Yan Xiangbin: Amplifying the Multiplier Effect of Deep Integration Between Scientific and Industrial Innovation
A new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is developing in depth, profoundly reshaping the landscape of global competition. Our country is currently in a critical stage of relying on technological innovation to drive high-quality development. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized the need to "solidly promote the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation to assist the development of new quality productive forces," and proposed that "technological innovation and industrial innovation are the fundamental paths for developing new quality productive forces." This provides a baseline for profoundly grasping the intrinsic links between technological and industrial innovation and points out the practical direction for nurturing and developing new quality productive forces.
In recent years, China has solidly promoted the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation. While achieving fruitful practical results, we have further deepened our understanding of the internal logic of this integration. On one hand, technological innovation is the endogenous driving force for industrial innovation and development, as well as a core element for developing new quality productive forces. Technological innovation can give rise to new industries, new models, and new growth drivers; it vigorously promotes breakthroughs in key technologies and continuously increases the supply of high-quality technology. It provides the impetus for transforming and upgrading traditional industries, nurturing and expanding emerging industries, planning and constructing future industries, and improving the modern industrial system. On one hand, industrial innovation can pull and stimulate technological innovation, providing a key carrier for realizing the value of technological innovation achievements. Only by promptly applying technological innovation achievements to specific industries and industrial chains can we better test these results and promote the accelerated iteration of technology, thereby connecting basic research, applied research, and the transformation of achievements, and enhancing the overall vitality of technological innovation.
Currently, new technologies represented by artificial intelligence are accelerating their iteration and evolution, exerting major and far-reaching impacts on economic development, social progress, and the international political and economic landscape. The importance and urgency of further promoting the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation has become more prominent. We must seize the opportunities of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, effectively exert effort in stimulating the multiplier effect of the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation, and make good use of our country's advantages in terms of ultra-large-scale markets and a complete industrial system. By doing so, we can ensure that technological and industrial innovation promote each other, better nurturing new quality productive forces and promoting high-quality development.
Seeking the Realization of the Value of Technological Innovation
The multiplier effect generally refers to the degree of chain reaction in total economic volume caused by the increase or decrease of a certain variable in economic activities. Specific to the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation, it mainly refers to achieving bidirectional penetration and dynamic synergy between technology and industry through the systematic coupling of the innovation chain with the industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain, thereby generating non-linear value-added effects. Relying on the optimized allocation of factors such as technology, capital, talent, and data, we promote full-process innovation—including R&D breakthroughs, achievement transformation, application promotion, and iterative upgrades—to accelerate technological breakthroughs, multiply industrial value, and optimize the innovation ecosystem. This manifests as the manifold or exponential amplification of innovation value through the mutual empowerment of technological and industrial innovation. Stimulating the multiplier effect of this deep integration can fundamentally open up the key channels for value transformation, facilitate the realization of the value of technological innovation, and transform technological achievements into tangible productive forces.
This is an important measure for enhancing endogenous growth momentum. China's economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development. Relying on factor inputs and scale expansion to drive economic growth is no longer sustainable; there is an urgent need to break through traditional constraints with technological innovation and eliminate development bottlenecks with industrial innovation. Stimulating the multiplier effect of the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation can prompt technological achievements to precisely align with actual industrial needs, providing solid technical support for industrial upgrading and developing new quality productive forces. This pushes traditional industries to achieve "efficiency gains in existing stock" through technological transformation, while also giving rise to new industries and business forms via technological breakthroughs to achieve "capacity expansion in increments," injecting stronger and more sustainable endogenous momentum into economic growth.
