Crossing the "last mile" of scientific and technological achievements transformation

Author: Jiang Wenning (Party Secretary of Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Researcher of Shanghai Knowledge Competitiveness and Regional Development Research Center)

After the rapid development of reform and opening up, China's comprehensive national strength has been greatly enhanced. At the same time, the extensive economic growth mode that has traditionally relied on factors is becoming weaker and weaker, and innovation-driven is becoming the core source of power for high-quality development.

Under the guidance of the national strategy driven by innovation, China's scientific and technological innovation system has made great progress, scientific and technological input and output have grown rapidly, and major achievements have continued to emerge. However, in the "last mile" of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, it is necessary to pay more attention to the quantity and quality of technology transfer talents.

A high value-added work

Technology transfer talents are professionals who have the ability to judge the commercial value of technological achievements, find potential purchasers of achievements or find potential capital investors and other partners for the process of promoting technological research that is constantly maturing, as well as matchmaking for relevant parties to ultimately realize the industrialization of technological achievements.

In 2017, the State Council issued the "National Technology Transfer System Construction Plan" to build a national technology transfer system that conforms to the laws of scientific and technological innovation, technology transfer and industrial development, emphasizing the in-depth implementation of innovation-driven development strategies, stimulating the vitality of innovation subjects, strengthening the docking of technology supply and demand, optimizing the allocation of factors, improving the policy environment, and giving play to the important role of technology transfer in enhancing scientific and technological innovation capabilities and promoting economic and social development.

In this programme, technology transfer personnel specifically include types of technology transfer managers, technology brokers and technology managers. Relevant talents are not only good at operation and management, but also have a keen sense of market management of senior management talents; Not only understand the market information and master the channels, but also have rich professional knowledge in the docking of scientific and technological achievements and funds, and also have the ability to plan, package, promote and track scientific and technological achievements and projects.

In market economy countries, especially in Western developed countries, technology transfer talents are the key talents in the technological innovation system, mainly distributed in two major service areas:

One is to serve technology transfer or technology intermediaries. Due to the complexity of technology transfer work, the threshold requirements for technology transfer talents in technology intermediaries are generally high, usually composed of marketing, professional technology, legal expertise and people with work experience in large enterprises, with a background of compound talents.

Most of the technical brokers who are active in these technical intermediaries have two or more professional expertise in science, industry, commerce and law, and a considerable number of them have doctoral degrees.

For example, there are a number of technology transfer agencies in the United States and Israel, which are widely looking for technical managers who understand both technology and the market in the market, and then conduct a series of intensive training after hiring so that they can adapt to the work related to technology transfer as soon as possible.

Since technology transfer is a high value-added job, the income of technology transfer talents is also relatively high.

For example, the Fraunhofer Association, founded in 1949, has 74 branches in Germany, nearly 15,000 professionals, and completes about 10,000 scientific research and development projects for more than 3,000 corporate customers every year, with an annual funding of more than 2.1 billion euros.

For example, the Stanford Technology Licensing Office, established in 1970, accepts about 500 technological inventions completed by researchers every year. Approximately 50 per cent of these patents are protected through assessment. At the same time, more than 100 license agreements are signed every year. The agency's efficient work has played a crucial role in Stanford becoming the "heart of innovation" in Silicon Valley.

The second is to serve universities or scientific research institutions. Some of these technology transfer talents are transferred from researchers in universities or scientific research institutions, but the focus of work has gradually shifted to the market-oriented operation of scientific and technological projects. The incentive for them is mainly reflected in the technology transfer value they realize in the market, including the ability to obtain a share of patent transfers other than salary, and even equity incentives.

For a long time, the training and use of technology transfer talents in the mainland has not received special attention, which has affected the overall operation and efficiency of the scientific and technological innovation system. In some enterprises, universities or scientific research institutions, technology transfer talents were once in a relatively awkward position.

In reality, we do not have well-known technology transfer companies or intermediaries like the National Technology Transfer Center of the United States, the European Innovation Transfer Center, the German Innovation Market, and the Japanese Technology Transfer Agency.

Not only that, but China's technology transfer talents are generally on the margins of related enterprises. This obviously makes it difficult to stimulate their enthusiasm and sense of mission. In universities and scientific research institutions, technology transfer talents are also "surviving in the cracks", which cannot directly evaluate professional titles and are in a relatively weak position in economic income.

There are three reasons for this: First, the value of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements has not been fully recognized by the whole society, second, the degree of specialization of technology transfer is not high enough, and third, the cultivation of technology transfer talents is not enough attention.

