Xinfeirui, which settled in Baoshan District, is the beneficiary of the reform of “investment before shares”.

The so-called “investment before shares” means that financial funds are invested in science and technology enterprises in the form of scientific research projects. After enterprises complete scientific research tasks and obtain social financing, the initial investment is converted into equity. This reform is conducive to promoting the transformation of leading technological achievements and cultivating the ecology of “complete process innovation”.

14 “combination of allocation and investment” projects landed in Shanghai

According to the director of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, strengthening “complete process innovation” refers to focusing on the complete process of basic research, applied basic research, and industrialization, improving the source function and systematic ability of sci-tech innovation, strengthening the main position of sci-tech innovation of enterprises, facing the needs of bottleneck fields and industries, promoting breakthroughs in a number of key core technologies and underlying technologies, and realizing high-level sci-tech self-reliance.

“Our goal of promoting sci-tech innovation can be interpreted into three ‘complete’ aspects.” The director of the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission said that in order to continuously strengthen the “complete process innovation”, it is necessary to promote the “complete chain acceleration” and stimulate the “vitality of the complete society”, that is, deepen the reform of science and technology system and mechanism, grasp the innovation laws in different technical fields and different stages, and gather international and domestic superior innovation resources, strengthen top-level design and promote the deep integration of innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain, and at the same time, build a highland of high-level sci-tech innovation talents, optimize the introduction and education system of sci-tech talents, cultivate and gather global leading talents in science and technology, accelerate the formation of an optimized allocation mode of innovative resources integrating the dedication of scientists, capital investment, venture enterprises, and government support, and create an innovative culture of passion, selflessness, courage, and fight.

The NICE, which was inaugurated in June 2021 and headquartered in Zhangjiang Science City, is a national innovation platform for the layout and construction of the central government and three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta. As a new R&D institution leading the construction of the NICE, Shanghai Yangtze Delta Innovation Institute plays an important role in strengthening the process of “complete process innovation” and promoting the process of “complete chain acceleration”.

The NICE headquartered in Zhangjiang Science City

In February this year, the NICE and Baoshan District Party Committee and Government jointly held a signing conference for cooperation projects, and implemented two major industrialization technology projects - “Laser Crystal Materials” and “Pan-semiconductor Vacuum Cavity” - in the mode of “investment before shares” and “combination of allocation and investment”, and jointly established a digital medical technology research institute.

At present, the NICE has started 14 “combination of allocation and investment” projects, half of which are located in Baoshan District. According to the director of Baoshan District Science and Technology Commission, in 2021, Baoshan District successfully unveiled the national innovation and reform pilot task of “promoting the transformation of sci-tech achievements by investment before shares” by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology. Recently, a standardized work system has been formed, a set of evaluation indicators for achievement transformation has been established, and the path of “combination of allocation and investment” joint support projects with the NICE has been opened up, and a sustainable financial support mode of “government guidance + market promotion” has been explored.

Yangtze River Delta linkage breaks through the core technology of laser

“With the construction of laboratories and the gradual use of production bases, we plan to start market-oriented financing next month”, said by Dr. Dong Yongjun. Through the “investment before shares” of financial funds, the headquarters and production base of a new generation of integrated laser materials and miniaturized laser devices with a total investment of 100 million RMB have been basically completed, including laser crystal material fine production line, laser crystal material integration production line and laser device packaging production line.

A number of high-end equipment including optical coating machine and precision polishing machine, as well as laser crystals with different colors and shapes can be found in Xinfeirui. Crystals are solids arranged by atoms, ions, molecules and other microscopic substances in a certain spatial order with regular shapes. Gems and crystals are naturally formed crystals. As the material of solid laser, laser crystal grows in artificial environment, which requires nearly perfect atomic arrangement and high technical threshold.

Laser Crystal Developed by Xinfeirui Company (Photo by Pan Renhao)

For a long time, high-end laser crystal materials and device technology have been monopolized by some foreign enterprises, which limits the development of domestic laser industry. In order to solve this pain point, Dong Yongjun embarked on the road of entrepreneurship and became a “cross-border” scientist working in Chinese Academy of Sciences and enterprises at the same time. After years of technical research, he led the team to master a variety of laser crystal material growth technologies including Czochralski method, descent method, and flux method, and developed lossless integration technologies suitable for different crystal materials, breaking through the industrial bottlenecks including difficult heat dissipation, complex adjustment, and low reliability of solid lasers, and developed a series of integrated laser crystal products.

