Zheng Qinghua: Promoting the Deep Integration of Scientific and Technological Innovation with Industrial Innovation
The "Suggestions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development," deliberated and adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, made strategic deployments for "accelerating high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and strength to lead the development of new quality productive forces," and explicitly proposed "promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation." At the opening ceremony of the study session for principal officials at the provincial and ministerial levels to implement the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions, and promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation." Currently, the domestic and international development environments are facing profound and complex changes. Promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation requires adhering to systems thinking, innovative concepts, a global vision, and a long-term perspective. Guided by national strategic needs, we must build an integrated innovation system where multiple subjects share consistent goals, collaborative construction, and shared benefits.
1. The Historical Necessity of Promoting the Deep Integration of Scientific and Technological Innovation and Industrial Innovation
The deep integration of scientific and technological (S&T) innovation and industrial innovation is not only a strategic measure for building a modernized industrial system, but more importantly, a key grasp for implementing the New Development Philosophy, promoting high-quality development, and accelerating the construction of a New Development Paradigm. It fully reflects the Central Committee’s holistic grasp of high-quality development and its profound insight into the laws of economic development. It holds great significance for comprehensively enhancing comprehensive national strength and advancing Chinese-path modernization.
A necessary condition for seizing the initiative in innovation. Throughout the evolution of human history, a clear law has persisted: every step forward in S&T innovation catalyzes profound changes in the industrial field; conversely, every round of industrial prosperity paves the way and injects momentum for the widespread application of science and technology. At present, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating, characterized by the cross-integration of multiple disciplines and industries. The correlation between the upstream and downstream of the innovation chain is becoming increasingly close, forming a linked and inseparable organic whole. Only by promoting the deep integration of S&T innovation and industrial innovation—and breaking the linear model of "S&T research and development first, industrial application later"—can we seize the commanding heights of innovation and transform the potential energy of the technological revolution into the kinetic energy of industrial transformation.
The inevitable path for developing new quality productive forces. New quality productive forces, with high technology, high efficiency, and high quality as their core characteristics, represent a state of advanced productive forces led by innovation. The formation of new quality productive forces is neither a single breakthrough in S&T innovation nor a simple expansion of industrial scale, but the organic unity of the two. S&T innovation is the source of power for new quality productive forces, while industrial innovation is their practical carrier. Only by promoting the deep integration of S&T innovation and industrial innovation can we efficiently allocate various innovation factors and continuously foster new technologies, new talents, new organizations, new industries, new business formats, and new models. This will inject strong momentum into high-quality development and achieve the effect of "1+1>2."
An inevitable choice for shaping new competitive advantages. Against the backdrop of the accelerated evolution of the "Changes Unseen in a Century" [1], competition between nations is undergoing a transformation. The comprehensive national strength of a country depends neither solely on S&T innovation indicators such as the scale of R&D investment and the number of patents, nor solely on industrial development indicators like industrial scale and output value. Instead, it depends on the speed of industrial transformation of S&T achievements, the depth of synergy between the industrial and innovation chains, and the breadth of coupling between the innovation and industrial ecosystems. The level of integration between S&T innovation and industrial innovation largely determines the height that national competitiveness can reach. Only by promoting the deep integration of S&T innovation and industrial innovation can we shape new national competitive advantages that are secure, autonomous, high-end leading, and stable over the long term, adapted to the new situation.
2. Implementation Paths for Promoting the Deep Integration of Scientific and Technological Innovation and Industrial Innovation
Promoting the deep integration of S&T innovation and industrial innovation is a systemic project involving multiple subjects, fields, and links. On the New Journey, we should base our efforts on China's developmental reality, follow the laws of innovation, and exert collective force across strategic coordination, institutional innovation, factor guarantees, chain linkage, and open cooperation. We must effectively resolve practical problems such as "integration without depth" or "combination without smoothness," promoting the mutual embedding, mutual promotion, and common progress of the innovation chain and the industrial chain.
Persist in holistic advancement to improve the overall integrity of the integration of S&T and industrial innovation. Centering on the major strategic tasks of economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we must focus on key fields such as high-end equipment, integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, new energy, and new materials. We must clarify the priority tasks, phased goals, and implementation steps of integrated development to form a strategic layout of "the whole country as a single chessboard" [2]. We must combine problem-orientation with goal-orientation, formulate special integrated breakthrough plans for "bottleneck" [3] technical links, and construct an integrated advancement mechanism of "S&T R&D + industrial incubation + market promotion" to achieve precise docking between strategic priorities and integrated practices. We must strengthen spatial connectivity, relying on National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zones, High-Tech Industrial Development Zones, and Economic and Technological Development Zones to promote the integrated construction of industrial and innovation clusters. We must also strengthen regional synergy, combining regional industrial characteristics with innovation resource endowments to drive innovation heartlands like Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to create demonstration zones for integrated development and explore replicable and scalable integration models.
