BEIJING, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government started to encourage scientists to report difficult academic problems they encounter and compile a data bank of puzzles for future research reference.

The Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology and Chinese Academy of Sciences on Thursday asked the country's top scientists to report their academic "hard nuts," which are hard to solve but important for scientific developments.

An expert committed made up of 47 academicians will select 100,000 top academic puzzles from 2007 to 2010 and encourage more scientists to engage in research into those subjects in the hope that more breakthroughs might be made.