Special Action for Empowering Small and Medium-sized Enterprises with Scientific and Technological Achievements (2023-2025)

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are closely linked to millions of households and are an important force in promoting innovation, creating jobs and improving people's livelihoods. To thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and fulfill the relevant tasks and requirements of the "Several Measures to Assist Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Stabilizing Growth, Adjusting Structure and Enhancing Capacity", this action is launched to address the current challenges faced by SMEs, such as weak technological innovation capabilities and insufficient digital, networked and intelligent capabilities, further enhance the level of technology transfer and industrialization, effectively "empower" SMEs with scientific and technological achievements, continuously strengthen their core competitiveness, and encourage more SMEs to follow the path of "specialization, refinement, uniqueness and innovation".
I. General Requirements
(I) Guiding Ideology


(II) Basic Principles
Goal-oriented. Centering on enhancing the core technological capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), focusing on the effective promotion and application of scientific and technological achievements, fully leveraging the advantages of the new system and mechanism, innovating working methods, and accelerating the aggregation of scientific and technological achievements to SMEs. Integrating the advantages of government, industry, academia, research, and application resources, taking effective measures to enhance the precision and effectiveness of the transformation and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements, and meeting the technological innovation needs of SMEs.
Collaborative linkage. Promote precise efforts by all parties including government, industry, academia, research, users and capital. Strengthen the coordination and integration of industrial policies, science and technology policies, and policies for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. Facilitate integrated innovation among industry, academia and research, as well as among upstream and downstream of the industrial chain and large, medium and small enterprises. Form a collective force to effectively empower small and medium-sized enterprises with scientific and technological achievements.
Systematic advancement. We should persist in regarding the endowment of technological achievements to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as a long-term strategy and systematic project. Focusing on the different development stages and individualized demands of SMEs, we should advance various endowment measures in a step-by-step and systematic manner to ensure that there are achievements, they are well transferred, and the transfer is sustainable.
Enhance intelligence and capabilities. Grasp the directions of digital transformation, networked collaboration, and intelligent transformation, promote innovation in concepts, organization, management, technology, products and services of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), increase the supply and application of advanced and applicable technologies, enhance the comprehensive strength and core competitiveness of SMEs, and promote their specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative development.
(III) Work Objectives
By 2025, a complete database of achievements and a database of enterprise demands will be established, and the platform system for technology transfer and application will be improved. A number of high-quality institutions for technology evaluation and transfer will be selected to promote the application of advanced and applicable technologies in small and medium-sized enterprises. No less than 30 in-depth activities for technology transfer will be carried out to effectively promote the application of scientific and technological achievements and achieve in-depth cooperation among industry, academia, research and application. Focusing on cultivating more specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, a complete service pattern for technology transfer will be established to promote small and medium-sized enterprises to produce more high-quality scientific and technological achievements. A closed-loop incentive mechanism will be formed to build an innovative ecosystem featuring regular aggregation of achievements, precise matching of supply and demand, and systematic layout of services, achieving continuous growth in the value of achievements and economic benefits.
II. Key Tasks
(1) Promoting the "Regularization" of Achievements Aggregation
1. Enrich the sources of scientific and technological achievements. In response to the innovation demands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), build scientific and technological achievement project libraries at different levels and in different fields, and promote the opening of resources in these libraries to SMEs, providing them with more scientific and technological achievements that are "affordable, applicable and effective". Strengthen the overall guidance of the evaluation of scientific and technological achievements, and establish a regular screening and reporting mechanism at the industry and local levels based on the multi-party evaluation system of scientific and technological achievements. Conduct evaluations of projects supported by national fiscal funds and policies, and promote the inclusion of relevant project achievements in the libraries. Give full play to the role of scientific and technological achievement evaluation and transfer institutions, explore the new model of "self-declaration" commitment system for scientific and technological achievements, and carry out activities such as competitions, exhibitions and conferences to expand the sources of outstanding scientific and technological achievements.
2. Strengthen the traction of industrial demand. Relying on local industry authorities, associations and third-party institutions, organize parks, bases, characteristic clusters of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and Sino-foreign SME cooperation zones, etc., to regularly collect innovation demands of SMEs. Use these demands to drive the production of high-quality results, enhance the accuracy of technological innovation, and efficiently promote the transformation of achievements. Support local authorities in leveraging SME service institutions to deeply explore the diverse technological demands of SMEs, categorize and sort them to form a demand database for scientific and technological achievements, and ensure a good connection with the project database of achievements.
