The General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Deep Integration of Scientific and Technological Innovation and Industrial Innovation"

On October 21, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council released the "Opinions on Promoting the Deep Integration of Scientific and Technological Innovation and Industrial Innovation," with the goals of developing new quality productive forces and building a modern industrial system, and with a focus on building an industry-university-research collaborative innovation system led by enterprises and coordinated among all actors, so as to promote full-chain connectivity, full-domain coverage, full-factor integration, and all-round support, and to form a new pattern in which scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation reinforce each other through mutual integration.

What highlights of the Opinions deserve attention? How should the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation be advanced during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period? Xinhua Viewpoint reporters interviewed relevant experts.

Highlight One: A roadmap and task list have been clarified

Promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation is the key to leading the development of new quality productive forces through high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening. The "15th Five-Year Plan" period is a critical period of decisive effort in building a strong country in science and technology, and also a critical period for China's industries to move toward excellence and strength. Only by opening up the channel for the accelerated transformation of science and technology into real productive forces can a solid material foundation be laid for Chinese-style modernization.

For some time, many barriers have stood between scientific research innovation and industrial development. For example: researchers hold good results in the laboratory but find it difficult to match them with industrial needs; enterprises understand the market but, for various reasons, are unwilling or unable to innovate; and for frontier technologies, "samples are easy to produce, but mass production is difficult."

This time, the Opinions put forward 17 concrete measures in six areas: promoting seamless connection between the innovation chain and the industrial chain, supporting the building of a modern industrial system with high-quality scientific and technological supply, strengthening enterprise-led industry-university-research collaborative innovation, improving the efficiency of coordinated allocation of innovation resources, creating a sound ecosystem for deep integration, and expanding the development space for deep integration.

In the view of Liu Dongmei, Party Secretary of the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development, the Opinions break away from the past inertial thinking of "first producing results and then considering transformation," and from the source emphasize integrated planning and two-way interaction between scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, clearly reflecting a change in concept. At the same time, the Opinions are problem-oriented, and the relevant measures target the bottlenecks and blockages in the integration process, with strong operational practicality.

"The introduction of the Opinions clarifies the roadmap and task list for the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, and will promote the formation of a new situation in which multiple forces in industry, academia, research, and application collaborate in innovation," said Chen Jin, Director of the Research Center for Technological Innovation at Tsinghua University.

Highlight Two: Strengthening scientific and technological support for building a modern industrial system

Breakthroughs have been made in a number of key technologies in fields such as satellite internet and future energy; research and development levels and application capabilities in fields such as next-generation mobile communications, nuclear power, photovoltaics, and high-speed rail are world-leading; and the added value of strategic emerging industries as a share of GDP has continued to rise... In recent years, China has led the development of new quality productive forces with scientific and technological innovation and pushed the building of a modern industrial system to new steps.

Building a modern industrial system and achieving an overall leap in the industrial system is an important strategic task for the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. This time, the Opinions clearly propose supporting the building of a modern industrial system with high-quality scientific and technological supply.

"This formulation in the Opinions further highlights the application orientation of scientific and technological innovation and strengthens the important role of high-quality scientific and technological supply in shaping new advantages in industrial competition; at the same time, it further strengthens the pull of industrial demand and focuses on solving the problem of the 'two skins' of science and technology and the economy," said Lin Xiaofeng, Deputy Director of the Innovation-Driven Development Center of the National Development and Reform Commission.

— In improving the level of independent and controllable industrial chains, the Opinions anchor on industries with high technical barriers and difficult breakthroughs, such as integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, and advanced materials, and clearly state that decisive breakthroughs should be achieved in key core technologies in key fields.

— In cultivating emerging industries and future industries, the Opinions emphasize strengthening basic theoretical research and underlying technology research and development, carrying out the identification and screening of disruptive technologies, and accelerating the industrialization and commercialization of frontier technologies.

— In renewing traditional industries, the Opinions propose deeply implementing major technological transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry and large-scale equipment renewal projects, accelerating the innovative development of the industrial internet, and comprehensively implementing the "AI+" initiative.

Wang Zhiqin, Vice President of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said that adhering to demand as the guide and strengthening scientific and technological supply in light of industrial characteristics will push more industrial fields toward the medium- and high-end of the global value chain and accelerate the building of a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone.

