"When we recruit scientific researchers, especially the heads of scientific research departments, we must first look at the character." The words of Shi Chao, the founder of Qingdao Shortcode Gene Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shortcode Gene), surprised reporters: Shouldn't scientific researchers first need to have excellent professional skills?
Subsequently, Shi Chao talked about how to explore, improve and enhance the scientific and technological innovation genes of talents in the development process of the enterprise, and solved the mystery one by one.
Is character more important than technology?
"Science and technology are a double-edged sword, on the one hand, it promotes economic and social development, and on the other hand, it can bring damage and harm." For example, Shi Chao said, in the case of a university in southern China, the ethical and moral issues in the field of science and technology are facing great challenges because gene editing technology has triggered ethical controversies about the dignity of life and biodiversity. Therefore, at present, universities generally offer courses on science ethics to standardize the professional standards and codes of conduct of scientific and technological workers.
In the process of development, enterprises are also facing the ethical challenge of scientific and technological innovation.
In the early days of its establishment, the company set up a scientific research team through recruitment, and Shi Chao led the team members to develop a variety of testing products after a large number of long-term in-depth research and experiments. But unexpectedly, the head of the scientific research department jumped ship, not only taking away the team's latest scientific research results, but also poaching some scientific researchers. This has brought a lot of losses to start-ups.
Shi Chao, founder of Qingdao Shortcode Gene Technology Co., Ltd
Since then, companies have put quality first when recruiting scientific researchers. The human resources department comprehensively analyzes the moral character, values and code of conduct of job seekers by understanding and investigating their educational experience, employment history, social background, scientific research achievements, etc. For each recruit, Shi Chao has to personally interview and check, and have a preliminary grasp of his sense of responsibility, scientific spirit and ethics.
"Attitude and character are the second elements in selection." Shi Chao said that it is often not professional skills that restrict the development of scientific research and technology. Scientific researchers need to face many difficulties and challenges, countless failures, reversals, and even years of hard work in vain. Without optimism, enthusiasm for learning, collaboration and perseverance, it is difficult to innovate and make breakthroughs. Expertise is in third place.
This concept is clearly reflected in the company's comprehensive assessment of employees, which includes seven aspects: work attitude, work quality, comprehensive satisfaction, communication and cooperation, self-learning and innovation, work pressure and daily performance.
The reporter noticed that the work attitude in the first place is divided into four standards, and the highest standards are: work proactively, bravely shoulder heavy burdens, and be able to put forward constructive suggestions on the overall situation and overall work; Communication and collaboration are also divided into four levels, and the highest standards are: willing to care about and help others, cooperate well with others, have a strong team spirit, and can take the initiative to share technical and business experience, while employees who are "difficult to work with others and have strained interpersonal relationships" will receive the lowest score; Self-learning innovation is divided into four levels, the highest grade is to be able to deal with new situations and new problems that frequently arise in the work, to continue to learn, to innovate, and to help the company improve its technical level and software thinking.
Will you be rewarded for project failure?
The pursuit of faster, more sensitive, and higher specificity has been the diligent pursuit of molecular diagnostic technology since its inception.
Shortcode Gene has independently developed a series of nucleic acid rapid detection platforms, such as isothermal nucleic acid rapid detection platform, rapid PCR technology platform, molecular POCT detection platform, and rapid test box product platform, which has realized the improvement of nucleic acid detection from "hour-level" to "minute-level", helping molecular diagnosis anytime and anywhere.
And all this is based on the scientific and technological innovation of Shi Chao and the technical personnel.
During the new crown pneumonia epidemic, most of the product testing time on the market is 24 hours, and how to produce dozens of minutes of testing products has become a top priority for the technical department. Under the leadership of Shi Chao, the team leader finally found out the key points of primer design through repeated experiments, improved the specificity of the detection, reduced the non-specific amplification, and opened up the "two pulses" of the rapid detection technology, laying the foundation for helping the product to be launched and quickly occupying the market.
In the research and development process of the Mycoplasma pneumoniae nucleic acid detection kit, the company's R&D team overcame the difficulties in the design of detection primers after more than two years of research and shortened the detection time to 15 minutes. With this kit, parents can get a report in the emergency department of the hospital when their child has a cold and fever, and only need to wait for a moment to get the report, which effectively helps solve the problem of "slow and difficult medical treatment".
The driving force of scientific and technological innovation needs to be backed by a sound reward mechanism.
The reporter flipped through the company's "Talent Performance Appraisal and Reward System" and noticed that this is a reward system with the characteristics of a technology company, which not only has a detailed assessment formula, but also sets up detailed assessment indicators and scoring standards, including the total bonus of the project, the total bonus of the project members, the calculation method and scoring standard of the individual bonus of the project member, which is open and transparent. "For example, if a project rewards 100,000 yuan, the company will cash it out according to different nodes such as completion of approval and registration, clinical trials, and customer trials." Shi Chao said.
