of an enterprise’s annual profit can be deducted from its taxes for donations made for public welfare undertakings that meet certain conditions. Excess donations can also be carried forward and deducted over three subsequent years.
Gu Yanfeng stated that the free opening of science museums across the country is an important惠民举措 to serve the growing needs of people for science and culture. In March 2015, the Ministry of Finance, Propaganda Department of China’s Communist Party Central Committee (CPC Central Propaganda Department), along with China’s Science Association jointly issued a notice titled “Notice on Free Opening of Science Museums Across China,” (科协发普字〔 〕 ). This officially launched free access to science museums nationwide. Since then, central finances have strongly supported this effort by allocating funds over nearly ten years totaling 6.877 billion yuan. In 2024, a total of 916.8 million yuan was allocated in subsidy funds from central finances with an increase of 164.7% over 2015. The number of free open science museums has increased from 92 in 2015 to 409 in 2024 with an average increase of 35 museums per year. Over this period, more than