Cartoon: There are still several hurdles to be overcome to make technological achievements "paper money".

The latest set of data on the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements has made Situ Guohai, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the Information Optics and Optoelectronic Technology Laboratory of the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, both happy and worried.

Fortunately, the overall industrialization rate of invention patents in China has been steadily increasing over the past five years, increasing to 36.7% in 2022, a new five-year high; Unfortunately, the industrialization rate of enterprise invention patents is 48.1%, that of university invention patents is 3.9%, and that of scientific research institutions is 13.3%.

"Only 3.9%!" Situ Guohai found through research that the results of universities and institutes currently do not match the needs of enterprises well, and there are a large number of "sleeping" patents, "there is no market for goods.".

For a period of time, China has ranked among the top in the world in terms of the number of scientific and technological papers, and in 2022, it was the first time that the number of hot papers ranked first in the world. In Situ Guohai's view, this indicates that China's technological innovation capacity has reached a certain level. However, innovative achievements in basic research are not simply equivalent to productivity.

The government work report's recommendations for this year's work mentioned that "science and technology policies should focus on self-reliance and self-reliance.". Many representatives and members believe that accelerating the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements and bringing more innovative achievements from the "bookshelf" to the "shelf" is crucial for achieving high-level technological self-reliance and self-reliance.

So why are the scientific achievements of the ivory tower "sleeping" and how should they be awakened?

Some policies involve stepping on the accelerator and braking at the same time

Yan Dapeng, deputy chairman and chief engineer of Sanjiang Ruike Laser, a member of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China and a member of the National Aeronautics and Astronautics Association of China, once worked as a professor at Nanjing University of Technology. He is well aware that the achievements of scientific research personnel face many problems such as "dare not transfer" and "cannot transfer".

For example, he said, assets formed during the research and development process, including intangible assets such as invention patents or tangible assets such as equipment settings, cannot be smoothly empowered to technology inventors, which will seriously affect the innovation enthusiasm and creativity of scientific research personnel, resulting in a significant waste of innovation resources.

In 2015, China revised the Law on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements, known as the Chinese version of the Baidu Act, which will establish a fast track between scientific and technological achievements and the market.

In the past eight years, many technological achievements have indeed emerged in the market. However, Yan Dapeng believes that this is still far from enough, there is still a long way to go from the goal of technological self-reliance and self-reliance, and relevant regulations need to be further refined.

"The Law on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements, the Company Law, and other superior laws have been revised for a long time, and there is an urgent need to accelerate the revision of relevant existing national level laws." Yan Dapeng said, for example, it has not yet clearly stipulated how to dispose of the ownership of scientific and technological achievements formed by financial funds, and how to directly link the disposal of ownership with the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

Nowadays, although he mainly engages in scientific and technological innovation work in enterprises, Yan Dapeng often travels to universities and research institutes due to part-time professors. He found that in recent years, governments at all levels have introduced a series of policies to encourage innovation, aimed at loosening the ties, reducing burdens, and empowering scientific research personnel. However, they often "step on the accelerator while stepping on the brake", making it easy for universities and scientific research institutions to "stall" in the process of implementing policies to transform their achievements.

A specific issue is the "one shot at the bottom" funding management model such as financial budget integration. In Yan Dapeng's view, these tend to lead to the management of scientific research personnel in universities and research institutions as administrative personnel, and the complete equivalence of scientific research funds to administrative funds management, which to some extent restricts the motivation and vitality of scientific research personnel in innovation and creation.

Wang Qihong, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of the 725 Institute of China Shipping Group, also mentioned that the state has not yet issued guidance documents on state-owned scientific research institutions and joint investment, making it difficult for scientific researchers to enjoy the benefits of equity incentives.

According to relevant documents, when the scientific research and innovation achievements of state-owned scientific research institutions meet certain conditions for industrial transformation and it is proposed to establish a technology industry company to accelerate the industrialization process, it is not possible to introduce employee equity in the process, and the identity of shareholders needs to be further relaxed.

