Published by ChinaMNC · Laishui

China’s New Push to Fuse Tech Innovation With Industry: What Foreign Founders Should Know

A practical overview of China’s official opinions on integrating scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation, including enterprise-led R&D, technology transfer, market access, finance, talent and local pilot programs relevant to foreign founders operating in China.

Why This Policy Matters for Foreign Founders

China’s central authorities have issued opinions on advancing the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation. For foreign founders registering or operating a company in China, the document signals how policy tools, funding channels, market access and collaboration platforms are expected to be organized around enterprise-led innovation. The guidance is framed around developing new quality productive forces and building a modern industrial system, with an emphasis on an innovation system in which enterprises play the leading role and other participants collaborate.

The document sets out working principles: better anticipation of technological and industrial change, coordinated deployment of technology supply and demand, stronger enterprise status in innovation, and reform to remove institutional obstacles. It calls for connecting the chain from scientific strength to industrial and economic strength. Foreign founders should read it as a map of official priorities rather than a set of automatic entitlements.

Enterprise-Led R&D and Project Organization

The opinions call for national science and technology programs to be more oriented toward industrial application. Enterprise needs are to be collected on a regular basis. Expert panels for guideline drafting, project review and acceptance should include more specialists from enterprises and venture capital institutions. Project management rules led by enterprises are to be improved, along with mechanisms such as “open calls for solutions,” “owner systems,” milestone management and phased funding.

Acceptance mechanisms are to assess technology through application and products through the market, with research and industrialization goals evaluated together. Major national projects and industrial development programs should deploy research tasks simultaneously and clarify technological innovation targets. For foreign founders, this suggests that participating in or aligning with enterprise-led consortia and application-oriented programs may become more relevant than purely academic collaboration.

Technology Transfer and Commercialization

The document promotes an integrated research-and-use model for commercialization. For national science and technology projects with clear industrial application goals, enterprises are in principle to lead implementation and commercialization. Universities and research institutes are encouraged to set up technology transfer offices or roles, strengthen services in intellectual property, incubation and technology finance, and accelerate application through assignment, licensing and investment at appraised value.

Reforms are to deepen the granting of rights over job-related scientific achievements and separate asset management. Achievers are encouraged to participate throughout commercialization. Universities and research institutes are guided to license results to small and medium-sized enterprises on a “use first, pay later” basis. A nationally integrated technology market is to be improved, with specialized market-based transfer institutions and technology manager teams.

Scenarios, Key Technologies and Emerging Industries

The opinions call for demonstration actions for new technologies, products and scenarios, with greater scenario development and opening. Local governments are supported in opening application scenarios in government services, smart cities and rural construction, and in publishing supply and demand information. Scenario opening is to be coordinated and shared.

Key core technology breakthroughs are targeted in integrated circuits, industrial machine tools, high-end instruments, advanced materials and biomanufacturing. Industrial base rebuilding and major equipment programs are to focus on weak links, including basic components, key basic software, key basic materials and advanced processes.

Original and disruptive innovation is to support strategic emerging and future industries. The document lists new energy, new materials and aerospace, plus low-altitude economy. In frontier fields such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence and sixth-generation mobile communications, the aim is to explore multiple technology routes, typical application scenarios and viable business models and accelerate industrialization and commercialization.

Traditional Industry Upgrading and the “AI Plus” Action

Traditional industries are to be upgraded through major manufacturing technological transformation and large-scale equipment renewal. Industrial internet innovation is to accelerate, digital and real economies are to integrate more deeply, and manufacturing is to become more intelligent, green and integrated. Agricultural research, including seed and machinery equipment, is to be strengthened, and agricultural results are to be applied more quickly.

A full-industry-chain technology service system is to be built, and technology services are to develop with quality and efficiency. The document calls for full implementation of the “AI Plus” action, enabling artificial intelligence across industries. Foreign founders in software, equipment, industrial services or AI applications should note the emphasis on application and industrial upgrading rather than standalone research.

Building Enterprise Innovation Capacity

Enterprises are to participate routinely in national strategies, planning and policy making for science, technology and industrial development. The National Natural Science Foundation is to pilot opening to private enterprises, and enterprise innovation development joint funds are to expand in scope and scale.

State-owned enterprises are encouraged to establish R&D reserve funds with independent accounting, exemption from value-preservation and appreciation assessment, and error tolerance. Technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises are encouraged to increase R&D spending, with a higher additional deduction ratio for R&D expenses. Enterprises are supported in leading science and technology innovation platforms and bases. National major science infrastructure, large research instruments and national science data centers are to be opened to enterprises. Talent programs are to support enterprises more, and enterprise postdoctoral stations are to be strengthened.

The document also calls for better cultivation of leading technology enterprises, support for high-tech enterprises, and improved cultivation mechanisms for technology-based SMEs, specialized and sophisticated “little giant” enterprises and manufacturing single-champion enterprises. Startups are to be cultivated with incubation and investment services. Large enterprises are guided to open R&D platforms, application scenarios and supply chains to SMEs and to trial SME innovation products first.

Collaboration, Finance, Talent and Platforms

Leading technology enterprises are supported in acting as chain leaders and forming innovation consortia. National laboratories, research institutes and research universities are to cooperate with them and distill scientific questions from industrial needs. Enterprises may participate in university research and talent training and jointly build research institutions and projects.

On finance, a technology finance system is to match financing needs across enterprise life cycles. The national venture capital guidance fund is to play a role. Government-invested and state-owned venture capital funds are to invest early, small, long-term and in hard technology, with long-cycle assessment, differentiated regulation and exit mechanisms. The “innovation points system” is to be promoted to assess SME innovation capacity. A high-quality “technology board” in the bond market is to be built, and a technology insurance policy system established.

Talent measures include coordinated education, discipline adjustment involving industry, school-enterprise joint training, work-study alternation and dual mentorship. Policies are to improve secondment, part-time work and leaving posts to start businesses, and to promote technology commissioner models. Universities may appoint enterprise innovators as industry mentors or professors. Young talent and technology entrepreneurs are to be supported.

Platforms include national emerging industry innovation centers, industrial technology engineering centers, technology innovation centers and manufacturing innovation centers, plus proof-of-concept and pilot testing platforms. Restructured research institutes may build industrial technology research institutes, and localities may develop new R&D institutions.

Market Environment, IP and Local Pilots

The document calls for removing unreasonable barriers to innovative products, piloting relaxed market access in new business forms, and exploring commitment-based entry. It mentions regulatory sandboxes and improved laws for frontier fields such as AI and biotechnology, plus science ethics rules.

IP protection is to be strengthened for trade secrets and new business forms, with benefit-sharing and risk-sharing in industry-university-research cooperation and commercialization. The patent open licensing system is to be fully implemented. Standard layout is to be strengthened for major national science projects, including national and international standards and pre-standard research.

Incentive policies include tax preferences, due diligence exemption mechanisms for commercialization and venture investment, and negative lists. State-owned enterprise assessment is to be improved, with joint R&D expenses with universities and institutes treated more favorably. Localities are supported in piloting deep integration, building on regional strengths, coordinating central-local investment and major tasks, and developing science and technology innovation centers and functional zones. High-tech zones and independent innovation demonstration zones are to pilot policies first, and qualified places may run reform pilots.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.