The transformation of scientific and technological achievements is a complex system engineering, which cannot be separated from the collaboration of scientific research, enterprise, and investment.

 

At the "2020 CUNJC Seminar on International Innovation and Scientific and Technological Achievement Transformation and Biomedical Healthcare and Medicine Project Roadshow" held by the Centre on 24 July, experts from investment institutions and domestic and foreign universities participated in the "International Innovation and Achievement Transformation" roundtable forum hosted by Professor Zhao Xiangwei, Deputy Dean of the School of Bioscience and Medical Engineering, Southeast University. Relying on the two biomedical healthcare projects of the  Centre 's roadshow - "Multi-modality and Hybrid 3-D Ultrasound/Photoacoustic Imaging System" and "DropBioApp Engineering droplet-based microfluidic platform for biological applications", and focusing on the two major themes of international scientific research cooperation and achievement transformation, in-depth explanation and opinions sharing are carried out, with a view to output useful reference for the key concerns of the industry, academia and research circles such as collaborative innovation of international scientific research platforms and rapid and efficient transformation of scientific research results.

The industrialization of scientific research results requires the active absorption of global leading experience. The University of Cambridge not only possesses outstanding technology, but also has accumulated rich experience in the corresponding industrial application of the technology. At the roundtable forum, as the PI of the Centre’s project "DropBioApp Engineering droplet-based microfluidic platform for biological applications", Professor Chris Abell, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research of Cambridge University, shared the experience of intellectual property commercialization of the University of Cambridge online.

“The University of Cambridge encourages academic institutions to do basic research, continue to tap commercial potential, and actively shape commercialization mechanisms,” said Professor Abell. “In the past 20 years, the role of the University of Cambridge has changed greatly. The University and commercial institutions have become closer and established an organization dedicated to the commercialization of intellectual property rights - Cambridge Enterprise, to provide support for academics, researchers, faculty, staff, and students in the University, conduct commercial education, and develop technical cooperation and transformation work with different multinational organizations including China." 

"As the exchanges between Cambridge and Nanjing become closer, the two places will continue to share relevant experience in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements," Professor Abell also sent a warm invitation to Nanjing.

Project cooperation is a concrete practice of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements between the two places. As the PI of the "Multi-modality and Hybrid 3-D Ultrasound/Photoacoustic Imaging System" project, Professor Richard Prager, Head of the Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge, provided relevant suggestions for advancing international science and technology projects during the COVID-19 epidemic. He believes that it is necessary to "ensure that the fundamentals of research remain unchanged" during the epidemic. These fundamentals include:

● First,the right talent. Ensure that researchers have diverse backgrounds, and allow talented and enthusiastic people to participate in research, thereby enhancing research creativity;

● Second, effective communication. The COVID-19 epidemic makes face-to-face communication face challenges, and it is necessary to fully develop the advantages of video conferencing software to improve team work efficiency.

Daping Chu, Academic Director of the Centre and Tenured Professor of the University of Cambridge, believes that to do a good job in international project cooperation during the COVID-19 epidemic, on the one hand, it is necessary to make full use of the support of modern technology and rich office collaboration tools to strengthen the direct communication and multi-channel connection between Cambridge and Chinese researchers, which allow researchers from the two places to gather together in a virtual space; on the other hand, scientific research is inseparable from the specific hands-on operations of the researchers in the laboratory, and needs to be carried out in the Centre together with local universities and industrial partners, working side by side with researchers from the University of Cambridge to jointly achieve scientific research goals.

"The roadshow projects are forward-looking and have a leading role in the future development of the life and health industry." In the roundtable forum, Professor Chen Su, the Deputy Dean of the School of Chemical Engineering of Nanjing Tech University, who has rich experience in production, education and research, explained from market demand and technology leadership, and expressed recognition of the Centre’s roadshow projects.

● In terms of market potential, he said that as a country with a large population, national health issues will be China’s top priority for a period of time in the future. The life and health industry is a sustainable sunshine industry with broad project prospects; at the same time, domestic patients lack sufficient understanding of overseas cutting-edge technologies, which is an obvious market pain point.

● In terms of technological leadership, he pointed out that the application of microsphere technology in the microfluidic project launched by the Centre is the latest technology in the 21st century, involving the fields of early cancer diagnosis, cancer-targeted drugs, quality of life prediction, drug slow release, organ repair, etc. The technology has high application value.

