On July 8, Songshan Lake presented a solid “policy feast” for scientists, research institutes and enterprises – annual support of over 20 million yuan for basic and applied basic research; a maximum of 50 million yuan support for a single project to encourage all-round technology innovation; a maximum reward of 17 million yuan for enterprises going public…
Since the full launch of the pilot zone (Songshan Lake Science City) of the comprehensive national science center in the Greater Bay Area in April this year, seven heavyweight policies collectively released in this batch involve a packet such as source innovation, technology innovation, results transfer, enterprises nurturing, financing, listing and innovative environment. A technology planning system has been effectively formed that covers whole chain of technology innovation and converges all factors of technology innovation, which paves the way for high-quality development of Songshan Lake Science City and the high-tech industrial development zone.
Inside the project of China Spallation Neutron Source
Policy interpretation
Building Songshan Lake’s technology planning system
Inside the clean workshop, the plasma equipment is running quietly. Through the grass, finger nail-sized cubes can be seen lining neatly above the red film. They are the growing diamond. Inside the building of Tsinghua Innovation Center in Dongguan, the research team of Guangdong UniPlasma Diamond Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “UniPlasma”) has made breakthrough through four years of efforts in research and development – breakthrough has been made in cutting-edge technology of manufacturing diamond.
Prior to the above progress, Wu Qinchong, a retired professor of the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been engaging in research and development of microwave plasma equipment for over 20 years. The plasma equipment for manufacturing diamond is exactly the latest progress of the transfer of this technology result.
The growing diamond inside the equipment
Along with technology breakthrough, the company has a growing demand for capital and land. Under the support of relevant policies of Songshan Lake, UniPlasma has currently obtained land with an area of 3,000 square meters located in the small and medium-sized enterprises pioneer park. Part of its manufacturing equipment will be moved to the new factory in next month.
The above scene of technology innovation is happening every day in Songshan Lake Science City.
The seven policies launched by Songshan Lake on July 8 have extended whole-chain and all-factor support covering multiple aspects such as source innovation, technology development, transfer and transformation of technology results, nurturing, financing and listing of technology enterprises.
Aerial picture of Songshan Lake
“The seven technology policies are forward-looking layout based on the current state of technology development and future development of Songshan Lake Science City and Songshan Lake High-Tech Industrial Development Zone. These policies are formulated based on adequate investigation and research and incorporation of opinions from innovation subjects such as enterprises, research institutes, higher institutions and scientists.” Staff of Songshan Lake Technology and Education Bureau expressed that the policies aim at comprehensively advancing the all-round innovation with technology innovation as the core and building a technology planning system that covers the whole chain and all factors of technology innovation.
Songshan Lake International Innovation Entrepreneurship Community
It is learned that in the past year of upgrading, Songshan Lake International Innovation Entrepreneurship Community, where UniPlasma is located, has successfully introduced 16 high-quality projects, established 5 innovation ventures and promoted sharing of 1,100 sets of equipment with a total value of over 13 million yuan. The community has totally introduced 10 new type of research institutes and incubated more than 400 enterprises, emerging as new benchmark for the city’s innovation and entrepreneurship.
Inside Songshan Lake Science City, scientific apparatus and large platforms such as China Spallation Neutron Source and Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory have been built. Songshan Lake Science City boasts 30 new type of research institutes and 4 higher institutions with robust development of industries such as high-end electronic information, biotechnology, robots and intelligent equipment, new materials and producer services industry. A whole-chain innovation development momentum has been formed featuring “source innovation-technology innovation-results transfer-enterprises nurturing”.
Against such backdrop, the launch of the seven technology policies is right in time, namely “Dongguan Songshan Lake’s Implementation Measures on Promoting Source Innovation”, “Dongguan Songshan Lake’s Implementation Measures on Supporting Technology Research and Development”, “Dongguan Songshan Lake’s Implementation Measures on Promoting Transfer and Transformation of Technology Results”, “Dongguan Songshan Lake’s Implementation Measures on Nurturing of Technology Enterprises”, “Dongguan Songshan Lake’s Implementation Measures on Creating An Innovative Environment”, “Dongguan Songshan Lake’s Implementation Measures on Supporting Enterprises’ Development Through Financing” and “Dongguan Songshan Lake’s Implementation Measures on Encouraging Enterprises to Go Public”. The tangible and solid support will inject strong momentum into independent innovation and development of enterprises and research institutes.