Persist in deepening reform to increase the vitality of S&T and industrial innovation integration. We should improve the cross-departmental and cross-field synergy mechanisms through regular consultations, list-based management, and effectiveness evaluations to coordinate and integrate policy resources in technology, industry, finance, and talent, creating a combined force of macro-control. We must deepen the reform of the S&T management system and comprehensively implement new project management models such as the "Open Competition Mechanism" [4], the "Horse Racing Mechanism" [5], and the "Lump Sum System" [6], giving priority support to R&D tasks with clear industrial orientation and high potential for achievement transformation. We must break away from evaluation methods centered solely on the number of papers and patents and establish diverse evaluation standards guided by innovation value, industrial contribution, and economic and social benefits. We should improve the mechanism for allowing and correcting errors, vigorously carry out the spirit of scientists, entrepreneurs, and craftsmen, and reduce the burden on researchers engaged in industry-oriented innovation. This will create a favorable atmosphere that encourages the deep integration of S&T and industrial innovation, fully releasing the endogenous drive and creative vitality of various innovation subjects.
Persist in market allocation to improve the convenience of S&T and industrial innovation integration. We must break down barriers to talent mobility, guiding the efficient flow of talent between different innovation subjects such as universities and enterprises to achieve the deep integration of the talent chain with the innovation and industrial chains. We should support universities in setting up interdisciplinary majors to cultivate composite talents adapted to the needs of industrial integration. We must build a diversified S&T financial support system, improve the multi-level capital market, and increase financial support for S&T industries. We should vigorously develop venture capital and risk capital, guiding capital to "invest early, invest small, invest for the long term, and invest in hard tech." We should encourage financial institutions to innovate S&T financial products, launching specialized services such as intellectual property pledge loans, S&T insurance, and industrial chain finance to solve the financing difficulties and high costs faced by S&T enterprises. We must leverage the guiding role of government industrial investment funds to mobilize social capital toward key areas of integrated innovation.
Persist in multi-party linkage to improve the synergy of S&T and industrial innovation integration. We must strengthen the dominant position of enterprises in S&T innovation, supporting leading enterprises to integrate the resources of universities, research institutes, and upstream/downstream enterprises to form innovation consortia. We must implement policies such as the additional tax deduction for R&D expenses and tax incentives for high-tech enterprises, driving enterprises to shift from passively receiving scientific research achievements to actively carrying out original and leading S&T breakthroughs. We should optimize the funding system for basic research, supporting universities and research institutions to conduct forward-looking, directional research around the underlying technologies and core principles of industrial development. We must map out key links and technical shortcomings in the industrial chain and deploy innovation chain breakthrough tasks accordingly. We should build comprehensive and specialized pilot-scale incubation bases and industrial technology research institutes, improving supporting services such as pilot ripening, process verification, and sample trial production. We should improve the technology trading market and intellectual property operation platforms to promote the market-based turnover of S&T achievements, building a collaborative innovation ecosystem where "scientific research has direction, innovation has a carrier, and transformation has a path."
Persist in external cooperation to improve the openness of S&T and industrial innovation integration. We should promote innovation through openness and integration through cooperation, actively integrating into the global innovation network. We should encourage enterprises, universities, and research institutes to participate in international big science plans and engineering, attracting top global innovation talent to China with more convenient conditions and a better environment. We should deepen cooperation with innovation subjects in countries co-building the "Belt and Road," jointly formulating technical R&D roadmaps around key areas such as infrastructure, new energy, modern agriculture, ecological environmental protection, and the digital economy, promoting the cross-border adaptation and industrial transformation of S&T achievements. We should encourage and support Chinese enterprises to conduct global industrial mergers and acquisitions, participate in the global division of labor and the setting of technical standards, and achieve the two-way integration of "global innovation R&D with domestic industrial transformation" and "domestic R&D with overseas implementation." Finally, we must improve risk prevention and control mechanisms to hold the bottom line of S&T and industrial security.
3. The Role of Universities in Promoting the Deep Integration of Scientific and Technological Innovation and Industrial Innovation
Universities are important subjects in the deep integration of S&T and industrial innovation. They should actively align with national strategies and regional development needs, optimize the combination of various innovation factors through methods such as disciplinary restructuring, and demonstrate their mission and achieve greater accomplishments within the overall context of serving high-quality development.