Connecting scientists and entrepreneurs

In the entire scientific and technological innovation system, scientific and technological achievements from laboratory to commercial application to achieve their market value often need to go through a complex process. Technology transfer talent plays a key role in crossing this "last mile.".

In reality, on the one hand, a large number of scientific and technological achievements have been shelved in the cabinet and "raised in the deep boudoir people do not know"; On the other hand, the market is extremely thirsty for technology and cannot find suitable advanced technologies. To change this information asymmetry situation, effectively improve the efficiency of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and increase the training and use of technology transfer talents is an important starting point.

First, create a good public opinion environment, improve the sense of professional honor and the value recognition of the whole society for technology transfer talents.

It is necessary to improve diversified investment and financing services, strengthen the protection and operation of intellectual property rights, strengthen information sharing and accurate docking, and create a social atmosphere conducive to technology transfer.

It is necessary to fully affirm the contribution of technology transfer work in scientific and technological innovation and economic development, gradually form industry norms for evaluating its value, establish a multi-level incentive system, and promote the emergence of technology transfer talents.

In universities and scientific research institutions, we should explore the establishment of technical title evaluation standards involving technology transfer talents, such as senior engineers of the technology transfer series, senior evaluators of the technology transfer series, and researchers of the technology transfer series, and delineate a special proportion for implementation.

It is necessary to innovate incentives and improve the remuneration of technology transfer talents through various channels. In addition to salaries, it is possible to explore allocating a certain percentage of funds in successfully realized technology transfer projects or outcomes for equity incentives for relevant talents.

Within technology transfer professional institutions or enterprises, we should actively improve the technology broker (manager) system, and enhance the support for technology transfer talents through professional, high-end and professional measures.

Second, establish and improve the training system for composite professional talents in technology transfer.

In 2021, with the support of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Education, the first "technology transfer" professional master's degree program in China was established in Shanghai. The training program of this technology transfer professional master emphasizes the cognition of relevant economic and financial policies, laws and regulations, the understanding of the frontiers of innovative technologies, and the grasp and judgment of the real needs of the market and the future industrial development trend, requiring a deep understanding of capital operation and proficiency in the use of various financial products and services. Arguably, the most important thing is the ability to integrate expertise in different fields, as well as the ability to organize and manage teams.

Therefore, in the selection of students, special attention is paid to the source of students with scientific and engineering knowledge background, and priority is given to students with work experience in science and technology innovation enterprises, financial institutions, universities and scientific research institutes, government science and technology management departments and technology transfer. In terms of training goals, we pay attention to the practical results that meet the needs of society as the graduation assessment goal, and improve the practicality of talent training.

In 2022, Tsinghua University's Wudaokou School of Finance also began to recruit master's degrees in technology transfer. It is recommended to further summarize the experience on the basis of the success of the pilot, promote it in more colleges and universities across the country, further expand the professional technology transfer talent team, and continuously improve the multi-level technology transfer talent development mechanism.

Third, cultivate a number of key technology transfer professional institutions or platforms.

In order to change the situation in which technology transfer talents are scattered in various types of enterprises and institutions, it is necessary to adopt special policies to support and cultivate a number of professional institutions or platforms for technology transfer with brand effect.

In terms of policy, it can be prioritized as a high-tech enterprise and the preferential tax rate can be applied; In terms of R&D expenses plus deduction, it is allowed to include all expenditures in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into the deduction base; In terms of market access, we will further break the segmentation, actively establish a national and regional technology transfer professional market, and establish a good market environment for technology transfer professional institutions or enterprises.

Fourth, relying on the theory of the integration of industrial chain, technology chain and value chain, we will further build and improve the price formation mechanism of technology transfer.

For a long time, the value of technology transfer work in the technological innovation system has not been fairly recognized. For example, the academic value of technological innovation is often attributed to scientists at the front end, and often to entrepreneurs at the back end. In the next step, it is necessary to establish an effective and unified national technology transfer market, so that the value formation of technology transfer will be determined by the market.

The effective integration of the industrial chain and the technology chain is the inherent mission and social value of technology transfer work. This precisely reflects the value of technology transfer talents. Truly outstanding technology transfer talents should be recognized by the whole society like excellent scientists and excellent entrepreneurs.

Only in this way can we build a national technology transfer system with reasonable structure, perfect function, sound system and efficient operation, promote the diffusion, flow, sharing and application of scientific and technological achievements more smoothly, and provide strong support for accelerating the construction of an innovative country and a world scientific and technological power.

Source: Liberation Daily