Chapter 786: The Vision for the Advanced Research Institute

Office.

“This is just a broad framework; the details still need refinement.”

“Besides these academic departments, there are also specialized platforms: the Computing and Data Science Platform, the Academic Exchange Center, and others.”

Xu Qingzhou slowly explained his vision for the Advanced Research Institute to Ji Yunshi.

At present, Ren Nan, Zhao Shengwen, and others each oversaw their respective sectors, everyone fulfilling their duties; he, by contrast, was not overly busy—only needed to oversee the overall progress and act as a brick, moving wherever needed.

Ji Yunshi set down the materials Xu Qingzhou had given him and said gravely, “Alright, I’ll assemble a team of experts and draft a plan.”

Operating a large research institute is far more complex than running a research institute.

Just consider the management structure: it requires a board composed of global top scientists, government representatives, and corporate donors to ensure academic independence and resource support.

It also needs an Academic Committee; although departments have been established, a committee is still necessary to break down disciplinary barriers.

The current administrative departments of the research institute will be merged into the future operational support department.

Xu Qingzhou poured tea for Ji Yunshi and smiled, saying, “The preparatory work can be slow, but it must be steady—I don’t want to follow the path of Tsinghua University.”

Domestically, many universities are drawing inspiration from the Princeton IAS model. Tsinghua University has one, aiming to create a pure academic research hub to attract global top scholars, but the results have been underwhelming.

University research institutes are subject to dual management by the Ministry of Education and the university itself, making it hard to escape bureaucratization, and they remain largely dependent on the university system, lacking true independence.

In short, constrained by multiple factors, domestic advanced research institutes—even if imitated—only replicate the form without the essence, failing to grasp the true core.

“This is something to be wary of. As a new institution, we have a unique advantage: extremely high autonomy in selection and no heavy burdens.”

Ji Yunshi nodded in agreement and said slowly, “But to establish an advanced research institute that can truly rival Princeton’s, and build our own scholarly holy land in Xia, there will still be a thorny path ahead.”

“In the 1930s, during Europe’s wars, IAS received Jewish scientists like Einstein and von Neumann (see Document 4). This concentration of talent was an irreplicable historical accident. Even we, let alone the Americans themselves, probably could never recreate such a myth.”

“Yes, it’s highly challenging. But on the other hand, isn’t that precisely what makes it interesting?”

IAS’s core advantage is its complete independence from universities, funded by private foundations and free from administrative interference.

When the Materials Research Institute was founded, it took a path entirely separate from the Xia national research system, deciding its own development like a private enterprise, fully leveraging its initiative.

Compared to established institutions, this is our greatest advantage: no baggage, immense potential.

Yet despite this, the task remains immensely daunting.

Pure freedom from teaching duties and research funding pressure is nearly impossible to replicate in today’s research environment—it’s almost utopian in this highly utilitarian age.

Which institution today can completely ignore output and funding applications?

Moreover, even if teaching duties and funding pressure were truly absent, whether scholars themselves could endure the cold bench remains questionable.

Previously, Fudan’s Xianghui Research Institute attempted a ten-year evaluation-free policy, but some scholars admitted that no evaluation actually increased their pressure—it was an ingrained anxiety formed by years of quantitative assessment.

Everyone is racing; suddenly being told you don’t have to race—anyone would panic.

In short, preparing for the Advanced Research Institute is complicated—so many aspects are involved.

Days passed one by one, and Xu Qingzhou moved between various experimental teams.

Besides the four hundred-plus personnel already in the institute, the Plasma Physics Institute also dispatched four support teams totaling seventy-two people.

The Plasma Physics Institute’s support team was led by Professor Xiao Chenghan, clearly demonstrating their full support.

After all, Professor Xiao Chenghan is an elder of EAST, and the researchers sent over averaged ten years of experience in fusion research.