From Laboratory to Production Line: Institutional Innovation Bears Golden Fruit for Beijing's Scientific and Technological Innovation

Reporter Jiang Lan from Securities Times

“During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Beijing has effectively addressed the entire chain of barriers—‘dare not transfer, do not want to transfer, cannot transfer, will not transfer’—through a series of pioneering reforms. The transaction volume of technology contracts increased from 700.57 billion yuan in 2021 to 986.5 billion yuan in 2025, a 40.8% growth.” Recently, Yan Ying, Director of the Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Department at the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and Zhongguancun Management Committee, announced these achievements at the second session of the Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference.

Today, innovative results born in university laboratories and research institutes in Beijing are accelerating along the improved transformation chain, moving toward industry frontlines, helping to build the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei International Science and Technology Innovation Center and yielding more “golden fruits” of scientific innovation.

This confidence in transformation stems from Beijing’s solid institutional innovations. Yan Ying stated, “During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Beijing has deeply implemented the ‘Regulations on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements in Beijing.’ It also targeted bottlenecks in the transformation of university and institute results, developing special measures to address pain points and difficulties. Pilot reform tasks are underway in Zhongguancun, including empowering technological achievements from official positions and managing assets separately, ensuring both motivation for researchers and mechanisms for support.”

Fast achievement transformation relies on a professional service system. In Beijing, concept verification platforms, technology transfer agencies, and benchmark incubators are becoming “accelerators” for innovative results from labs to industry. The Global Health Industry Innovation Center (hereinafter referred to as “Innovation Center”) is one of the first recognized concept verification platforms in Beijing. Professor Zhou Anfu from the School of Computer Science at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications demonstrated a contactless millimeter-wave heart monitor developed by his team at the Innovation Center. “The device doesn’t need to be worn on the body and can monitor within a 1-meter range,” Zhou said. Leveraging the resources of the Innovation Center, the team completed prototype development in just half a year, far faster than the previous one- or two-year R&D cycle.

Many such cases exist. Wang Jingjing, Director of the Innovation Center, said that the center leverages Beijing’s advantages in the healthcare industry to form an innovation ecosystem centered on doctors and professors. It has discovered over 3,820 innovative projects, conducted 45 concept verifications, incubated 30 companies, and achieved a total valuation exceeding 9 billion yuan, turning healthcare innovation ideas into tangible industry projects step by step.

Data shows that Beijing has established 46 concept verification platforms in fields like medicine and health, intelligent manufacturing; built 30 benchmark incubators; and was the first in the country to introduce professional titles for technology brokers, cultivating a group of technical managers who understand technology, markets, and management—forming a professional “bridge team.”

Digital empowerment further enables precise matching of supply and demand for results. In March 2025, Beijing’s Intelligent Service Platform for Scientific and Technological Achievements officially launched. Zhu Xiaoyu, Chairman of Beijing Capital Science and Technology Development Group, introduced that this platform is a core carrier for Beijing to accelerate the construction of an international science and technology innovation center, aiming to create a “digital hub” for transforming scientific and technological achievements.

Over the past year, the platform has aggregated 18,000 scientific and technological achievements, 1,157 professional service organizations, and integrated over 2 million pieces of information. It has also utilized AI technology to accurately profile and intelligently match both sides of supply and demand.

Looking toward the “14th Five-Year Plan,” Beijing will promote more efficient transformation of scientific and technological results. Yan Ying said that Beijing will leverage government and market collaboration to mobilize various social forces more actively across the entire transformation chain, accelerating the formation of a transformation ecosystem with abundant elements. It will explore a “financial funds + social investment” linkage model, strengthen the “enterprise problem-setting, R&D unit problem-solving, joint tackling” research organization approach, and build a financial service system for technological achievement transformation. The city will guide social security funds, Zhongguancun Fund, municipal government investment funds, and others to increase investment in tech transfer projects.