Chinese universities must evolve from "innovation parks" into "engines" to drive industrial development, a national political advisor said on Saturday in Beijing.
Zhang Qiao, president of Soochow University, a prestigious university in east China's Jiangsu Province, was speaking to the press in a group interview along with other members of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisory body.
His view coincides with the country's greater emphasis on self-reliance in science and technology to boost high-quality growth during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).
According to Zhang, close collaboration between Chinese academic institutions and the industry is crucial for driving this growth, as academic institutions are where innovation thrives, and the industry has the resources, practical knowledge and infrastructure to make innovation fruitful.
Zhang said that during this year's fourth session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee, he has proposed building corporate labs on university campuses and moving university classrooms into companies, thus deepening university-industry collaboration.
He highlighted the achievements in academia-industry collaboration since the joint establishment of the regional university-industry technology transfer center by the Ministry of Education and Jiangsu Province, the first national-level center of its kind, since September 2024.
"During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and let me take Jiangsu for an instance, the Ministry of Education and Jiangsu Province jointly set up the first regional technology transfer center among China's universities. Over the past year, the center hosted 32 public transfer platforms, actively fostered partnerships with over 100 top universities nationwide, gathered as many as 5,742 sci-tech outcomes, of which 344 transferred to the industry, and incubated 164 new businesses," he said.
Looking ahead, Zhang said Chinese universities must play a better role in driving scientific and technological innovations and industrial development in emerging fields.
"Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan, we must not only become 'innovation parks' that provide inspiration, but also 'engines' that drive development. We must stay focused on the sci-tech frontiers to break through the boundaries of human knowledge, while remaining rooted in the fertile soil of the industry to help solve the practical problems for enterprises," he said.
National political advisor on closer academia-industry collaboration
Rapid developments in advanced industries across China, including AI and robotics, were major topics of discussion at open press interviews on Friday with leading researchers and industry executives serving as deputies to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), currently in its ongoing fourth session.
The NPC, China's top legislature, is holding its annual session from Thursday through March 12.
At a series of open press events, delegations from various parts of the country, including Beijing, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and east China's Jiangxi Province, took questions on how their regions are shaping China's technological progress.
Deng Langni, a deputy to the 14th NPC and vice chairman of Guangxi University of Science and Technology, emphasized that as sources of innovation, universities need to take the initiative and provide strong support for the AI industry's development at the local level.
"The rapid pace of industrial transformation poses serious challenges to traditional disciplines and majors, pushing universities to 'break down walls' and bring classrooms onto industrial chains. Taking Guangxi University of Science and Technology as an example, it has quickly launched a number of AI-related micro-credentials across the campus, enabling students from different majors to gain 'AI thinking' and provide urgently-needed compound talents for industrial upgrading in Guangxi," said Deng.
A deputy from Beijing, Lei Jun, founder of consumer tech giant Xiaomi, offered an optimistic vision on the transformative impact that technological advances will have in manufacturing and industry.
"Sci-tech innovation can accelerate the development of new quality productive forces. Private enterprises have a key advantage in being close to markets and users, responding quickly, and rapidly applying new technologies to real-world scenarios. Humanoid robots have already been deployed in automobile factories, and I believe that, in the coming years, they will enter factories on a large scale," he said.
During the open event hosted by the Jiangxi NPC delegation, deputies said that the province has mapped out six key areas for future industries, including bold new areas such as embodied intelligence, brain-computer interfaces and humanoid robots.
"Many aviation, automotive and equipment manufacturing companies in Jiangxi are using intelligent robots, virtual reality and metaverse technologies to upgrade manufacturing. Workers can remotely operate equipment using immersive interfaces. Over the years, we have been dedicated to researching the key algorithms necessary for the efficient collaboration among embodied intelligent humanoid robots, digital humans and people," said NPC deputy Min Weidong, also the dean of the Metaverse Research Institute at Nanchang University.
Innovation experts from across China highlight accelerated tech deployment
