Chen Wei (front), a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and a key researcher of a Chinese adenovirus vaccine for the COVID-19, attends this year's annual CPPCC session, which kicked off on Thursday. Photo: Xinhua

Chen Wei, a Chinese vaccine scientist and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), has proposed the establishment of a white list of core research teams with stable national sponsorship to tackle the stranglehold problems in bio-technology. 

Chen made the remarks on Sunday at the second plenary meeting of the fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC. 

At the meeting, Chen said China should take advantage of the national system in optimizing resources allocation for scientific research and plan key projects in advance in crucial areas such as health and bio security.

Stable and long-term national investment in key research teams, or a white list, could integrate specific projects, tech bases and talents, laying a solid scientific foundation for protecting national development interests and addressing risks of foreign blockades of key technologies. 

Chen also proposed a vaccine national technological innovation center to meet the demand for bio security. The center will enhance top design and overall plans to carry out interdisciplinary cooperation. 

The Ministry of Science and Technology has already drawn up a plan on establishing such innovation centers and Chen believed vaccine development should be part of it. 

Amid the still complicated COVID-19 control situation, Chen also suggested continuing research and analysis into how coronavirus variants impact current control measures with new technologies such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. "Preventive measures should be taken to develop vaccine, nucleic acid and antibody testing kits for some key variants in advance, and replace current ones if necessary," Chen said. 

The scientist also called for the building of a research environment that is favorable to people who carry out basic research to encourage cutting-edge research and turning the bottleneck from zero to one. 

Global Times