Yan Dapeng sighed that the low industrialization rate of scientific and technological achievements in universities and research institutes has become a "bottleneck" restricting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in China.

At this year's two sessions of the National People's Congress, he brought forward a proposal to fully empower strategic scientists or chief scientists in universities and research institutions, as well as their research teams, in the formulation of project research plans, selection of technical routes, management of research funds, selection of team members, setting of scientific research positions, evaluation of professional titles, performance evaluation Independent autonomy in market entities' activities such as compensation, welfare, and participation in the application and transformation of results.

"We need to solve the bottleneck issues in the power and responsibility matching of core technology inventors in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements from the top-level system design, so that researchers have a sense of responsibility and gain, so as to truly mobilize the enthusiasm of researchers and maximize the innovation potential and vitality." Yan Dapeng said.

"From 1 to 10" has become a critical breakthrough point

Zhao Xiaoguang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a researcher of the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been engaged in robot research for many years. He has a deep feeling that the transformation of scientific and technological achievements is "a slap in the face", which requires efforts from both the demand side and the supply side. However, at present, both the power and ability are insufficient.

Enterprises are the demanders and beneficiaries of achievement transformation. However, Zhao Xiaoguang's research found that currently, some enterprises are only limited to meeting immediate market needs, without long-term planning, closely integrating enterprise development with national strategic development, and lacking in high-quality talent reserves. They lack sufficient capacity to tap into the real needs of enterprises, solve the technical problems faced by enterprises, and urgently need to solve key technologies.

The sources of scientific and technological achievements mostly come from universities and research institutes, and the main scientific and technological forces and talents are also concentrated in universities and research institutions. However, the main problem at present is that most of their research topics are oriented towards the forefront of the world, and the mechanisms for discovering, proposing, and solving problems in production practice are not yet sound.

Zhao Xiaoguang told reporters that in the process of serving enterprises with research achievements facing the forefront of world science and technology, it is necessary for scientific researchers to deeply understand the actual situation of the enterprise, customize solutions to meet the needs of the enterprise, organize scientific research teams to work closely with the enterprise, overcome difficulties, and implement the technical achievements in the enterprise.

Unfortunately, the process of implementing the transformation of achievements is time-consuming and laborious, and is not valued by universities or research institutions. Therefore, researchers do not have sufficient motivation to carry out the transformation work in depth.

More seriously, it is difficult to break through the "sticking point" of technological achievements from prototype to small batch testing.

According to Zhao Xiaoguang's more than 20 years of scientific research experience, scientific and technological achievements, from an idea (stage 0) to the successful development of a prototype (stage 1), are supported by national scientific research funds. Scientific research personnel are usually able to rely on the strength of units and teams to overcome difficulties, and verify the effectiveness of theories, methods, and algorithms through prototypes, the correctness of principles, and the feasibility of engineering applications.

Accordingly, it is much more difficult to move from the prototype (stage 1) to the small-scale application testing stage (stage 10) because of the high risk and investment involved in this stage, and the need to complete the engineering design, appearance design, cost reduction, and performance testing of the laboratory prototype. It is possible to find problems such as excessive cost of the prototype, inaccurate mastery of market demand points, advanced technology, and the market not yet cultivated at this stage, The prototype needs to be optimized or even re developed.

"From this perspective, 'from 1 to 10' is even more difficult for scientific and technological achievements than 'from 0 to 1'." Zhao Xiaoguang said that on the way to transformation of achievements, the stage of 'from 1 to 10' has become a checkpoint that needs to be broken through urgently.

Situ Guohai also noted this issue. The "intermediate stage" chain of "from 1 to 10" is incomplete, and the lack of high-end professionals, funds, equipment, and venues to implement patent industrialization is one of the obstacles currently facing the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

Generally speaking, an innovative technology still requires years of continuous optimization and iterative research and development process from achieving theoretical breakthroughs and experimental validation to industrialization. He told reporters that the research and development of this process should not be undertaken by the patentee of universities and institutes, and currently most small and medium-sized enterprises do not necessarily have corresponding research and development capabilities.

