Zhongxin Wanghai, 4 April -- Question: How can scientific and technological achievements be "golden"? Shanghai Jiaotong University tries to put scientists in the "C position"

China News Network reporter Xu Jing

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which celebrated its 8th anniversary on the 127th, opened the "Tiangong Home - Scientist Entrepreneurship Service Center", which intends to provide physical space support for scientists to start a business and build a bridge between capital and scientists. The first event on the opening day of "Tiangong Home" on the 7th was to invite more than 40 scientist-type entrepreneurs to gather in the "Big Zero Bay" in Minhang, Shanghai to participate in an entrepreneurial training specifically for scientists.

"Big Zero Bay" is a typical innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem around universities. At present, the entrepreneurship of scientists in "Big Zero Bay" has gradually become a climate, and a number of enterprises in which scientists from Shanghai Jiaotong University participate in entrepreneurship, such as Turing Quantum, Shurui Technology, Huixi Intelligence, Jieka Robot, Tangfeng Energy, Rongjun Technology, and Linding Optics, have taken root and sprouted on the land of Big Zero Bay.

Data show that at present, more than 60 Shanghai Jiaotong teachers and students entrepreneurial enterprises have settled in "Big Zero Bay", with a total valuation of more than 500 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), of which 2 enterprises with a valuation of more than 29 million yuan, a considerable part of which are scientists starting businesses.

Scientists are strong in the field of technology, but they are usually not very good at business management, do not understand legal risks, do not understand investment and financing, etc., and sometimes even the school's industrial policy and guidance are not very clear.

In March last year, Shanghai Jiaotong University launched the "Tiangong Plan", which aims to improve the success rate of scientists and help build a benign interactive ecology of innovation, entrepreneurship and venture capital in Shanghai Jiaotong University. The relevant person in charge said that it is necessary to cultivate a group of compound cross-border talents who understand science and technology, management, law, finance, investment and financing, and market, and then cultivate excellent hard technology start-ups that can lead the future.

As the first exploration of domestic universities, the "Tiangong Plan" and the "Future Industry Fund of Funds" released by Shanghai Jiaotong University at the end of 2021 jointly constitute a "combined fist". In less than a year, 5 enterprises have obtained financing, with a total amount of 1 million yuan, showing a good momentum of development.

"Innovation-driven development, self-reliance and self-improvement of science and technology, this is the best time for scientists to start a business." In the field of biomedicine, the gap between us and developed countries is gradually narrowing. Professor Tao Shengce, vice president of the Institute of Systems Biomedical Sciences of Shanghai Jiaotong University, told that after returning to China in 2009, he witnessed the rapid development of the domestic biomedical field, and also witnessed China's scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement, accelerating to catch up with the international advanced level. Tao Shengce's other identity is the founder of Anti-Code Bio, which just announced the completion of angel investment not long ago.

According to Zhu Fangfang, associate professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Biomedical Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University, scientists stand on the front line of the industry and have unique advantages. After returning to China after graduating from Stanford University, she founded Blood Ji Biotechnology, which is the third innovative company in the world and the first in China to engage in the industrialization of platelet in vitro regeneration.

There are certain technical barriers in the field of platelets, and there are fewer people who study platelets academically, and even fewer people who know how to industrialize platelets. "But someone has to do it, and scientists have a responsibility." Zhu Fangfang said.

How to balance scientific research teaching and industrial transformation is a major difficulty for scientists to start a business. Jin Xianmin, a tenured professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, director of the Integrated Quantum Information Technology Research Center (IQIT) at Shanghai Jiaotong University, and doctoral supervisor, believes that the two are inseparable.

Kim Hyun-min is also the founder of Turing Quantum, and in January this year, Turing Quantum completed a series A financing of hundreds of millions of yuan. He feels that cutting-edge science is developing very rapidly, and the exploration of application can make cutting-edge scientific and technological research and development more directional.

Professor Xu Kai of the School of Mechanical and Power Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University also believes that applied scientific research should remember to respond to needs, otherwise it will lose the meaning of doing. Xu Kai's surgical robot can "peel raw quail eggshells" and "sew grape skins", and many performance exceeds the international leading level, and this company is incubating and growing in Shanghai Jiaotong University and "Big Zero Bay". Just a few days ago, Shurui just announced the completion of the C3 round of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan.

Some people say that if scientists want to start a business, they need both Silicon Valley (Big Zero Bay) and Dune Road (venture capital), and the "Tiangong Project" hopes to play a similar role to Dune Road. It is revealed that in 2023, Shanghai Jiaotong University will also choose the opportunity to launch the Jiaotong University Scientific and Technological Achievements Transformation Fund.

In fact, there is a very high mortality rate in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. Scientists who come out of the ivory tower need more care and support in order to achieve the goal of transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the process of entrepreneurship.

Kim Hyun-min believes that being an entrepreneur and a scholar are very different, and they need to manage the team, understand human nature, and make strategic arrangements for business implementation. "[The whole process] is more joy than pain, like doing R&D in a whole new field."

Xu Kai believes that the key to how high a start-up can eventually go lies in the speed and height of entrepreneurs' cognitive improvement. Scientists and entrepreneurs must go deep into the front line, must make up for shortcomings, and must be "polygonal warriors".

How to make up for scientists' shortcomings? Shanghai Jiaotong University has its sights on alumni resources and market forces. They hired entrepreneurial mentors for each scientist selected for the "Tiangong Program", and invited "famous teachers" to carry out entrepreneurial training for scientists, with the aim of helping professors navigate the academic and industrial worlds.

Huang Jia, Managing Partner of PwC China, representative of the "Tiangong Project", said that the relationship between entrepreneurial mentors and scientists is more about teaching and learning, hoping to help solve some common problems that scientists need to solve in entrepreneurship, strengthen their health, and reduce costs. (End)