To facilitate all-round innovation with technology innovation as the core, the Management Committee of Songshan Lake has also formulated “Plan of Dongguan Songshan Lake Technology Planning System”. With a problem-solving orientation and guidance by demands, the plan has put forward the need of building a technology planning system with features of Songshan Lake.
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory
Nurturing a “fertile ground”
Creating an ecology of innovation, entrepreneurship and wealth generation
On July 2, the China Spallation Neutron Source opened to all users to publicly solicit user projects application open to operation in the next half of 2021.
Prior to this, the China Spallation Neutron Source has over 2,000 registered users and has completed over 500 projects from higher institutions, research institutes and enterprises all over the world. The projects cover multiple fields of application such as new type of hydrogen storage materials, lithium-ion battery, new type of superconducting materials, high-tension steel and thin-film solar cell with important results being achieved.
China Spallation Neutron Source
This is a normal of Songshan Lake Science City since the acceptance of the China Spallation Neutron Source by the country on August 23, 2018 and its official operation – Top scientists in the world arrive in Dongguan to conduct frontier research dependent on the scientific apparatus.
In the meantime, universities, research institutes and enterprises in the Greater Bay Area enjoy favorable advantages. “Users of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are the largest group with merely users of Hong Kong accounting for 10%. Users of the Greater Bay Area have completed 25% of the scientific experiments reliant on this apparatus,” said Chen Yanwei, Deputy Director of the Institute of High Energy Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of Dongguan research branch.
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory
Inside Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, breakthrough progress has been made in technology results transfer. The research results of the laboratory have been elected as the Top 10 Scientific Advances of China, 2019 and the Top 10 Scientific Advances of China, 2020.
This year, the research team of Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory has successfully developed advanced laser coating equipment based on home-grown components, extending the application technology of the domestically manufactured superconducting thin film to a new level…
Technology innovation is picking up speed. How can we allow more scientists to realize their dream of making contributions to the country in Sonshan Lake Science City through technology? How can we allow more new type of research institutions and enterprises of technology innovation secure the “fertile ground” for entrepreneurship and thrive here? How can we allow faster flow of factors of technology innovation?
The launch of policies targeted at aspects such as source innovation, technology innovation and transfer of technology results manages to inject robust momentum into Songshan Lake Science City’s top-level design of “double wings” of innovation chain and industrial chain.
In terms of source innovation, 15 million yuan is arranged annually dependent on “Guangdong-Dongguan United Foundation” with basic and applied basic research being supported by the three levels of the province, the city and the district; 5 million yuan is arranged annually to establish projects of scientific apparatus to carry out interdisciplinary research and application development of relevant technologies of scientific apparatus and development of experimental methods.
In terms of technology development, subsidies are provided for general-benefit enterprises to support their research and development with a maximum subsidy of one million yuan for a single enterprise every year; a maximum subsidy of 50 million yuan is granted to various types of research institutes; a maximum reward of 3 million yuan is granted to technology projects of provincial level.
In terms of transfer of technology results, settlement and transfer of excellent technology results are supported with a maximum subsidy of 5 million yuan; building of generic technology platforms and pilot-scale experiment bases centering around dominant industries of Songshan Lake is supported with a maximum subsidy of 50 million yuan.
In terms of nurturing of technology enterprises, a maximum reward of 3 million yuan is extended to innovative enterprises. Incubators of technology enterprises are entitled to recognition reward and reward for excellence in operation with plan of nurturing technology type of entrepreneurs being implemented.
In terms of encouraging enterprises to go public, a maximum subsidy of 17 million yuan is granted. A maximum reward of 26 million yuan is jointly granted by the city and the industrial park to introduce and nurture listed enterprises.
In terms of support for enterprises to achieve financing for development, a combination of policies are launched such as subsidy for financing secured loans, discounted interest for credit loans, subsidy for pledge loans for patent rights and subsidy for technology insurance. The maximum interest subsidy of the park stands at one million yuan and the highest interest subsidy of Dongguan city and the park totally reaches two million yuan, which supports problems of enterprises such as difficulty in financing and high cost of financing.
Rendering picture of Songshan Lake Science City (partial)
Earlier, Dongguan has put forward the implementation framework for building the “four beams and eight pillars” of Songshan Lake Science City. The so-called “four beams” consist of the whole chain of innovation featuring “source innovation-technology innovation-results transfer-enterprises nurturing”; while the so-called “eight pillars” are composed of 8 innovation factors including “major technology facility, major research platform, high-level research-oriented universities, new type of research institutes, leading research-oriented enterprises, high-end innovative talents, high-quality supporting city facilities, first-class innovative environment”.
