Chinese researchers will now get a sizeable profit from their breakthroughs. (Photo : Getty Images)
The Nature Index 2016 Rising Stars released a ranking indicating China as the leader in the world's research institutions and showing great improvement in the past year.
Out of a hundred research institutions, there are 40 of them which are Chinese. These groups showed a 50 percent improvement.
The index tracks 8.000 institutions around the world in terms of quality of research papers published in 68 journals from 2012 to 2015.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) took nine places in the 100 most improved institutions.
"An increasing number of brilliant people studying or doing research overseas came back during the past 10 to 15 years," Shi Yi said. "Meanwhile, ample resources were gathered and provided to ensure that researchers could generate world-class research output."
Shi Yi is a researcher at the Institute of Microbiology at CAS. She said that support from government helped a great deal in advancing scientific studies.
China has been on the top of the list for four years in the fields of physical sciences, chemistry, life sciences and earth and environmental research.
The US is still the largest contributor in research but is only second to China. There are only 11 American institutions that made the list.
According to the founder of Nature Index, China is not showing any signs of slowing down.
"Given that China's investment in R&D (research and development) is set to continue growing as it pushes ahead to become an innovation-driven country and a world-leading power in science and technology, this impressive upward trajectory seems likely to continue," he said.
Euromonitor International, a market-research firm, predicted that by 2020, China will own the research industry by 2020.
Their report said, "By 2020, China is predicted to outpace Japan and own the second largest research and development industry in the world. Increasing investment in research and development activities, development of highly skilled workforce and new government initiatives are expected to be among the major drivers boosting the technology level in the country."