This is an inevitable choice for ensuring the independent controllability of industrial chains. In some key fields, China still faces "stranglehold" [1] problems. One important reason lies in the disconnection between technological innovation and industrial application. Many technological achievements remain at the laboratory stage, lacking industrial uptake and testing, and are significantly lagging in terms of technical iteration. At the same time, the realistic needs of industrial development are difficult to meet, creating constraints on the quality improvement of industrial chains; long-term dependence on foreign technology further creates hidden security risks for the industrial chain. Stimulating the multiplier effect of the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation can, through a collaborative model where enterprises lead R&D and scientific research focuses on industry, encourage technological innovation to focus on the key areas and weak links of the modern industrial system. By increasing targeted R&D efforts, we provide technological support to ensure that important industrial and supply chains are independent, secure, and controllable. Building an autonomous full-chain system from R&D to industrialization will gradually create an autonomous, reliable, and secure industrial development ecosystem, fundamentally enhancing the resilience and security levels of industrial and supply chains.
This is the realistic path for moving from "low-end manufacturing" toward "high-end leadership." The multiplier effect generated by the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation is an important driver for advancing the industrial base and modernizing the industrial chain, providing support for China’s transition from a major manufacturing power to a strong manufacturing power. While China possesses a complete industrial system, some industries face the risk of "low-end locking" in the global industrial chain. It must be recognized that innovation is the primary driver leading development. Whoever takes the first step in innovation will possess the initiative to lead development. We must promote a transformation of industry from scale expansion to technological leadership and quality improvement. Stimulating the multiplier effect of the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation can effectively break through technical bottlenecks in key links of the industrial chain, helping industries gradually escape "low-end locking" and achieve a transformation from external dependence to independent controllability. By deeply promoting the integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence with the real economy, we can accelerate the intelligent transformation and digital transition of manufacturing, moving from automation to intelligence. We can also strengthen collaborative innovation across fields and industries, comprehensively enhancing the integrated competitiveness and risk-resistance capacity of the industrial system.
Significant Results in the Mutual Empowerment of Tech and Industry
After years of practice, the long-term accumulation of technological innovation has built a solid foundation for industrial innovation, and the continuous advancement of industrial innovation has in turn driven the iterative upgrade of technological innovation. This mutual empowerment means technological innovation is no longer an isolated activity, and industrial innovation has transcended mere scale expansion to focus on quality improvement and capacity expansion.
From the perspective of innovation accumulation, China’s years of technological accumulation have formed multi-dimensional advantages, powerfully driving industrial development. First, R&D investment has strengthened the supply of source technologies. In 2024, total social R&D investment exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan, with an R&D intensity of 2.68%, of which basic research funding grew by 10.5%. The "2024 China Patent Survey Report" published by the China National Intellectual Property Administration shows that among invention patents of enterprises in strategic emerging industries and future industries, the proportions obtained through R&D were 89.7% and 90.8% respectively. Second, the improved efficiency of achievement transformation has promoted value realization. In 2024, the industrialization rate of enterprise invention patents was 53.3%, with an average industrialization income per patent reaching 8.695 million yuan. Third, the coordination of all factors has built an innovation ecosystem. Relying on numerous national engineering research centers and national enterprise technology centers, combined with over 200 million skilled workers and diversified funding links such as fiscal funds, enterprise financing, and social capital, China has formed an innovation ecosystem where "R&D has platforms, transformation has funding, and implementation has talent."
From the perspective of industrial feedback, direction has been clarified and paths optimized for technological innovation through the pull of industrial demand, ecosystem optimization, and practical feedback. On one hand, actual needs in industrial transformation push technological innovation to focus on key fields. The "2024 China Patent Survey Report" shows that 86.6% of domestic enterprise invention patents were generated through R&D, and invention patents with R&D expenditures over 1 million yuan accounted for 17.8%, highlighting the pulling role of industrial demand on tackling underlying technologies. On the other hand, an industrial development ecosystem of cross-subject collaboration has effectively changed the situation of "fighting alone" in technological R&D. Taking the Intelligent Connected Vehicle (ICV) industry as an example, enterprises and scientific research institutions have jointly built "technical communities," achieving innovation breakthroughs across multiple dimensions from intelligent driving and energy-saving technology to vehicle architecture. This has not only promoted the upgrade and iteration of their own products but also injected strong momentum into the technological progress of the entire industry. Practical feedback from the industrial field has provided support for optimizing the path of transforming technological achievements. Furthermore, economic returns from industrial innovation provide stable financial guarantees for technological innovation. In the first half of 2025, the value-added of high-tech manufacturing above designated size [2] in China increased by 9.5% year-on-year, and the value-added of information transmission, software, and information technology services increased by 11.1% year-on-year. The improvement in industrial profitability can directly drive growth in R&D investment, forming a virtuous cycle of industrial profitability leading to increased R&D, which leads to technological leadership, followed by industrial quality and efficiency improvements.
