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Recently, the first batch of 10 provincial concept verification centers in Jiangsu passed the project announcement and officially started construction.

Concept verification is the key driving link to open up the "first mile" of technology transfer and transformation, and promote early scientific and technological achievements to the stage of marketization and industrial application. Concept verification has emerged in Europe and the United States, but it is still a new thing in China. At present, many provinces and cities, including Jiangsu, have begun to explore the construction and operation of concept verification centers to verify the technical feasibility and commercial prospects of early scientific research results, and help scientific research teams cross the "death valley" between scientific research and industry.

The “first kilometer” may be more important

In the exhibition hall of Jiangsu Jicui Medical and Engineering Cross-Technology Research Institute, a bed sheet spread on a medical bed holds a secret - some flexible electrodes are hidden in the bed sheet, which collect human electrocardiogram and respiratory signals in a non-contact manner and connect to human vital signs monitoring equipment. This can provide timely warnings for abnormalities such as malignant arrhythmias, sleep apnea, leaving bed, and bedwetting.

One sheet can be used for contactless vital signs monitoring

This "non-contact vital signs monitoring technology project" was developed by the team of Professor Liu Chengyu, Dean of the School of Instrument Science and Engineering of Southeast University, and verified in the concept verification center built by the institute. The developed prototype has been tested in a health care hospital in Jiangning District, Nanjing for more than a year and is undergoing product transformation.

Last November, the Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the Provincial Department of Education, and the Provincial Department of Finance jointly issued the "Guidelines for the Construction of Concept Verification Centers in Jiangsu Province (Trial)", which clarified the functional positioning, construction principles, and construction conditions of the concept verification center, and required the center to focus on principle verification, product and scenario system verification, prototype preparation and technical feasibility verification, and commercial prospect verification. This year, 43 units in the province applied for provincial concept verification centers. The Provincial Department of Science and Technology organized experts to conduct reviews according to the requirements of the guidelines. The first batch of 10 provincial concept verification centers will receive special funding support from the science and technology plan.

Xu Guanghui, director of the Provincial Department of Science and Technology, said: "Concept verification of cutting-edge scientific and technological achievements that will give rise to emerging industries and future industries can accelerate the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements and drive the cultivation and development of new quality productivity. To this end, we are planning to build a provincial concept verification center to strengthen value discovery and front-end empowerment, and create a first-class full-factor innovation and entrepreneurship open ecosystem."

How important are value discovery and front-end empowerment?

"To develop health and medical equipment, we need to turn the technology into instruments and also integrate the instruments into the diagnosis and treatment process. During the development process, university teachers are unsure whether and how the technology can be transferred, while capital and enterprises are unsure whether the technology is truly transformable, so they dare not act rashly. Proof of concept attempts to clarify the links and processes in a small range, which can reduce the risk of subsequent failure of substantive transformation and increase the success rate and enthusiasm for transformation of scientific and technological achievements." Liu Chengyu said.

Among the first batch of 10 provincial concept verification centers, the Jiangsu Province Concept Verification Center (Nanjing Gulou Hospital Cell Therapy and High-end Medical Devices) is the only one built by a hospital. Li Zhiyang, deputy director of the center and head of the Translational Medicine Department of Nanjing Gulou Hospital, introduced that in November last year, Gulou Hospital established a concept verification fund of 5 million yuan per year to subsidize in-service personnel to carry out target verification, prototype or sample development and other work. The special funds are reviewed twice a year. Last year, the first batch of 18 projects were supported, of which 6 have entered the transformation stage, including wearable devices for olfactory detection, endoscopic surgical electrosurgical knives, and clinical nutrition management systems. The team of Liu Zhen, a spinal surgery expert at the hospital, designed a fully automatic hydraulic spinal deformity operating bed, which received the highest-end concept verification funding support of 500,000 yuan. At the end of April, the team completed the trial production of the prototype and the first on-site debugging of the operating room, and is improving and optimizing the prototype based on the debugging results.

Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital uses clinical resources to build a proof-of-concept center

Zhou Zhi, head of the Jiangsu Concept Verification Center (Nanjing University of Technology), introduced that according to the maturity of the technology, the process of transforming scientific and technological achievements can be divided into three stages: basic research and development, concept verification, and industrialization. In the basic research and development stage, laboratories are used as platform carriers, and public finance focuses on basic research and earlier applied research. In the industrialization stage, incubators, industrial technology research institutes, etc. are used as platform carriers, and capital focuses on projects with clear business models and profit models. A large number of scientific research results between the two rarely receive attention and effective support due to high risks and uncertainties, and are prone to fall into the "death valley." Zhou Zhi used an analogy: "If the technological innovation chain is regarded as the human body, the basic research and development stage is the brain, and the concept verification stage is the throat. If the concept verification is not done well, it is also a kind of 'neck'."

