The second China Innovation Challenge (Shanghai) was launched this week. The first batch of 73 technological innovation needs of enterprises were announced in Fengxian District, inviting domestic and foreign researchers to "reveal the list". The first batch of 73 companies' technology innovation needs were announced in Fengxian District this week, inviting researchers from home and abroad to reveal their names. Shanghai will accelerate the development of many enterprises and provide a platform for a number of specialized science and technology service organizations by pooling the wisdom of global science and technology talent.

Highlighting global high-tech trends

Liu Qin, deputy inspector of the Municipal Science and Technology Commission, introduced that the China Innovation Challenge is an innovation crowdsourcing service activity that publicly collects solutions from the society in order to meet the technological innovation needs of enterprises in a "competition". In September this year, the State Council released the "National Technology Transfer System Construction Plan", which proposes to "stimulate the vitality of innovation subjects and strengthen the technology supply and demand interface". Shanghai released the Shanghai Regulations on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements and the Shanghai Action Plan for Promoting the Transfer of Scientific and Technological Achievements (2017-2020) this year to further stimulate the demand for innovation and enhance the innovation capacity of enterprises from different angles. Against this backdrop, this event helps guide enterprises to engage in open innovation, helps sort out key common problems in the region's industries, and helps cultivate a number of professional science and technology service providers to activate Shanghai's science and technology innovation momentum by promoting an orderly docking between supply and demand for science and technology achievements.

Why is this year's China Innovation Challenge in Fengxian? Fengxian District Deputy Mayor Gu Toulouse said, "Fengxian is striving to build an important bearing area for advanced manufacturing, a core bearing area for big health industry and a vibrant area for science and innovation for SMEs. Locating the competition in Fengxian is conducive to giving full play to the regional resource endowment, stimulating the innovation vitality of local SMEs and enabling "Challengers" from all over the world to get connected with Fengxian through innovation.

According to reports, the first batch of 73 technology needs collected highlights the global high-tech development trend. The demand for new-generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data accounted for more than one-third of the total, reflecting the future pattern of innovation centered on intelligence and the interconnection of all things through digitalization.

There are more than 20 advanced manufacturing technology needs. It is hoped that this device can be mounted on a deep-sea lander in the future, operate at a depth of not less than 11,000 meters, have the function of trapping abyssal macro organisms (organisms visible to the naked eye), and have the functions of pressure-holding, pressure-supplementing, heat-holding, and pressure-retaining. No pollution, low power consumption and other performance characteristics. Researchers, if they develop such a device, would allow Rainbow Fish to acquire more rare macro organisms in the deep sea.

"Rainbow Fish 10,000-meter lander in the New Britain Trench to conduct "bottom squatting survey". Source: Xinhua News Agency
There are also many technological needs in the biomedical field. Shanghai Kaibao Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is a famous TCM enterprise in Fengxian District, which has undertaken the TCM standardization project of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the National Development and Reform Commission. The demand they put forward is to build a quality traceability software platform for the whole production process of traditional Chinese medicine, so as to realize the quality and information "two-way traceability" from the planting of herbs to the product market.

Establish a regular tracking mechanism for business needs

Chen Hongkai, director of the Innovation Service Division of the Municipal Science and Technology Commission, told Jiefang Daily and Shangguan News that a major feature of this year's competition is global docking. The Chinese and English versions of the technology demand announcement of Shanghai enterprises will be released through the official website of the China Innovation Challenge, "Shanghai Science and Technology" and other online platforms, as well as through the National Technology Transfer East Center's international hubs in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore to global research institutions. Researchers from MIT, Yale, Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, University of Toronto, Nanyang Polytechnic and other top foreign universities will have the opportunity to "unveil" the list and serve Shanghai enterprises in technological innovation.

Another major feature of the competition is precision services. The Municipal Science and Technology Commission is guiding a number of technology transfer service agencies, such as 114 Industry-University-Research Collaborative Innovation Platform, Mai Technology, Flying Sky Zhongzhi, Ke Chuangbang, Technology Neighborhood, and Bay Valley Intellectual Property, to "pair" with enterprises one by one, so that they can help enterprises dig deep and clearly describe their technical needs, find suitable research teams, and provide enterprises with Fengxian District will take advantage of the competition to provide high-value services such as innovation capability diagnosis and intellectual property management. Fengxian District will take this opportunity to engage all towns and development zones to "map out" the innovation needs of 9,500 enterprises in the district and provide accurate services to more than 300 enterprises.

Chen Hongkai said, the transformation of scientific and technological achievements generally has a long cycle, high risk, difficult to assess and other characteristics, so the technology trading process is a relatively long and complex process, often requiring months or even a year or two to repeatedly communicate, run-in and improve technical solutions. Therefore, the Municipal Science and Technology Commission will be based on the technical needs of the enterprises in the challenge, using the public service platform for the transfer of scientific and technological achievements in Shanghai, to establish a normal tracking mechanism of enterprise innovation needs, and actively do 100% feedback, continuous tracking and service, to explore a new model of scientific and technological achievements transformation innovation service.