Abstract:    In China, national scientific research institutes are the important parts of strategic strengths in the fields of science and technology, and they are also related to the long-term development and strategic overall situation of the country. Scientific research funds are the “blood” for the operation of scientific research institutes and the guarantee for the smooth development of scientific research projects. It is one of the important pillars for supporting the high-quality development of national scientific research institutes to give full play to the use efficiency of scientific research funds by relying on good financial management comprehensive capacity. How to scientifically measure the financial management comprehensive capacity of national scientific research institutes is a topic of great research value. The features of the measurement problem of financial management comprehensive capacity of national scientific research institutes involve criteria interdependency, criteria attributes diversity, and fusion of multi-source data. Regarding these features, a research design was first conducted, in which connotation definition of financial management comprehensive capacity for national scientific research institutes, criteria system construction, and measurement method based on subjective and objective combination weighting by integrating the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method and the empowerment method of Gini coefficient are involved. Then, an empirical study was conducted based on the collected financial management information of 104 sample institutes affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This study showed that: firstly, about 9.6% institutes are high-capacity ones, which are attributed to superior geographical location advantages and their own good scientific research fund management mechanisms. These excellent research institutes generally attach importance to financial management, have a high degree of participation in resource planning, major decision-making and major project management, and have strong fund coordination ability, strong budget constraint and effective cost control. The level of financial intelligence and informatization construction is high, which greatly improves the work efficiency and quality. The internal control system is perfect, and the risk identification and prevention ability are strong. It is able to actively promote the reforms to streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services, solve the problems of complicated reimbursement, provide high-level scientific research financial assistants, and provide a relaxed atmosphere for scientific and technological innovation. Leaders in charge of the Institute and financial directors actively participate in relevant training. Secondly, about 1.9% institutes are low-capacity ones, mainly due to lack of effective incentives in the internal management system and mechanism. High-end accounting personnel has the low proportion and financial personnel are aging, and both of them are difficult to adapt to the new situation of the government accounting system reform and the reform of various scientific research funds. The financial management is not paid attention to, the decision-making power of the financial management personnel is low, the frequency of financial activities is not high, and the performance in improving the corporate governance ability is weak. The intelligence level of financial management is backward, the work efficiency is low, and the traditional management mode is wasteful. The implementation of the reform of government functions is not in place, the internal control system is not perfect, and the scientific research personnel do not have a strong sense of funding reform. The enthusiasm for winning awards is not high. Thirdly, about 88.5% institutes are unbalanced-capacity ones, and the regional and disciplinary differences have a greater impact on them. Whether it is an extreme-imbalance type or a general-imbalance type research institute, there are obvious dimensional weaknesses, and the development of each dimension is not balanced, which is obviously not conducive to the overall promotion of the comprehensive capacity of financial management of national scientific research institutes.

Key words: financial management comprehensive capacity, national scientific research institute, balanced score card, measurement method, subjective and objective combination weighting