"Simply put, proof of concept is to determine whether a research result or even a creative idea can be realized technically, whether the supply chain can support it, and whether there are any application scenarios." Tu Xiaoming, general manager of Jiangsu Jicui Medical and Engineering Cross-Technology Research Institute, said, "In the past, when talking about the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, people often said that we should 'open up the last mile' and 'kick' the 'finishing kick' before industrialization. Now it seems that the 'first mile' of proof of concept may be more important."

Collaboratively "screen" out "good seedlings"

Among the first batch of 10 provincial concept verification centers in Jiangsu, 7 were led by universities, namely China Pharmaceutical University, China University of Mining and Technology, Nanjing Tech University, Southeast University, Soochow University, Nanjing University and Jiangnan University. This is related to the fact that universities are the source of a large number of scientific research results.

Wang Li, head of the Jiangsu Province Concept Proof-of-Concept Center (Life and Health Field, Jiangnan University), said: "Establishing a concept proof-of-concept center in the school can, on the one hand, provide an early evaluation and optimization platform for scientific research results within the school, and prevent scientific research results from blindly rushing to the market; on the other hand, it can promote the deep integration of industry, academia and research, making it easier for companies to discover the school's scientific research results, and can also guide the direction of scientific research based on market demand."

Technical experts from Jiangnan University are conducting proof of concept work

Universities build concept verification centers, mostly in cooperation with science and technology parks. "Concept verification requires not only technical experts from universities, but also matching information and docking capabilities from industry, capital and the market." Zhou Zhi introduced that the Jiangsu Province Concept Verification Center (Nanjing Tech University) was jointly built by Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing Jiangbei New District Industrial Technology Research and Innovation Park, Nanjing Tech University Science Park and Nanjing Tech University Science and Technology Industrial Park, striving to form a complete closed loop of project cultivation of "preliminary screening, potential assessment → preliminary cultivation, ignition funds → in-depth consultation, in-depth research and development → landing transformation, incubation acceleration" to accelerate the industrialization process of scientific and technological achievements.

To build a concept verification center, we need to open up the "entrance" and have a keen eye for talent. "We explore projects from three directions: first, the school's basic research results and cutting-edge exploratory scientific and technological achievements, especially projects that have not yet been transformed after completion; second, high-level original scientific research results outside the school and overseas discovered by the operation team; third, cutting-edge scientific and technological innovation projects inside and outside the school recommended by the expert advisory group." Zhou Zhi said. For example, the "New Materials Micro-factory Low-carbon Manufacturing" project for concept verification in the center was discovered and screened from overseas and introduced after evaluation by the State Key Laboratory of Materials Chemical Engineering. The concept verification took nearly two years. Today, the project has established a company and entered the pilot maturation stage, obtained 10 patents, and obtained a seed round investment of more than 10 million yuan from a market-oriented investment institution.

More often than not, the concept verification center is like a "sieve", which not only carefully selects technological achievements that are expected to be successfully industrialized, but also promptly screens out "concepts" that are difficult to commercialize.

At Jiangnan University, the "concepts" that were stopped after verification accounted for about 20%-30% of the total number of verifications. Li Bo, general manager of the National University Science Park of Jiangnan University, who participated in the work of the concept verification center, introduced that after some "concepts" were verified through technical route verification and product verification, they were connected to sales channels through the science park. After small-scale sales attempts, it was found that although the product concept and technology were good, the market was not ready to accept these new products and it was difficult to continue to promote them, so the verification failed. Some technologies were terminated after verification due to unstable upstream raw material supply, lack of domestic machinery and equipment for large-scale production, and insufficient application. "It is not a bad thing to terminate the transformation of results in a timely manner, as it is a small price to pay to avoid greater losses." Li Bo said.