"The intermediate stage of docking the two ends is missing, and the patent industrialization chain is in a broken state," said Situ Guohai.

He suggested strengthening support for "from 1 to 10" projects, optimizing personnel evaluation mechanisms, guiding government led industrial funds and social capital to more support investment in intermediate stage projects, and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to undertake and participate in national science and technology projects.

Zhao Xiaoguang also proposes to enrich financing channels for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and address the checkpoints from prototype to small batch application testing. She said that relevant departments can formulate support policies for small batch trial production and testing of prototypes, and establish a joint fund for small batch trial production industry based on the inclusion of R&D expenses plus deductions.

There is an urgent need for a group of people who understand both technology and market

During the interview, "bridge" was a high-frequency word spoken on behalf of the committee members.

Si Tu Guohai said that the reason for the low industrialization rate of patents in universities and scientific research institutions is not the insufficient technological content of patents, nor the optimistic prospect of patented technology. It is rather that the "bridge" between achievements and the market is not strong enough, and the transformation links and chains are not yet complete.

According to the 2022 China Patent Survey Report issued by the China National Intellectual Property Administration, 48.7% of the respondents reported that "lack of high-end professionals" is the main reason for restricting the industrialization of enterprises' patents.

"The high-end professionals here are an important 'bridge' between achievements and the market," said Situ Guohai. These high-end professionals include technology brokers and innovative technology industrialization professionals, who need to be able to communicate between the supply side and the demand side, that is, be able to quickly grasp the technology and principles of invention patents in their professional fields, make research and judgments on maturity and implementation value, and meet the needs of enterprises, And implement or guide the industrialization of patented technology research and development.

Therefore, he suggested strengthening the high-end talent training system for the industrialization of invention patents. Cultivate high-end professionals in patent industrialization, including technology brokers and innovative technology industrialization professionals, through projects and practices, and smooth their career and title development channels.

Liu Zhongmin, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, also suggested building a bridge for communication and docking between enterprises and scientific research personnel - or national level.

"I suggest that the government take the lead in continuing to hold various forms of docking activities for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and promote substantive industry-university-research cooperation between enterprises and universities and scientific research institutions. Establish a national docking platform to 'institutionalize' and 'regularly' docking activities." Liu Zhongmin said.

He also suggested vigorously developing the science and technology service industry, cultivating and expanding science and technology intermediary service institutions, cultivating a group of technology transfer brokers who understand technology, technology, market, and management, and providing market-oriented and professional all-round services for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

During the two sessions of this year, the Central Committee for the Democratic Progressive Movement submitted a proposal on improving the policy system for patent conversion in universities and giving better play to the supporting role of scientific and technological innovation in universities, which mentioned "strengthening the construction of transformation service teams and enriching financial and financial support models.".

This proposal mentions that by the end of 2021, the average maintenance period of invention patents in universities in China was 4.6 years, significantly lower than the national average of 6.9 years. This indicates that the overall stability of university patents is not high and it is difficult to attract market entities to conduct patent conversion.

One reason is that the cooperation between university technology transfer institutions and market-oriented technology transfer institutions is insufficient. The Central Committee for Democratic Progress mentioned in its proposal that it should establish a diversified market-oriented operation professional service organization, establish a "research team specialist+professional organization personnel" model, and have technical managers assist inventors in converting patents and strengthen patent conversion tracking. Improve the financial support model that adapts to the laws of patent conversion in different types and stages.

This coincides with the "Strengthening the high-end talent training system for the industrialization of invention patents" proposed by Situ Guohai.

He said that in the past, many scientific researchers wrote papers and their results were put on bookshelves and cabinets, hoping to break this "academic self cycle" in the future.

Source: China Youth Daily