Highlight Three: Implementing the principal role of enterprises in innovation with greater force and more practical measures

Enterprises are the new force driving innovation and creation and the key junction between the innovation chain and the industrial chain.

The Opinions clearly focus integration on building an industry-university-research collaborative innovation system led by enterprises and coordinated among all actors, and make a dedicated chapter of arrangements for "strengthening enterprise-led industry-university-research collaborative innovation," proposing to comprehensively enhance enterprise innovation capacity, accelerate the cultivation and growth of science and technology enterprises, and strengthen coordination and linkage among innovation actors.

The Opinions require that in guideline preparation, project approval review, and project acceptance, the number of experts from enterprises and venture capital institutions be reasonably increased; that national science and technology plan projects with clear industrial application goals, in principle, be led by enterprises in implementation and led by them in transforming results; that the National Natural Science Foundation of China be promoted to open pilot programs to private enterprises; and that science and technology startups be cultivated at a faster pace.

"One innovative measure after another fully demonstrates the orientation of letting enterprises 'play the leading role' in scientific and technological innovation," said Lian Yubo, Chief Scientist of BYD Group. In recent years, BYD has established joint teams and innovation platforms with domestic universities, carried out innovative research around the R&D needs of new energy vehicles, and effectively promoted the industrialization and application of scientific research results.

"However, in industry-university-research collaborative innovation, the industry still faces common problems such as scattered innovation resources affecting technological breakthroughs, mismatches between the evaluation orientations and needs of universities and enterprises, and obstacles to two-way talent flow," Lian Yubo said.

To this end, the Opinion proposes building proof-of-concept centers and pilot validation platforms; in the classified assessment of state-owned enterprises, increasing the proportion of joint R&D expenses with universities and research institutes that are treated as profits and added back; making the effectiveness of industry-university-research cooperation and the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements important content in the evaluation of high-level research universities and research institutes and in the assessment of research personnel; and improving policies for selecting university and research institute researchers for temporary posts, part-time work, and leaving their posts to start businesses, so as to further promote the deep integration of the innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain.

Highlight 4: Continuously optimize the ecosystem suited to integrated industry-university-research innovation

A sound ecosystem is important fertile ground for stimulating the vitality of actors and enhancing the momentum of innovation. At present, China's industry-university-research coordination mechanisms are gradually being improved, and innovation resources are accelerating their concentration, but the openness and coordination of the innovation ecosystem still need to be improved.

"Optimizing the innovation ecosystem focuses on promoting all types of actors to be bold in innovation and good at innovation through institutional and mechanism reform and a sound policy system," Liu Dongmei said. The Opinion makes arrangements in areas such as coordinating innovation resources, fostering a market environment, and expanding space for integration, providing institutional guarantees for promoting integrated industry-university-research innovation.

Funding shortages are an important factor constraining enterprises, especially the vast number of small and medium-sized enterprises, from investing in innovation. In optimizing the financial environment, the Opinion further emphasizes building a science and technology finance system suited to the financing needs of science and technology enterprises throughout their life cycles, and encourages venture capital funds to invest early, in small businesses, for the long term, and in hard technology.

To solve the problem of scientific and technological achievements being "unwilling to be transferred and afraid to be transferred," the Opinion focuses on strengthening intellectual property protection in new business forms and new fields, and improving benefit-sharing and risk-sharing mechanisms in industry-university-research cooperation and the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements; fully implementing the patent open licensing system; and promoting quality and efficiency improvements in enterprise standards and association standards.

Pan Jiaofeng, President of the Institutes of Science and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, noted that the Opinion specifically deploys measures to promote deep integration of science and industry in accordance with local conditions, supports local areas in carrying out pilot initiatives, and guides all localities to build on their endowment advantages to forge scientific and technological strengths and industrial characteristics and create sources of original innovation.

"All localities should implement the arrangements of the Opinion in detail, strengthen the integration of innovation achievements with regional development, coordinate resource allocation in accordance with local conditions based on local industrial characteristics and scientific and technological development needs, optimize regional collaborative innovation mechanisms, enhance the level of emerging industries, and accelerate the building of a modern industrial system," Pan Jiaofeng said.