The Jiangsu Province Concept Verification Center (Innovative Medical Device Industry Field of the Interdisciplinary Medical and Engineering Research Institute) has done concept verification for 35 projects, of which 5 have been terminated. "Their common problems are small market size and high cost. Some technologies are good, but according to evaluation, the annual sales volume in the national market is only 100 million or 200 million yuan. For innovative medical devices, such a market size may not even recover the R&D costs." Tu Xiaoming said frankly, "We attach great importance to the issue of 'export', that is, whether the scientific research results can be transferred to large and leading enterprises. Whether the 'export' is good or not directly affects the verification results."

Expecting "value" and "visibility"

As a new type of science and technology public service platform, the concept verification center itself needs "hard power". The Jiangsu Province Concept Verification Center (Biomedicine Field of China Pharmaceutical University) is headed by Hao Haiping, President of China Pharmaceutical University. The total construction area exceeds 35,000 square meters, and the total value of instruments and equipment invested is more than 400 million yuan. The operation management team and expert advisory team formed by the Jiangsu Province Concept Verification Center (Life and Health Field of Jiangnan University) are led by Chen Wei and Chen Jian, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The management team ensures the smooth daily operation of the center and supervises the execution of projects, while the expert advisory team including scientists, technical experts, industry experts, investment and financing, and legal experts provide all-round support for concept verification.

There are still some hurdles to overcome in order to get the proof-of-concept center running successfully.

Many interviewees said that the lack of continuous financial support is a major problem in doing proof of concept. This is because it costs money to conduct proof of concept. "When the scientific research team, industry, and investors are not sure about a certain result and need to do a proof of concept, they are actually a little hesitant when asked to invest money. When signing the contract, if the service fee is agreed upon, the other party will be unwilling to do it if it is too much." Tu Xiaoming said, "If the verification result is 'OK', it can be industrialized, and there is a company willing to take over, then the cost of the proof of concept will be settled. If the verification finds that it is 'not OK', we may not be able to get our money back."

For example, an "automatic bone biopsy robot" project proposed by an orthopedic doctor from a tertiary hospital needs to verify whether the doctor's intraoperative perception can be converted into a digital and information-based execution program. The verification difficulties mainly include structural design, biopsy sampling mechanism, navigation and positioning technology, image processing and analysis, real-time feedback and control, safety and reliability, etc. More than 10 million yuan was raised from various sources to make a prototype, but further verification is expected to require another 60 million yuan. Who will pay for it?

"Universities cannot invest directly due to policy restrictions, and social capital is less willing to invest in early and small-scale technologies. Lack of funds has prevented the proof of concept from being carried out in large quantities and on a large scale." Li Bo said. To solve this problem, Jiangnan University has taken industrial funds as a starting point to solve the problem. First, it has jointly established a 125 million yuan Jiangnan University Achievement Transformation Fund with alumni companies and local governments to help the development of concept verification projects; second, it has linked the government and alumni to explore public welfare funds and other forms to expand the funding pool for concept verification projects and enhance the service capabilities of the concept verification center; third, it has attracted and gathered investment and financing institutions in the field of life and health to provide financial support for concept verification projects.

The "New Materials Micro-factory Low-carbon Manufacturing" project of the NUST Proof of Concept Center

Zhou Zhi compared the support provided by neighboring provinces to the proof-of-concept center and suggested that the government should increase the support for the proof-of-concept center, if possible, and ensure the long-term smooth operation of the center through joint support at the provincial, municipal and district levels. He also emphasized: "The proof-of-concept center should strengthen its self-sustaining ability. We have created a proof-of-concept acceleration innovation platform and a proof-of-concept investment and financing platform, and cooperated with Debang Chemical Industry Group, Ralph Ventures, Six-Wing Angel Investment Fund and various industry associations and leading enterprises. At present, it seems that gathering resources from the capital and industry ends can effectively promote the rapid development of the project."

In addition to financial support, new things also need "visibility" to thrive. Zhou Zhi said that Nanjing University of Technology will further highlight the public service nature of the concept verification center. "As a comprehensive concept verification platform, we have a good team of technical experts and some large-scale testing equipment. By cooperating with more social enterprises to carry out third-party testing and verification services, we can better gather various industrial resources, effectively feedback from the industrial demand side to the technology supply side, so that the verified projects are more in line with the requirements of the market and industry, and improve the survival rate of the projects. In addition, if the provincial concept verification center can recommend some verification projects to apply for provincial industrial projects, this platform will be more valuable and attractive."

Xinhua Daily·Jiaohuidian reporter Xu Guanying, Cai Shuwen, Xu Xinyun (intern)/text and photography

Some pictures are provided by the interviewees