Entering the laboratory of Xinfeirui, the secretary of the board of directors showed a miniaturized laser device. The device only obtains the size of a 50-cent coin but integrates three different laser crystal materials. “Our company has mastered lossless integration technology, which can make devices obtain the functions of various laser crystals.”

After settling in Shanghai, Xinfeirui and Guangbao Optoelectronics Company in Nanjing formed a linkage relationship in the Yangtze River Delta. Xinfeirui is positioned as the corporate headquarters and R&D center, and Guangbao Optoelectronics, a subsidiary of Xinfeirui, is responsible for mass production of most products. It didn’t take a long time before Dong Yongjun tasted the sweetness of settling in Shanghai: “Shanghai universities and research institutes have strong strength and can efficiently carry out industry-university-research cooperation and attract more high-level talents. We have recruited more than 20 related professional R&D personnel.” According to reports, Xinfeirui has established deep cooperative relations with Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Tongji University, and University of Shanghai for Science and Technology to jointly carry out product research and development and talents training of laser crystals and devices.

Banks set up “investment before shares cluster loans”

The deputy director of the NICE and the secretary of the Party Committee of Shanghai Yangtze Delta Innovation Institute said that in order to strengthen the “complete process innovation”, the NICE is making efforts to improve the “complete chain acceleration” mechanism, continuously improve the systematic ability of sci-tech innovation, deepen the innovation synergy in the Yangtze River Delta region together with Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui, build a sci-tech innovation community, jointly open up new fields and new tracks, and shape new development momentum and advantages.

Fourteen hard technology enterprises, such as Xinfeirui, were able to settle in Shanghai, which originated from the reform exploration of “combination of allocation and investment” in the NICE. This is an innovative measure for the center to support leading and disruptive technologies to realize achievement transformation and industrialization. “We focus on a kind of technology with high early risk and market investment judgment failure at the forefront of science and technology, but it may have a subversive impact on future industries and is expected to fill the domestic gap. Combining the needs of local industrial transformation and upgrading and the cultivation direction of new racetracks in new fields, we will select a first-class technology leading talent team in the world, cultivate and set up a project company with absolute control of the core team, and use financial funds to support the project company to accelerate technology maturation and complete process verification and commodity-grade product development in the form of R&D projects.” The deputy director of the NICE and the secretary of the Party Committee of the Shanghai Yangtze Delta Innovation Institute introduced that when the company completes the R&D task and obtains social financing, we will convert the funds invested in the early stage into the company’s equity based on the market valuation and will exit based on the market-oriented management method. If the company does not obtain financing after completing the R&D task, evaluation and acceptance will be conducted according to the project, reserving the right to transform the project results, and tolerate the “failure” of the project.

The humanoid robot prototype “Expedition A1” stepped onto the stage.

The president of Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Institute believes that with the advent of ChatGPT, the integration of large models and robots will create a universal robot that is no longer limited to a single certain application scenario. This kind of robot is the carrier to realize “Embodied AI”, which is of strategic significance to the development of cutting-edge science and technology and industry. To this end, a number of units jointly initiated the establishment of Shanghai General Robot Industry Research Institute, which will carry out six businesses: think tank consulting service, common technology research and development, achievement incubation and transformation, application innovation demonstration, industrial fund and investment and financing analysis, and open exchange and cooperation, so as to cultivate innovative technology and industrial development in this frontier field in the complete process.

It is worth mentioning that Shanghai General Robot Industry Research Institute, Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, and Shanghai Yangtze Delta Innovation Institute are all new R&D institutions deployed and built in Shanghai in recent years, which play a key platform role in the “complete process innovation”. In May this year, the General Office of Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and the General Office of Shanghai Municipal Government issued the Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of New R&D Institutions in Shanghai, proposing to focus on cultivating a number of strategic sci-tech forces, widely guide social forces to participate in the construction of new R&D institutions, and strive to form a development pattern of complementary advantages and win-win cooperation among various R&D institutions, providing strong support for strengthening the source function of sci-tech innovation.