Adding Momentum and Vitality through Institutional and Mechanistic Innovation
Stimulating the multiplier effect of the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation is not a simple addition of technology and industry. Rather, it requires replacing "isolated development" with "systematic synergy" and "unidirectional support" with "bidirectional empowerment." This must run through the entire chain from basic research, applied research, and technical development to achievement transformation and industrialization, ultimately achieving a virtuous cycle between knowledge production and the creation of social wealth.
Clear key nodes and smooth the flow of value. First, open the transformation channel from "strong technology" to "strong industry" and actively promote the transformation of technological achievements. Explore the establishment of an enterprise-led, market-oriented technological achievement evaluation system to guide scientific research activities to align more closely with industrial needs. Strengthen the supply of technology transfer and transformation services, and support industrial chain enterprises and research institutions in building shared service platforms for achievement transformation that integrate information sharing, mutual resource benefit, and integrated services. Second, build a diversified investment and financing system for technological achievement transformation. Conduct guided investment through technology transfer, cooperation, or equity participation, and encourage more financial resources to support technological innovation and achievement transformation. Leverage China’s ultra-large-scale market advantage to provide application feedback and commercialization scenarios for technological innovation. Third, enhance the collaborative linkage capabilities between regions and enterprises, build a community for innovative development, achieve efficient cooperation between technology and industry in the spatial dimension, and continuously promote the development of industrial chains toward the high end.
Strengthen the pull of demand and connect the collaborative chain. We must pull technological innovation activities with industrial demand and establish a regularized and institutionalized mechanism for collecting and releasing industrial technical needs. In the project initiation stage, fully consider the potential industrial value of technological innovation, and promote industrial participation in the entire process—including determining technical innovation goals, formulating and demonstrating technical route plans, and transforming achievements—to ensure the strategic nature, foresight, and feasibility of technological innovation activities. Improve the intellectual property protection and trading system, perfect technological intermediary services, and enable the efficient flow of innovation results to enterprises through platforms such as patent pools and technology exchanges. Nurture technological intermediary service organizations to solve problems such as information asymmetry and technical adaptation difficulties between enterprises and research institutions. Meanwhile, we must also achieve effective coordination of the capabilities of diverse subjects, clarifying the functions and responsibilities of various subjects in technological and industrial innovation, optimizing the layout of national strategic technological forces, and promoting long-term cooperation among industry, academia, research, and application.
Optimize the innovation ecosystem and improve systemic efficiency. We need to solidify the position of enterprises as the main subjects of innovation and establish a sound institutional mechanism for enterprises to regularly participate in the formulation and executive decision-making of technological innovation strategies and industrial development plans. Encourage the industrial sector to "set the questions" for major R&D tasks and common technical problems. Accelerate the cultivation and expansion of leading enterprises, creating a large number of "Specialized, Refined, Unique, and Novel" [3] enterprises that possess dominance and influence in specialized segments of the international division of labor. Support them in growing into leaders and sources of innovation in key links of the industrial chain. At the same time, centralize the coordination mechanism for technological innovation resources, strengthen support for research on major scientific issues and breakthroughs in common technologies, and encourage and guide enterprises to further increase investment in basic R&D. Strengthen the construction of integrated innovation carriers to achieve a gradient-coordinated configuration of innovation factors. Furthermore, improve innovation systems and mechanisms, implement classified management according to differences in innovation stages and goals, and constantly improve technological evaluation and incentive mechanisms to create an institutional environment and cultural atmosphere that encourages innovation and tolerates failure.