Theory Weekly, New Domain Headlines丨Innovation culture first, help build a global R&D center city

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Xi Jinping's cultural thought has deepened the understanding of the laws governing the construction of socialist culture from a new perspective, and provided scientific guidance for forging new glories of socialist culture in the new era and new journey and building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation. Guided by Xi Jinping's cultural thought, innovation culture takes precedence, and further stimulates the vitality of innovation and creativity, which can provide a steady stream of power for Changsha to build a global R&D center city.

He Jiduo, Liu Zhiqing

The book "Silicon Valley Advantage: A Habitat for Innovation and Entrepreneurship" argues that "Silicon Valley is not a planned creation, and the development of high-tech, capital is important, but more important is the system and culture that can give full play to human creativity." It is the unique culture and spirit of innovation that has made Silicon Valley a "habitat" for innovation.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward an innovation-driven development strategy with great foresight, emphasizing that innovation is the first driving force to lead development, and requiring the acceleration of the construction of an innovative country. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China called for "cultivating a culture of innovation, promoting the spirit of scientists, cultivating a fine style of study, and creating an atmosphere of innovation" in the whole society. At the 2023 Internet Yuelu Summit, the main leaders of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee put forward the forward-looking goal and strategic concept of "planning to build Changsha into a global R&D center city". Subsequently, Changsha quickly issued relevant implementation opinions and a series of supporting policies, and clarified the timetable, task book and roadmap for building a global R&D center city.

Innovation culture is the soil and cornerstone of building a global R&D center city, which plays an important role as a "compass" for the transformation of advanced production and lifestyle, an important "magnet" for gathering high-quality scientific and technological innovation resources, and an important "catalyst" for reconstructing a benign innovation ecosystem. The use of innovation culture can produce twice the result with half the effort for Changsha to build a global R&D center city.

Accurately grasp the profound connotation of innovation culture

The German sociologist Max Weber once said that "behind any great cause there is an intangible spiritual and cultural temperament that supports the cause." The culture of innovation is the product of the cross-integration of management, cultural and biology. Niche theory, innovation system theory, co-evolution theory and cultural innovation theory explore the basic characteristics and profound connotations of innovation culture from different perspectives. In general, the culture of innovation has the characteristics of inclusiveness and openness, synergy of mutual trust and cooperation, pioneering spirit of daring to be the first, and inclusiveness of tolerance and failure. It has three forms, namely the form of values, the form of policy system, and the form of human environment.

In the form of values, the culture of innovation embodies the ideas, concepts, and spirits that promote innovation. Scientists and entrepreneurs are the main force of innovation, and the moral code and code of conduct formed by it are one of the important forms of innovation culture. The spirit of scientists emphasizes academic innovation, theoretical innovation, knowledge innovation, original innovation, etc., while the entrepreneurial spirit emphasizes technological innovation, product innovation, organizational innovation, management innovation, application innovation, etc. To cultivate a culture of innovation in the whole society, it is necessary to advocate in the whole society the values of advocating rationality, respecting knowledge, having the courage to compete, encouraging innovation, and tolerating failure.

In the form of policies and systems, the culture of innovation is mainly reflected in the institutional mechanisms, management systems, laws and regulations that promote innovation. The innovation culture in the form of policy system includes not only the evaluation mechanism, incentive mechanism, evolution mechanism, and guarantee mechanism of the scientific community and enterprises, but also the science and technology policies, laws and regulations of the national and local governments. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Scientific and technological innovation and institutional innovation should play a coordinated role, and the two wheels should rotate together. "The policy system constructs the most important scientific research environment and guarantee mechanism for scientific and technological innovation activities, regulates the allocation of innovation resources, guides the value orientation of innovation subjects, and stipulates the corresponding evaluation standards and incentive methods.

In the form of the human environment, the culture of innovation embodies the factors of the human environment that promote innovation. It includes many aspects such as resource endowment, infrastructure, business environment, educational resources, human capital, financial system, network relations, etc. The innovation culture in the form of human environment generally indirectly affects the flow, agglomeration and state of innovation subjects, indirectly affects the allocation, management and integration of innovation resources, and indirectly affects the construction, evolution and transformation of innovation mechanism. A high-quality human environment is conducive to influencing regional innovation capabilities from different perspectives.

Examine the development status of Changsha's innovation culture

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Changsha has deeply implemented the innovation-driven development strategy, explored the path of self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology, and steadily improved its innovation strength.

The historical accumulation is solid and deep, but the path dependence still exists. Changsha's urban spirit is highly in line with the characteristics of a global R&D center city. The cultural tradition of "applying it to the world and seeking truth from facts" is conducive to being internalized into a rational scientific outlook, the spiritual charm of "worrying about the world and daring to be the first" is conducive to being constructed into a pragmatic concept of innovation, and the ideological concept of "inclusiveness, openness and inclusiveness" is conducive to being cultivated into universal values. In addition, Changsha is rich in science and education resources, R&D talents, superior innovation and entrepreneurship environment, and major scientific and technological achievements are emerging, which provides a solid foundation and strong support for building a global R&D center city. However, the egalitarianism and the golden mean advocated by traditional culture are also important factors restricting the sustainable evolution of innovative culture. In terms of industrial structure, Changsha focuses on the traditional manufacturing industry, and the innovation in tertiary industry-related fields such as finance and human resource services is slightly insufficient.

