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Image source: Visual China

At the end of July, Shanghai Jiao Tong University "empowered" two patents 100% to Liu Qingwen, a tenured associate professor at the School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering of the university. He was able to use the entire amount as capital to invest in his newly founded Shanghai Lingpu Technology Co., Ltd. So far, more than 100 companies have been founded by Shanghai Jiao Tong University teachers using the "full empowerment" model.

Liu Qingwen is targeting optical communication testing equipment. At present, the mainstream testing equipment in the field of optical communication is mechanical frequency-sweep laser, and more than 60% of the domestic market is monopolized by foreign companies. The new mechanical frequency-sweep laser developed by Liu Qingwen has a price that is the same as the mainstream products in the market, and the overall performance indicators of the equipment are 5 to 10 times that of existing products.

This is Liu Qingwen's second entrepreneurial venture. In 2018, he used the method of "partial empowerment" to invest in a company with scientific and technological achievements as the price. Since the achievements of in-service researchers are work-related inventions, Liu Qingwen and Shanghai Jiaotong University Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. share the ownership of the achievements in a certain proportion. Although the road to in-service entrepreneurship has been opened, the process for university teachers to start a business is still relatively complicated. A few years ago, Liu Qingwen had the idea of ​​starting a business again, but he still wanted to "wait a little longer."

In May 2020, the Ministry of Science and Technology and nine other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the Pilot Program of Granting Researchers Ownership or Long-term Use Rights of Scientific and Technological Achievements", and 40 universities and research institutes across the country were included in the pilot program, including Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In November of the same year, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments further carried out a special reform pilot program for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. As the only pilot unit in the country, Shanghai Jiao Tong University began to explore the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in batches using the "full empowerment" model.

On this basis, in 2023, the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission and seven other departments jointly issued the "Shanghai Science and Technology Achievement Transformation and Innovation Reform Pilot Implementation Plan", launching the "full empowerment" reform pilot of official scientific and technological achievements in 39 universities, research institutes and medical and health institutions in the city to promote the "Jiaotong University experience".

Liu Huanxi, deputy director of the Advanced Industrial Technology Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said that the so-called "full empowerment" means that all intellectual property rights of scientific and technological achievements are granted to entrepreneurial teachers. From "partial empowerment" to "full empowerment", it generally takes three transfers: the first time is that the school grants 70% of the ownership of the achievements to the entrepreneurial teachers through rewards; the second time, the school transfers the remaining 30% of the ownership of the achievements to the entrepreneurial teachers through an agreed benefit agreement; the third time, the entrepreneurial teachers invest 100% of the achievements in the entrepreneurial enterprise to complete the investment.

This time, Shanghai Jiao Tong University is the patent transferor, and the startup company founded by Liu Qingwen, Shanghai Lingpu Technology Co., Ltd., is the patent transferee. After evaluation by a third-party company commissioned by Jiao Tong University, the two patents were valued at 1.2 million yuan. According to the ratio of "30% to 70%, Liu Qingwen needs to pay 360,000 yuan to purchase 30% of the intellectual property rights from the school. According to the corresponding policy, researchers can pay the full price in the current period, or partially defer payment within 3 years at the latest.

The "full empowerment" model has greatly accelerated the pace of teachers' entrepreneurship. In February this year, Liu Qingwen approached Zhu Yue, a technology transfer specialist at the Advanced Industrial Technology Research Institute of Jiaotong University, to discuss the establishment of a company. After the guidance and concept verification of the "Big Zero Bay" project, the company passed the offline expert review and online approval filing in May this year and successfully obtained the business license of the new company.

The reform of empowering scientific and technological achievements has leveraged the vitality of innovation and entrepreneurship and economic and social benefits in all aspects. According to preliminary statistics, since 2020, the contract amount of Shanghai Jiao Tong University's scientific and technological achievements has exceeded 4 billion yuan, which is 6 times the total contract amount from 2017 to 2019. Among them, the fastest scientific and technological achievement transformation took only one day to go through the entire approval process. In the "full empowerment" pilot, Shanghai Jiao Tong University found that more than 60% of teacher-started enterprises have formed positive scientific research feedback to the school. Many enterprises have also jointly built R&D platforms with the school, jointly carried out talent training, and brought a large number of internships and jobs to students.

For a long time, the transformation of scientific and technological achievements has been plagued by problems such as "not daring to transform, not wanting to transform, not being able to transform, and not knowing how to transform". The "Decision" reviewed and approved by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed to deepen the reform of the mechanism for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, allow scientific and technological personnel to have greater autonomy in the distribution of the benefits of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, establish a separate management system for the assets of official scientific and technological achievements, and deepen the reform of empowering official scientific and technological achievements.

Over the past few years, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has carried out a full-process reform of scientific and technological achievements transformation. The road to "turning paper into money" for teachers only needs one simple step, that is, to put forward the demand. Zhu Yue said: "As long as the researchers find us, whoever handles the project first will be responsible to the end, which is the 'first-come, first-served' service."

Zhu Yue was deeply involved in the entire process of Liu Qingwen's second entrepreneurial venture. He not only helped the project with off-campus commercial demonstration and on-campus approval, but also helped connect with the landing park. With his matchmaking and recommendation, Lingpu Technology successfully settled in "Big Zero Bay". Later, Zhu Yue will further help the company introduce investors and other partners.

In Shanghai, the "full empowerment" reform is also taking root, sprouting, blooming and bearing fruit. Since last year, 39 pilot units have been carrying out and implementing more than 300 scientific and technological achievements transformation projects.

Author: Shen Qiusha

Text: Shen Qiusha Photo: Visual China Editor: Fan Jing

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