Qingdao Shortcode Gene Technology Co., Ltd. talent team
"Science is not 100% successful, and publishing the research content of unsuccessful topics can inspire other researchers or avoid detours. Another feature of the company's assessment method is the fault-tolerant mechanism. Shi Chao told reporters that the failure of scientific research projects includes the laboratory stage is not through, the transfer is not successful, the market is not recognized and other situations, the company will not pay bonuses because of project failure, but will be based on the team's completion of the project's working hours assessment, completion quality and overall project progress to approve the bonus. Even if the project fails, if it is done very hard, is very exploratory, can explain why it failed, or is inspiring or even significant to other scientific research projects, the final evaluation can still give a high score. Shi Chao said. It is understood that since the establishment of the enterprise, the monthly salary of the head of the scientific research department has increased from the initial several thousand yuan to more than 10,000 yuan.
At present, the company has developed a variety of respiratory pathogen detection products such as Mycoplasma pneumoniae and new coronavirus, and has developed more than 20 foodborne pathogenic microbial detection, foodborne meat-derived identification, and animal disease detection products, as well as Helicobacter pylori and drug resistance gene detection products that can be completed in about 1 hour. Up to now, the core team of the company has published more than 110 SCI papers, applied for 17 national invention patents, 3 PCT patents, and 7 have been authorized, successfully landing on the New Fourth Board.
Researchers also need to be able to manage and understand marketing?
High-tech enterprises often face such a dilemma: they have cutting-edge R&D teams and products comparable to big brands, but they are not good at marketing and management, and they do not have a lot of money to do marketing, how can they be recognized by consumers?
As the founder of a technology company, Shi Chao has encountered similar problems.
Chao Shi is currently a professor and doctoral supervisor at Qingdao University, and a visiting scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles and Riverside. As the person in charge of the Qingdao International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Gene Point-of-Care Testing, the scientific research director of the Laboratory Department of the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, the director of the Shandong Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Society, the executive director of the Qingdao Bioengineering Association, and the member of the Youth Committee of the China Association for Analysis and Testing, he has won the 2022 Shandong Taishan Industry Leading Talent (Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Category), the first prize of the 2020 Qingdao Science and Technology Progress Award (the first completer), and the 2019 Qingdao Top Talent and other honors. He won the first prize of the 10th China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (Qingdao Division), the Best Technological Innovation Award of the Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project of the 5th In Vitro Diagnostic Young Entrepreneur Forum, and the Outstanding Contribution Award of Epidemic Prevention and Anti-epidemic Technology.
Qingdao Shortcode Gene Technology Co., Ltd. talent team
"Scientific researchers, especially science and technology enterprises and team leaders, must not only understand professional technology, but also understand management, marketing and marketing, which can accelerate the transformation of achievements and market value. Among them, there is a special shortage of scientific research 'production transfer' talents. Shi Chao thinks. In the next step, the company will also attract such high-level talents from first-tier cities such as Beijing.
In order to accelerate the pace of scientific and technological innovation and achievement transformation, Shortcode Gene has jointly tackled key problems, jointly built entities, and jointly cultivated talents with Qingdao University, Qingdao University of Science and Technology and other institutions, focusing on the research and development of simplified and visual nucleic acid detection new technologies.
In 2023, the company was awarded the Qingdao Expert Workstation, which is also an affirmation that the company attaches great importance to talent introduction and scientific research, actively builds a platform for high-tech talents, effectively establishes a talent management mechanism, respects talents, and encourages innovation. At present, the company and industry-university-research cooperation units have more than 50 R&D technicians, of which more than 80% are doctors and masters.
Qingdao Shortcode Gene Technology Co., Ltd
It is understood that Qingdao High-tech Zone will give a one-time reward of 50,000 yuan to the employers who newly set up Qingdao Expert Workstation and Qingdao Skill Master Workstation. For the employers who have been newly awarded the outstanding scientific research achievements of Qingdao Excellent Expert Workstation and Qingdao Expert Workstation, they will be given matching rewards of 100,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan respectively. "Becoming an expert workstation is an affirmation and encouragement from the government and industry for our technological and innovative strength. In the future, we will increase our scientific research efforts, and at the same time continue to introduce scientific research cooperation projects to provide a better platform for talent innovation and entrepreneurship and the transformation of scientific research achievements. Shi Chao said.
Reporter: Feng Manlou Editor: Cui Xianxiang
Qingdao Finance Network
WeChat: kkcaijing