The Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the National Technology Transfer Eastern Center are supporting a number of technology transfer service agencies to enhance enterprise technological innovation and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in universities and institutes, reporters learned recently from the first Shanghai Technology Transfer Service Agency Development Forum in 2018. This year, the Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Municipal Finance Bureau will issue technology innovation vouchers with a total value of 80 million yuan to promote cooperation between enterprises and technology transfer service agencies. The Municipal Science and Technology Commission will also take the lead in establishing a database of scientific and technological achievements, so that technology transfer service providers can have a comprehensive understanding of the research projects supported by the Shanghai government and seek business opportunities from them.
In 2016-2017, Shanghai conducted a pilot of a new type of science and technology innovation voucher, mainly targeting the field of science and technology achievement transfer services, covering eight categories such as technical personnel training, technology strategic planning, technology search, technology evaluation and intellectual property analysis, science and technology strategic research, competitive intelligence analysis, management consulting and engineering technology consulting, in the hope of stimulating enterprises in these areas of Innovation needs. The CSTC also draws on the practices of governments in developed countries to establish a funding pool and entrust a third party, the National Technology Transfer Eastern Center, to operate and manage the STI vouchers, with each redemption not going through an administrative process in the manner of a planned project and the government only doing the record keeping to enhance the flexibility and convenience of this policy tool.
According to reports, after two years of pilot projects, science and technology innovation vouchers with a total value of 30 million yuan have been issued, leveraging technology transfer and science and technology consulting services with a total turnover of about 1.2 billion yuan. Many enterprises in Shanghai have signed contracts with technology intermediaries, effectively enhancing their innovation capacity, and have also received government subsidies through the STI vouchers. At the same time, Shanghai's science and technology service industry has been growing rapidly, with about 300 science and technology intermediary service agencies in good operation. This year, municipal financial support for technology innovation vouchers has been further increased, with the total value increasing to 80 million yuan.
Information disclosure is also an important foundation for a thriving technology transfer service market. The Municipal Science and Technology Commission is working with relevant commissions and bureaus to build a database of scientific and technological achievements, which it plans to complete this year and make public at various levels. The National Technology Transfer Eastern Center will establish a public service platform for the transfer of scientific and technological achievements on the basis of the database. After acquiring the information on the platform, technology transfer service agencies will be able to look for promising results according to their own expertise, and then contact relevant units to contact them, which will solve the pain point that many scientific and technological achievements are kept in the boudoir and unknown to others.
In addition, the technology transaction service platform of the Eastern National Technology Transfer Center is also expected to be completed this year, and the relevant plan has been submitted to the Securities and Futures Commission for approval. The platform aims to build a technology trading and technology financing service system with Shanghai as the hub, radiating around the world, allowing early technology investors to obtain capital exit channels and technology transfer service providers to become "technology brokerage firms" that can obtain commissions in addition to returns similar to those of brokerage firms and investment banks.

(Source: Liberation Daily)