Abstract:The Second Investigation on the Status of Scientific and Technological Workers of China was conducted in the second half of 2008 by the efforts of China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) and China Institute for Development Strategy of Science and Technology. The investigation was based on the data from 209 investigation points all over the China arranged by CAST. Random sampling method was used. In total, 32 100 questionnaires were issued and 30 078 effective questionnaires were returned with recovery rate 93.7%. Compared with the results of the First
Investigation on the Status of Scientific and Technological Workers of China in 2003, the numbers of scientific and technological workers of China had a rapid growth during 2003~2007, from 29.56 million by the end of 2002 to 51.60 million by the end of 2007, rising by 74%. The trend of rejuvenation is increasingly outstanding, 37 million of scientific and technological workers were under age 40, accounting for more than 2/3 of the total. The trend of high educational background was obvious, of which the number of master's or PhD degree increasing from 11.4% by the end of 2002 to 25% by the end of 2007. The scientific research output are considerable, 54.4% of scientific and technological workers of China had published scientific papers during 2005-2007, and the average per capita published papers number was 2.91. Nearly 50% of scientific and technological workers gave a higher evaluation to innovation policy environment in China, 4/5 of them concerned about general and specific policies of CPC and China government, and 75% of them were willing to participate in the public affair management. The results of the investigation of 2008 basically reflected the status and problems needed to improve in quality of scientific and technological workers of China, professional identity, working pressure, scientific research efficiency, environment of scientific and technological activities, academic communication, continuing education, science and technology awards, grants and funding, intellectual property, university-industry cooperation.