Four voluntary national standards for the evaluation of science and technology research projects have been recently published by State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and Standardization Administration of China (SAC), which provide a common framework and a set of classification and evaluation methods for science and technology research projects.

The series of standards include the revised GB/T 22900-2022, Science and technology research projects evaluation—General rules, and three new standards GB/T 41619-2022, GB/T 41620-2022 and GB/T 41621-2022 on the guide of the evaluation of basic, applied and developing research projects respectively.

These standards were proposed by the Ministry of Science and Technology, prepared by SAC/TC 580 on science and technology evaluation, and jointly drafted by China National Institute of Standardization (CNIS), Institutes of Science and Development under Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Center for Science & Technology Evaluation and other research institutes.

The publication of the standards serves as an important measure for accelerating the implementation of innovation-oriented development strategies and key national science and technology projects that are strategic and forward-looking with overall importance.

The revised GB/T 22900 defines the general requirements for the evaluation of science and technology projects in natural science and technology sectors. Compared with the 2009 version, it adds the evaluation principles, classification and evaluation priorities as well as evaluation content of science and technology projects, and modifies the evaluation method and procedure.

Based on GB/T 22900, other three standards put forward specific requirements for the evaluation of three types of science and technology projects, and provide operational guidelines for carrying out science and technology project evaluation in a scientific and normative manner.

These standards classify the evaluation of science and technology projects into four types: proposal approval, medium-term, acceptance check and tracking evaluation, and offer the referable evaluation content according to the characteristics of various activities.

The publication and implementation of the standards is expected to further improve the mechanism for science and technology project evaluation, optimize project management and resource allocation, and increase project implementation performance, so as to raise the overall efficiency of the science and technology innovation system in China.