Based on the above background, Professor Chen Su believes that in the process of international innovation and the transformation of scientific research results, the Cambridge Nanjing Centre should play a role in connecting forward-looking research and industrial applications. The role of this link is manifested in that relying on the Centre, giving play to the scientific research advantages of the University of Cambridge, and at the same time using the local university’s market familiarity with the current needs of the large health industry, it is easier to connect with local medical institutions and fully grasp the situation of patients, thereby bringing the most cutting-edge technological achievements to connect with the most difficult points of demand, improving the efficiency of implementation, and realizing the circular interaction between the scientific research community and the industry and the market, so that the advanced technology of Cambridge University can be implemented into commercial products earlier.

"Scientific research without a market is not sustainable research." Professor Chen Su concluded that, as a rare industry-university-research platform in the country, the position of the Centre should surpass the "Centre of pure technology research and development" to face the market and link front-end technology and end users.

Professor Tu Juan, Dean of the Department of Acoustic Science and Engineering, School of Physics, Nanjing University, shared her experience in international academic research and the transformation of scientific research results from the perspective of local universities. She believes that the following points should be paid attention to in international scientific research cooperation and achievement transformation:

●First, based on scientific research cooperation, ensure that scientific researchers are sent out and attracted back, and cultivate compound industry-university-research talents who master both technology and management;

● Second, clarify the actual demand of domestic market, and promote the transformation of production, education and research in a targeted manner;

● Third, clarify the advantages of both parties' cooperation. For example, the foreign side has advanced technology and research conditions, and the Chinese side has a large data resource pool based on population-scale and low-cost supporting local enterprises;

● Fourth, fully tap alumni resources. Alumni groups are generally easier to understand the meaning and value of technology, and they are more willing to invest in scientific research projects of their alma mater.

Not limited to the exchange background of academics and universities, this roundtable forum focuses on the diversification of shared perspectives. The key points of "market, industry, and commercialization" discussed were also the core concerns of the capital. The representatives of the investment institutions started from their capital identity and analyzed the proposition of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

Shi Haining, the legal person of Guochuang Zhongding (Shanghai) Equity Investment Management Co., Ltd., believes that it is necessary to strengthen the unique effectiveness of capital in the process of production, education and research. Specifically, capital plays three roles:

● First, financial support, including government industry guidance funds and investment institutions of various market-oriented funds, provides full-stage financing services from seed rounds, angel rounds, growth models to IPOs for the transformation of scientific research results;

● Second, value selection. "The choice of capital is often the best choice." In the face of numerous scientific research projects, capital can "intelligently recognize" and identify scientific research projects with more transformative value;

● Third, link talents. If early-stage scientific research personnel are the key to the project, with the advancement of the industrialization process, the importance of management and market development talents will gradually become prominent. At this time, capital parties covering banking, finance and other fields can provide corresponding talent support.

At the same time, he believes that this event fully reflects the internationalization and high-end technology innovation of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area.

In terms of project transformation ideas, Zhao Yuanqi, the legal person of Jiangsu Shengshi Jincai Investment Management Co., Ltd., subdivided the positive cycle of scientific research projects and industry into two paths:

● In terms of scientific research projects in mature industries, the transformation path of attracting mainstream equipment manufacturers in the industry to carry out technological research and development cooperation can be adopted. Take the "Multi-modality and Hybrid 3-D Ultrasound/Photoacoustic Imaging System" as an example. The current global medical imaging equipment market is maintained at 40-50 billion US dollars, with a compound growth rate of about 4%. Among them, the Chinese market accounts for about 15% with a compound growth rate of 18.1%, which is much higher than the global market average. The overall development of the industry is mature. The project is cooperating with Vinno, a Suzhou medical color Doppler R&D and manufacturer, with a clear path of achievement transformation.

● For scientific research projects that target emerging industries, they can cooperate with investment institutions that focus on innovative projects. Zhao Yuanqi pointed out that among the more than 24,000 investment institutions in the country, the number of investment institutions focusing on innovative drug R&D and new medical technology does not exceed 300. For scientific research projects such as "DropBioApp Engineering droplet-based microfluidic platform for biological applications", which are aimed at emerging industries, it is a feasible way to consider cooperating with suitable investment institutions.

In addition, Zhou Hai, appointed representative of the executive affairs partner of Nanjing Jingyong Medical Health Venture Investment Fund Partnership, suggested that in order to cultivate the Centre's independent ability and enhance the project market competitiveness, the Centre should strengthen the pre-consciousness of establishing connections between original scientific research projects and the industry. When introducing advanced projects from the University of Cambridge, it is also possible to consider the tendency to choose scientific research projects that have nurtured start-up companies to shorten the achievement transformation.

In the context of globalization, technological innovation is no longer a matter of one single country. Various innovative elements including technology, talents, information, markets, industries, capital, users, etc. are actively flowing around the world, requiring broad-mindedness and openness, and coordinating with superior resources at home and abroad, to create a sustainable international cooperation mode of scientific and technological innovation.