3. Increase the supply of advanced and applicable technologies. Support innovation entities such as manufacturing innovation centers, key laboratories of various types, technology-based backbone enterprises, and new research and development institutions to intensify research and supply of key and common industrial technologies and transfer them to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Enhance the supply and promotion of intelligent technologies represented by cloud computing, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, robotics, and industrial internet. Support SMEs in implementing intelligent manufacturing and construction, and accelerate their digital transformation and intelligent upgrading through technological transformation and "going online and onto platforms". Encourage universities, research institutes, and other entities to open up and share their basic innovation resources such as scientific research instruments, digital infrastructure, pilot production bases, and databases with SMEs. Support various pilot zones, demonstration zones, industrial bases, and clusters to share testing and verification capabilities. Optimize and expand open-source communities to reduce the innovation costs of SMEs.
(2) Implement "precise" supply and demand matching
4. Increase the openness and sharing of scientific and technological achievement data. Improve the system of intelligence-empowering matching platforms, promote the integration of existing achievement databases, demand databases, etc., and enhance the "one-stop" service capabilities for achievement display, demand sorting, technology trading, capacity building, and scenario demonstration. Relying on scientific and technological achievement evaluation and transfer institutions, strengthen the sorting of achievements in specific fields and precise matching. Select several regions to explore the construction of intelligence-empowering matching service nodes tailored to local industrial demands. Through the combination of online and offline services, and the complementary development of public welfare services and value-added services, continuously enhance the breadth, depth, and quality of platform services.
5. Continuously carry out the "Deep Dive" activities to promote intelligence. Strengthen the interaction between the central and provincial authorities, and support industry associations, industrial alliances, and professional institutions in conducting no less than 10 "Deep Dive" activities in local areas each year. Through various forms such as conferences, forums, achievement showcases, supply-demand matchmaking, exhibitions, and industrial-finance connections, enhance the sharing of scientific and technological achievement information, broaden the channels for small and medium-sized enterprises to acquire technologies, and accelerate the transfer and transformation of achievements. Fully leverage the enthusiasm of local authorities, and take the lead in conducting "Deep Dive" activities in advantageous industrial clusters such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle. Support the holding of "Deep Dive" activities in the old industrial bases in Northeast China and the central and western regions based on local industrial development needs. Form a regular working mechanism of "monthly activities, quarterly highlights, and annual achievements" to create a favorable environment for the cultivation and strengthening of small and medium-sized enterprises.
6. Promote cooperation among large, medium-sized and small enterprises. Implement the "Hand-in-Hand Action" for large, medium-sized and small enterprises, continue to carry out the "Hundred Events and Ten Thousand Enterprises" integration and connection activities for large, medium-sized and small enterprises, and give full play to the role of the platform for integration and connection of innovation among large, medium-sized and small enterprises to help more specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises become the best "partners" of large enterprises. Encourage large enterprises to open up their instruments, equipment and laboratories to small and medium-sized enterprises, and guide large enterprises to strengthen cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of intellectual property rights. Adhering to market orientation, encourage large enterprises to transfer, license and invest in patents to small and medium-sized enterprises. Guide large enterprises to create a number of typical models of integration and connection among large, medium-sized and small enterprises through ecological construction, base cultivation, internal incubation, intelligence-driven support and data connection, effectively promoting the innovative development of small and medium-sized enterprises.
7. Strengthen the collaboration among industry, academia and research institutions. Facilitate the pairing of universities, research institutes and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with each other. Support SMEs in posting technical challenges and special technical problems, and encourage universities and research institutes to respond. Establish a new model of joint and order-based technological research and development to achieve precise matching of scientific and technological achievements with the demands of SMEs. Organize activities such as forums on industry-education integration and matchmaking events between universities and enterprises or universities and localities to accelerate the transfer and transformation of intellectual property rights and scientific and technological achievements from universities and research institutes to SMEs.
(3) Accelerate the "systematized" layout of services
8. Promote the pilot-scale and maturation of achievements. Establish a service system for manufacturing innovation achievements with short cycles and high benefits, strengthen the capacity building for pilot-scale and maturation of achievements, and provide more high-maturity achievements for small and medium-sized enterprises. Support industrial technology foundation public service platforms, industrial product quality control and technical evaluation laboratories, national quality inspection centers, national technology standard innovation bases, small and medium-sized enterprise public service demonstration platforms, and key platforms for new materials to play a technical support role. Jointly build test and detection environments with upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, establish a collaborative cooperation mechanism, and provide small and medium-sized enterprises with full-process services including early-stage achievement test verification, mid-stage pilot-scale and maturation, and late-stage batch production detection and certification. Formulate and apply evaluation standards such as technology maturity and manufacturing maturity to continuously improve the level and effectiveness of technology transfer.
