The scene of Fudan University professor signing an agreement with foreign "technology headhunters" touched Chen Hongkai, director of Innovation Service Department of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission.

In April 2016, US biopharmaceutical technology headhunter Huya Biointernational signed an exclusive patent license with Fudan University for a new anti-tumor immunotherapy drug candidate, and paid Fudan University a total of not more than USD 65 million.

"'Huya' is very concerned about basic research in China, but the country often waits for results before considering conversion." Difficult to assess, high risk and long cycle, this is a problem faced by the conversion of scientific and technological achievements all over the world, why do they do much better abroad than at home? Chen Hongkai feels that the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in China is mainly facing several bottlenecks: enterprises are eager for immediate profits, not enough innovation traction; the assessment system of colleges and universities is yet to be improved; scientific and technological achievements information is not open enough; market-oriented, professional service institutions have not yet started; service personnel reserves and accumulation is not enough; early capital investment in the transformation of results is not enough.

On June 20, the Shanghai Action Plan to Promote the Transfer of Scientific and Technological Achievements (2017-2020) was released (hereinafter referred to as "Action Plan"). The Action Plan focuses on two main lines, namely the enhancement of the function of the elements of the transfer of scientific and technological achievements and the creation of an ecological environment, and makes every effort to build a service system for the transfer of scientific and technological achievements with complete elements, perfect functions, openness and cooperation, professional efficiency and an active atmosphere, and it is expected that by 2020, it will basically become an important hub of the global technology transfer network.

        Cultivating the "golden cow"

In China, many university teachers are multifaceted: on the one hand, they are engaged in scientific research, and on the other hand, they have to "go to sea" themselves to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

"A professional does a professional's job!" Chen Hongkai feels that the conversion of results should be left to professional services.
To this end, the Programme of Action proposes to stimulate the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements by research and development institutions and institutions of higher education. Research and development institutions and institutions of higher education should establish and improve professional technology transfer service agencies, or entrust independent professional service agencies to carry out the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements; they should clarify their responsibilities for coordinating the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and the management of intellectual property rights, and establish a system for the disclosure and management of functional scientific and technological achievements....

The development of professionals is key to creating a professional technology transfer agency.

"Technology transfer service talent is, to put it bluntly, 'tech scalping,' but it's very demanding."

Chen Hongkai said, technology transfer services personnel is cross-compounded personnel. To cultivate a "golden cow", need to professional science and engineering doctorate, engaged in the industry for more than 3 years, and then switch to learn 3 years of professional knowledge of the transformation of results, "master with apprentices" and then 3 years, but also have excellent communication and marketing skills.

At present, the Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Municipal Education Commission have designated Shanghai University, the Shanghai Institute of Technology and the Shanghai Institute of Family Planning Science as pilot institutions to support the development of professional technology transfer services and the training of complex talents. The University of Shanghai is screening and cultivating such talents from master's degrees in science and engineering, and is opening up channels for them to be promoted to senior titles.

In order to train such talents, the Municipal Science and Technology Commission is also preparing to establish the Shanghai Technology Transfer Institute. Once completed, the institute will recruit incumbents and graduate students with science and engineering backgrounds to educate them on technology transfer capabilities. The instructors will include executives from technology transfer service providers such as Sheng Zhihua, Yu Mo, and Cloud Hatch, allowing students to go into enterprises and carry out on-site teaching and practical training. In the future, with the graduation of a number of students, Shanghai's technology transfer service industry will have more and more complex talents, becoming an important force in promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

        Establishment of a system for sharing information on scientific and technological achievements

"The contract with Fudan is with 'Shanghai Asia', not a domestic technology transfer agency, in large part because the flow of information on domestic scientific and technological achievements is poor, and we don't know what the researchers are doing, especially for early-stage research projects."

To this end, the Programme of Action focuses on addressing the shared use of information on results as the "seeds" for the transformation of results. "Transformation of results is a process in which all elements collaborate and all types of information flow." Government departments reserve a large amount of information related to scientific and technological achievements, and can establish a public service platform for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements with the convergence of resources, open sharing and division of labor, so that the majority of domestic enterprises and technology transfer services can timely and comprehensively understand the projects under research in Shanghai universities, research and development institutions and other units, and provide rich information resources to support the transfer, diffusion and exchange of scientific and technological achievements.

The Programme of Action will also actively promote the development and utilization of information on scientific and technological achievements, and turn data into business needs. Enterprises and all sectors of society will be encouraged to process and make use of the information in the database of scientific and technological achievements, so as to revitalize the data resources of scientific and technological achievements.

After coming to Shanghai, she founded Shanghai Cloud Hatching Information Technology Co., Ltd. which is dedicated to promoting the transformation of high-tech achievements under the Eastern National Technology Transfer Center. After the establishment of the company, Tang Xiaolin spent a lot of energy to do one thing: the establishment of a large pool of experts and project library, and the project to carry out preliminary industry analysis and market validation. It was the establishment of the database and data analysis that made the cloud incubation successful to close to 20 financing and industrial cooperation projects with a total scale of nearly 300 million yuan.