R&D has been a principal source of the competitiveness of an enterprise. Cost management is the important guarantee for enterprises to get an upper hand in competition. The application of strategic cost management (SCM) in the R&D of an enterprise can help to cut its cost and enhance its competitive advantage. The paper analyzed the current cost management status of R&D in China, and put forward ideas on that applying of SCM in R&D, which focused on sectors as competition strategic, cost drive, performance evaluation, etc.