A science city cannot be built within a day. The launch of the seven policies only marks the beginning of Songshan Lake’s innovative system and mechanism. Under the national strategies, Songshan Lake Science City as the pilot zone leads the development of the comprehensive national science center in the Greater Bay Area and the high-quality development of Songshan Lake High-Tech Industrial Development Zone. Building upon this, it is further explore and improve technology innovation system and mechanism. Looking ahead, Songshan Lake will center around the layout of the technology planning system, comprehensively improve policy measures and build an optimal innovation ecology reaching the whole chain so as to inject continuous dynamism into the high-quality development of Songshan Lake Science City and Songshan Lake High-Tech Industrial Development Zone.
Behind the policies
Serving national strategic demands and improving technology innovation system and mechanism
When talking about Dongguan, people used to mention many key words such as “world factory” and “export-oriented economy”. But now when people mention Dongguan, they will say some high-frequency words such as “Songshan Lake Science City” and “technology innovation”. Dongguan is playing an increasingly important role in the sphere of science and technology.
Since launching the project of “Technology Dongguan” in 2006, Dongguan has been striving to build an innovative city and has made its way to become a member of the “national team”. Songshan Lake Science City has become an important component of the pilot zone of the comprehensive national science center in the Greater Bay Area. In last March, “Reform Plan of Dongguan Technology Planning System” was launched, which gives prominence to systemic, holistic, coordinated features and features of Dongguan. The plan is committed to building a comprehensive, multi-level, efficient and flexible supporting system for technology planning and aims at comprehensively improving technology innovation capability of the city and integrating the city into the construction of the International Center of Science and Innovation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to build a national innovative city.
Rendering picture of Songshan Lake Science City
By implementing national development strategy, Songshan Lake Science City aims at building a cradle of major original innovation, base of pilot-scale experiment and results transfer, a community of cooperation and innovation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao and a comprehensive pilot zone of system and mechanism innovation. The policies released by Songshan Lake this time demonstrate many innovation highlights in reform of system and mechanism, which also specifically embodies the role of Songshan Lake Science City as Dongguan’s first national strategy and its actions in serving national strategic demands and advancing technology innovation.
At the country level, the Natural Science Foundation was established in the 1980s to support basic research. A subsidy pattern consisting of research projects, talent projects and projects of environmental conditions has been gradually formed and developed. The foundation has made substantial achievements in promoting development of China’s basic research in natural science, facilitating development of basic disciplines, and discovering and nurturing excellent technology talents.
At the provincial level, Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation has made extraordinary contributions to driving development of natural science. The foundation has been constantly deepening reform and striving to promote combination of strategic and regional demands of the province. As a result, the foundation has pioneered in the new pattern of joint subsidy for basic research by the province and the city, which facilitates the establishment of “Guangdong-Dongguan United Foundation” in 2019.
To echo the country’s effort of strengthening basic research and enhance scientific connotations of Songshan Lake Science City, Songshan Lake has launched “Dongguan Songshan Lake’s Implementation Measures on Promoting Source Innovation” and invested in expanding “Guangdong-Dongguan United Foundation”, which reflects the extension and settlement of policies at the provincial and city levels in Songshan Lake. The “plan for opening projects for scientific apparatus” relies on convergence advantages of scientific apparatus, which indicates features of Songshan Lake.
“Dongguan Songshan Lake’s Implementation Measures on Supporting Technology Research and Development” also show layout at a higher level. According to the policy, the management committee grants subsidy of 50 million yuan and 10 million yuan respectively for construction of national or provincial technology innovation center registered and established in Songshan Lake. While in February this year, the “(Interim) Management Measures for Construction and Operation of National Technology Innovation Centers” was jointly printed and issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance, which provides guidance for the development of national technology innovation centers.
It is based on the correct guidance of the technology development stretegies and policies of the country, the province and the city, the building of the technology planning system of Songshan Lake was made possible based on the inherent development-driven momentum of the pilot zone of the comprehensive national science center in the Greater Bay Area and on the momentum of high-quality development of Songshan Lake High-Tech Industrial Development Zone. Under the national strategy, Songshan Lake Science City and Songshan Lake High-Tech Industrial Development Zone will take this opportunity to improve system and mechanism of technology innovation on a constant basis.
It is said that the seven policies only mark part of the implementation of the layout of Songshan Lake technology planning system. In the future, more specific policies will be launched centering around technology innovation, technology talents and innovative environment to comprehensively create an ecology of innovation, entrepreneurship and wealth generation.