Use disciplinary restructuring as the base point to solidify the foundation for the deep integration of S&T and industrial innovation. We must break through the research paradigm of pure logical deduction and actively align with the direction of regional industrial upgrading. We should extract major scientific problems from "bottleneck" technical hurdles in industry and the developmental needs of emerging industries, driving the transformation of disciplinary development from "self-circulation" to "education-industry linkage." We must strengthen dynamic judgment of industrial demand, integrate cross-disciplinary resources using key technologies as bonds, and establish a closed-loop mechanism of "scenario extraction—problem transformation—disciplinary adaptation" that uses pain points on the industrial front line as the source of innovation. This will activate new momentum for disciplinary development and create a disciplinary ecosystem adapted to the development of new quality productive forces. We should optimize and upgrade the talent cultivation system, constructing a model of "disciplines as the foundation, industry as the field, and co-cultivation as the path." We must anchor the goal of training "bridging talents," focusing on the pain points of the connection between S&T and industrial innovation, deeply integrating industrial needs into curriculum construction, and solidly advancing the construction of university-enterprise practice bases to provide students with immersive industrial scenario experiences, ensuring graduates become the backbone for promoting the integration of industry and education.
Use innovation platforms as fulcrums to optimize services for the deep integration of S&T and industrial innovation. We should build frontier cross-disciplinary research platforms, relying on the cross-disciplinary advantages formed by restructuring to integrate cross-field academic resources, research teams, and technical equipment. This will form a characteristic development model where "platforms aggregate power, cross-disciplines solve problems, and supply-demand promotes innovation," providing systemic support for breakthroughs in frontier industrial technologies. We should build pilot-scale transformation platforms, using the industrial adaptation advantages formed by disciplinary adjustments as bonds, and collaborate with local governments and industry leaders to build a full-chain pilot transformation system. This will integrate service resources such as technical R&D, pilot ripening, enterprise incubation, policy docking, and financial support, overcoming the "pilot-scale gap" bottleneck in achievement transformation. We should build talent co-cultivation platforms, focusing on the needs of cultivating composite innovation talents, deepening "AI+" education reform, and driving the transformation of the training model from "discipline-oriented" to "industry-oriented."
Use institutional reform as the focus to break down barriers to the deep integration of S&T and industrial innovation. In terms of evaluation reform, we should establish a diversified scientific research evaluation system centered on the value of achievements, incorporating technical transformation effectiveness, industrial service contribution, and university-enterprise synergy into the index system, guiding research from being laboratory-oriented to being industry-demand-oriented. Regarding funding and data support, we should establish special support funds for the basic research stage of "0 to 1" original breakthroughs and the key stage of "1 to 10" pilot-scale amplification, while increasing digital support for cross-disciplinary integration and achievement transformation. In terms of property rights and procedural reform, we should deepen the reform of granting rights over service-related S&T achievements [7], clarifying property rights, simplifying approval processes, and increasing the benefit share of research teams to fully release the "creator's dividend." Regarding talent mobility mechanisms, we should establish a two-way mobility and mutual-hiring/co-cultivation model between universities, governments, and enterprises. Key teachers should be dispatched to enterprises for temporary posts, and enterprise technical experts and industry leaders should be invited to teach on campus and co-build research teams. This will integrate practical industrial experience and frontier technical standards into talent cultivation and S&T breakthroughs, achieving the two-way circulation of innovation elements such as talent, technology, and ideas.
Use the empowerment of enterprises as the target to build an ecosystem for the deep integration of S&T and industrial innovation. On the technical supply side, focusing on "bottleneck" problems, we should build a collaborative breakthrough model of "university source innovation + enterprise engineering." Universities should focus on basic research and core technology breakthroughs, while enterprises should leverage their advantages in engineering and marketing to transform laboratory technologies into products and solutions adapted to industrial needs. On the achievement transformation side, aiming at the actual production scenarios and technical needs of enterprises, we should conduct secondary development and iterative optimization of existing scientific research achievements, providing personalized technical solutions for enterprises to improve the success rate and market adaptation of transformation, truly clearing the "last kilometer" from laboratory results to industrial application. On the extended service side, we should build a life-cycle empowerment system, capturing industrial technical upgrade needs in a timely manner and providing enterprises with full-chain support from technical R&D and product testing to later upgrades, forming a closed-loop service of "technical supply—optimization and adaptation—iterative empowerment."