To spur innovation, Beijing offers state-backed researchers cut of profits
Under a new plan, scientists at institutions and universities will get half the money flowing from their breakthroughs
In a bid to better tap the commercial potential of scientific innovations, Beijing is offering an incentive to the researchers who make the discoveries – a cut of the profits.
Under a scheme unveiled on Wednesday, the central government will give half of the money arising from any breakthroughs at state-linked institutions and universities to the team members themselves. Previously, the benefits flowed to the organisations.
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The new profit-sharing arrangement, announced by the Ministry of Science and Technology, is part of a wider push to shake up research on the mainland and turn it into a pillar of the economy.
According to a policy jointly issued by 18 government departments late last month, innovation must be driven by the market. The government – which has long kept its hand on the tiller – should act only as a guide.
Science-based innovation should never be just research in a laboratory
“Science-based innovation should never be just research in a laboratory. We should transform research achievements into a realistic force that can drive the economy and society,” said deputy minister Wang Zhigang.
In addition to the cash incentive, the government is also encouraging a flow of talent between institutions and the corporate sector. Professors and academics who move to companies to turn their findings into products can return to their jobs within a three-year window.
Professor Xu Chunming, deputy head of Shanghai University’s Intellectual Property Institute, said the inertia of the existing system was a carry-over from the planned-economy era.
Science-based innovations have remained a top-down task
“Science-based innovations have remained a top-down task, just as everything was done in the planned-economy system,” Xu said. “But this model no longer suits the situation today.”
Talent tended to gather at government-owned organisations, while few companies had the enthusiasm to embark on independent research, Xu said.
“Another reason why they are not keen is that big investments in innovation often fail to bring equivalent returns.”
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In the central government’s work report in March, Beijing vowed to spend 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product on research and development and have 60 per cent of economic growth from improvements in technology and science by 2020. Last year the first figure was 2.1 per cent.
According to the organiser of an annual trade show of advanced manufacturing technologies in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, more than 40,000 research findings have been exhibited over the past 10 years, amounting to 6.5 billion yuan (HK$7.7 billion) in signed contracts. But the exhibitors were mostly universities and academies which owned the IP rights.
