Guangming Daily reported that, on June 1, the State Council introduced a new set of regulations which include a shift in the funding ownership from the central administration to the research institute in order to allow more flexibility in funding management. The policy also increased the allocation in hiring of research staff from 5 percent to 20 percent of the total indirect expense. Prior to this, the central administration and local government introduced a number of policies which were meant to correct the rigid management policy and the repetitive application process, as well as inadequate management of the funding. According to the statistics, from 2006 to 2014, the Ministry of Finance increased the science and technology funding from 1 trillion yuan (US$0.15 trillion) to 2.9 trillion (US$0.44 trillion). The statistics from the Ministry of Statistics suggested that total research and development spent in 2015 was 14 trillion (US$2.13 trillion) where 11 trillion (US$1.67 trillion) came from companies and 3 trillion (US$0.46 trillion) came from a government research institute and from colleges.
Source: Guangming Daily, June 3, 2016
http://edu.gmw.cn/2016-06/03/content_20401516.htm