Promoting commercial application of technological achievements
As of 2018, facial recognition technology has been applied to security checks in China’s 61 airports. Photo: CAS
On Aug. 4, a symposium on the commercial application of technological achievements was held in Shanghai. Scholars exchanged viewpoints and held in-depth discussions on related issues.
Li Wan, director of the Science and Technology Development Department of Shanghai Academy of Science and Technology said that, to promote the commercial application of technological achievements, we need to clarify major issues, draw on other countries’ advances in concepts and experience, and apply this according to local situations, so as to formulate implementations with Chinese characteristics.
Chen Hongkai, director of the Department of Innovation Service at the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (STCSM) said that, in recent years, the STCSM has made efforts in the following four aspects. First, they have established markets for technology transfer and the improvement of cooperative mechanisms for supply and demand. Second, some universities and institutes have been chosen to be pilot institutions for the establishment of intermediary agencies for the technology transfer. Third, we have also promoted talent cultivation and trained managers of technology at a larger scale and systematic level. Fourth, some pilot university science parks at the city level have been promoted to the 2.0 edition. The operation mode of collecting rent in the past has been changed, in a bid to encourage professors and students to start their own businesses.
Wu Shouren, deputy secretary of the Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research, said that we need to solve problems in the commercial application of technological achievements from a systematic perspective. First, the mechanisms of establishing applied research projects should be formulated from both the top down and the bottom up. Second, measures should be taken to improve the low quality of patent applications as measured in performance evaluations and to enhance patent value and technologies. Third, we should improve the mechanism for talent evaluation. Fourth, we should better support intermediary organizations and leverage their roles as bridges between suppliers and those in need of technological achievements.
Shan Xiaoguang, president of the Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property (SICIP) at Tongji University, said that we need to respect the laws of the production of technological achievements and improve the system for evaluating disciplines. Meanwhile, we need to implement hierarchical classification and create a good environment for respecting and utilizing intellectual property in society.
Song Hefa, a professor from the Institutes of Science and Development under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that we need to focus on such issues as resource allocation and researchers’ income. Current commercial applications of technological achievements should be in accordance with related laws.
Chang Xuhua, an associate professor from the SICIP at Tongji University, suggested that, first, universities and research institutes should transform their concepts from the orientation of transaction scale to that of taking into consideration scale and speed at the same time. Second, we should improve the basic regulations of the accounting and financial management systems and transform single financial auditing to comprehensive auditing, so as to better respond to value fluctuation and the high risks generated by innovation in the process of the application of scientific achievements.
edited by SU XUAN