9. Strengthen the application and protection of intellectual property rights. Organize intellectual property service institutions to provide patent navigation services to specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), optimize their technology path selection and intellectual property layout, and enhance the reserve of high-value patents. Upgrade the intellectual property operation platform system, accelerate the construction of the National Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Center, and promote the development of intellectual property trading services. Leverage the green channel for patent and trademark examination to support the priority examination of patents for specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative SMEs, and enable them to obtain intellectual property protection efficiently. Deepen the implementation of the patent open licensing system, explore "one-to-many" licensing of patents from universities and research institutes, and accelerate the process of licensing patent technologies to SMEs. Enhance the intellectual property capabilities of industrial enterprises, strengthen the "Manufacturing Intellectual Property Grand Classroom" training, encourage the construction of intellectual property management standardization systems for SMEs, and enhance their competitive advantages. Strengthen international cooperation on intellectual property rights and jointly promote the internationalization of intellectual property rights for SMEs.
10. Accelerate the promotion and application of new technologies and products by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Support SMEs in strengthening technological innovation and encourage more of them to transform from technology demanders to technology producers. Encourage large enterprises to trial and adopt innovative products from SMEs first, and support the application of SMEs' supporting products in the demonstration of the first batch (set) of major technical equipment. Relying on the manufacturing technology innovation system, map out the industrial chain of specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative SMEs around key industrial chains, and support SMEs to focus on their areas of industrial strength, enabling them to become "single champions" with unique skills and produce more high-quality results. Guide and support specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative SMEs to accelerate their layout in frontier fields and future industries to seize development opportunities.
III. Safeguard Measures
(1) Strengthen organizational leadership. Enhance the overall coordination of the work of endowing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with scientific and technological achievements, and form a working pattern where government departments, research institutions, service agencies, social organizations and SMEs participate and promote in a coordinated manner. Further leverage the role of local governments, improve the mechanism for interdepartmental coordination and cooperation, and increase support for the industrialization of innovation achievements and the construction of platforms. Establish a dynamic tracking management and regular assessment mechanism to monitor the effectiveness of endowing SMEs with scientific and technological achievements.
(2) Strengthening industrial-finance cooperation. Guide financial institutions to optimize their products and services to support the financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in obtaining, converting and applying scientific and technological achievements. Leverage the guiding role of government investment funds to encourage social capital to increase direct investment in high-quality SMEs, promoting the transformation and industrialization of their scientific and technological achievements. Cultivate high-quality SMEs in a stratified and categorized manner, and leverage the role of the "Specialized, Refined, Unique and Innovative" (SRUI) board of regional equity markets to provide comprehensive financial and listing standardization training services for SMEs, and facilitate the listing of eligible SMEs on the New Third Board and stock exchanges. Implement the "Integration of Science, Technology, Industry and Finance" project, leverage the role of the national industrial-finance cooperation platform, and rely on various industrial and financial supporting policies to guide capital to invest early, small and in science and technology. Encourage government-backed financing guarantee institutions and financial institutions to increase their support and improve the quality and efficiency of intellectual property pledge financing services.
(3) Carry out pilot demonstrations. Select a number of cases of scientific and technological achievement transformation and industrialization that have a high level of technological innovation, have achieved large-scale application, and have produced significant economic and social benefits. Launch a batch of high-quality, well-guaranteed, and distinctive scientific and technological achievement transformation service products for small and medium-sized enterprises. Promote cooperation pilots between clusters of small and medium-sized enterprises and technology transfer and transformation institutions. Support technology managers to hold positions in parks and bases in accordance with regulations and participate in the full-chain services including demand release, technology matching, negotiation, and project implementation.
(4) Improve the incentive mechanism. Implement tax preferential policies related to the transformation of scientific and technological achievements to stimulate the innovation vitality of enterprises. Strengthen support for public welfare service institutions and encourage local governments to support non-profit service institutions they entrust and guide. Organize enterprises to conduct evaluations of intermediary service institutions in a timely manner. For high-quality intermediary service institutions with good evaluations, widely publicize and promote them to the society.