The “15th Five-Year Plan” period presents both opportunities and challenges for scientific and technological societies in China, meaning that they shall further refine their functional positioning beyond traditional academic exchanges and provide full-chain services. Since the reform and opening up, the development of science and technology societies in China has flourished, and their governance capacity has been continuously enhanced, playing a sustained role in gathering scientific and technological talent, participating in national and social governance, and driving multi-dimensional innovation. Nevertheless, there are also problems such as low management efficiency, insufficient integration into the national innovation system, and overall low level of internationalization. This study analyzes the status and challenges of China’s scientific societies through three core dimensions: management, function and capability, and suggests that the roles of various departments in the science and technology sector should be coordinated to empower science and technology societies, aiming high-quality integration into the national science and technology governance system, and continuously promote the reform of management system and the internationalization of science and technology societies.
LI et al. (Wed,) studied this question.