The culture of innovation is becoming stronger, but the governance system is still not perfect. In recent years, Changsha has continuously formed a cultural atmosphere that supports innovation, with the continuous accumulation of major scientific and technological resources, the deepening of foreign exchanges and cooperation, and the continuous improvement of the scientific quality of citizens. According to the results of the 11th sample survey of Chinese citizens' scientific literacy, the proportion of citizens in Changsha with scientific literacy is 13.5%, which is higher than the national average. Changsha was rated as a demonstration city for the construction of a strong national intellectual property city. As of 2022, Changsha has 53,300 valid invention patents and 52.02 effective invention patents for 10,000 people, both of which rank among the top in the country. However, there are also problems such as weak awareness of science and technology ethics, lagging supervision of science and technology projects, and anomie of scientific researchers. For example, a small number of new technologies infringe on personal privacy, involve online fraud, false information, and kill ripeness; A small number of scientific and technological projects have insufficient precaution and process supervision, low performance evaluation of scientific research funds, and low conversion rate of R&D achievements.

The innovation cultural ecology has been continuously enriched, but the leading role is not prominent enough. Factors such as location, education, talents, housing, and medical security are important parts of the innovative cultural ecology. In recent years, Changsha has given full play to its unique advantages as a livable and workable city, and has made great efforts to cultivate and optimize the cultural ecology of innovation while focusing on scientific and technological innovation. For example, we should consolidate basic education, vigorously promote the construction of "double first-class" colleges and universities, and explore a new path for the integration of industry and education in vocational education; Continuously optimize and upgrade the talent policy, following the launch of the "22 Talent Policies" in 2017, and successively introduce the "8 Rural Policies", "45 Free Trade Zones" and "45 Upgraded Talent Policies"; Highlight the comparative advantages of housing prices, medical care, employment and other aspects, support scientific research talents to buy houses, ensure that high-end talents seek medical treatment, and timely and effectively solve the employment of the families of scientific and technological talents. However, there are also shortcomings, such as the importance and leadership of innovation culture in social culture have not yet been highlighted; The scientific quality of science and technology media practitioners needs to be improved, and the construction of science and technology media platforms is insufficient; Careers in science and technology are not attractive and socially prestigious; The public's participation in scientific and technological innovation-related activities is not high; The development of new innovation subjects is lagging behind, and the diversity of innovation subjects is insufficient.

Promote the empowerment and upgrading of innovation culture

Guided by the spirit of scientists and entrepreneurs, we will create an atmosphere of innovation culture. Vigorously promote the spirit of scientists and entrepreneurs. Actively carry out the selection and publicity activities of "the most beautiful scientific and technological worker", "innovation competition" and "outstanding entrepreneur", set up a scientist and entrepreneurship propaganda group, establish an education base for scientists and entrepreneurs, give full play to the role of platforms such as the Association for Science and Technology, the Federation of Industry and Commerce, democratic parties, university societies, and new think tanks, and vigorously create a strong atmosphere of respect for science and technology, talents, innovation and knowledge in the whole society. Establish and improve a fault-tolerant mechanism that encourages innovation and tolerates failure, and forms a scientific research atmosphere that dares to be the first and has the courage to explore. Implement actions to improve the scientific literacy of the whole people, and cultivate a good environment for advocating science and innovation. Strengthen publicity and guidance, and gather broad consensus and strong synergy to build a global R&D center city.

On the basis of the network ecology, strengthen policy and institutional innovation. Research and learn from the innovation policies of developed countries and regions such as Silicon Valley in the United States and Tsukuba Science City in Japan, and formulate special support policies for R&D and innovation from a high starting point and high standards. We will continue to deepen the reform of the scientific and technological system, optimize and improve the scientific research management system, and expand the autonomy of scientific research activities of colleges and universities and scientific research personnel. Highlight the main position of enterprise innovation, promote the full coverage of R&D institutions of industrial enterprises above designated size, and stimulate the vitality and motivation of independent innovation of enterprises. Explore the establishment of entrepreneurial insurance, guarantee and risk sharing systems. Increase financial capital investment, optimize industry, finance, taxation, government procurement and other policies, encourage and guide social capital investment, and promote the sustained and stable growth of science and technology research and development funds in the whole society.

Follow science and technology for good, and build a comprehensive governance system. Adhering to the value mission of "science and technology for good", adhere to the people-centered, and increase scientific and technological innovation around development needs, industrial needs, and user needs. We will continue to create a market-oriented, law-based, and international business environment and a clean and upright scientific research environment, promote the brand building of new technologies and new products, and create a fair, open and transparent competition ecology for innovative entities. Strengthen legislation in key areas and industries such as R&D investment, technological research, and achievement transformation, build a legal framework system that adapts to R&D and innovation, and improve systems and norms that meet the requirements of R&D technology change and industrialization. Establish a system for the protection of intellectual property rights in R&D and innovation, severely crack down on criminal acts that infringe on intellectual property rights, and protect the achievements of scientific and technological innovation. Improve the system of science and technology ethics, enhance the capacity of science and technology ethics governance, effectively prevent and control science and technology ethics risks, and increase the force of handling violations of science and technology activities.

(The authors' affiliations are Changsha Municipal Bureau of Culture, Tourism, Radio, Film and Television, and Changsha Library)