On the road of technological innovation, Hohhot City in Inner Mongolia continues to move forward, using technological innovation as an important support to promote high-quality development. In recent years, the city has deeply implemented the innovation driven development strategy, committed to building a regional science and technology innovation center, and fully played the leading role in the “Technology driven Mongolia” action. Through deepening scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation with universities and research institutes inside and outside the region, key technologies and “bottleneck” problems have been overcome, and scientific research achievements have been transformed, injecting strong impetus into the high-quality development of the capital.
Deepen school local cooperation and gather innovative resources
Regarding the comprehensive utilization of straw in Hohhot, we have collaborated with Professor Shen Guoqing’s team from the School of Agriculture and Biology at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to carry out a key technology research and industrialization demonstration project for low-carbon and high-value utilization of straw. Zhao Juan, Chairman of Inner Mongolia Zhongfu Mingfeng Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., stated that the company is currently leading the establishment of an innovative consortium for straw comprehensive utilization, further developing a series of low-carbon and high-value straw products and promoting them for demonstration, providing a new path for the agricultural sector to achieve “carbon peak and carbon neutrality”.
This is a microcosm of Hohhot and Shanghai Jiao Tong University deepening their “campus local cooperation” and actively exploring new models of technological cooperation, giving innovative entities wings to soar.
Since 2020, the Hohhot Municipal Government has signed the first technology cooperation agreement with Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The following year, both parties signed another agreement to initiate the joint construction of the “Shanghai Jiao Tong University Hohhot Science and Technology Innovation Center”, jointly opening a new chapter of campus local cooperation. As of now, the Innovation Center has implemented 23 achievement transformation projects in Hohhot, promoting scientific and technological cooperation between 7 colleges of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and more than 30 enterprises in Hohhot. Establishing school enterprise joint research centers with the National Dairy Technology Innovation Center, Jinyu Biotechnology, Huaxun High Tech, and others.
In 2023, the Innovation Center was approved as an autonomous region level technology transfer training base, cultivating more than 80 technology brokers for Hohhot. Relying on the spatial and financial support of Hohhot City, the Innovation Center provides various professional scientific and technological services, guides various innovation and entrepreneurship entities to focus on the development direction of key industries, and strives to build a highly concentrated and deeply integrated science and technology innovation micro ecosystem. As of now, a total of 52 enterprises have been incubated and introduced, including 3 high-tech enterprises, 4 technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, and 5 enterprises above designated size. In 2023, the cumulative operating income of enterprises within the Innovation Center is about 200 million yuan, and the tax paid to the Economic Development Zone is about 5 million yuan.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University Hohhot Science and Technology Innovation Center (Photo by Zhang Fang)
The tide surges with the wind, and the capital city takes advantage of the east wind to embark on a new journey. On August 13, 2023, the “Government School Enterprise” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Alliance, advocated by the People’s Government of Hohhot City, was officially launched and put into operation. The first batch of alliance member units gathered various entities such as the city’s science and technology, human resources and social security, education, higher education institutions in Hohhot, enterprises, and social institutions, aiming to pool resources from all parties, enhance the service capabilities of universities in Hohhot, promote multi-dimensional and deep level close cooperation and collaborative innovation between schools, universities, and enterprises, and explore new models for high-level talents to innovate and start businesses in Hohhot and for college students to stay in Hohhot.
As of now, the alliance has 70 members, including 7 universities, 9 research institutes, and 20 key enterprises in the six major industries, which have established cooperative relationships through project support, innovation platform construction, and selection of special envoy expert teams. Introduce 24 technology service companies and third-party professional organizations to join the alliance through methods such as selecting enterprise special envoy workstations.
In 2023, in order to fully tap into the advantages of innovation resource aggregation in the capital city, Hohhot has formulated and issued the “Several Measures to Promote Collaborative Innovation among Universities and Institutes in Hohhot”. Three “Mongolian Science and Technology Cluster” collaborative innovation roadshows were organized by Inner Mongolia University, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, and Inner Mongolia Agricultural University. A total of 25 scientific and technological achievements were implemented and transformed in Hohhot, including 7 green agricultural and livestock product processing industries, 7 biopharmaceutical industries, 3 electronic information technology industries, 5 new materials and modern equipment manufacturing industries, 2 modern chemical industries, and 1 clean energy industry. The city level support funds amounted to 6.2 million yuan.
The first joint meeting of the “Government School Enterprise” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Alliance in 2024 (photo by Sun Qi)
School local innovation cooperation is an important platform carrier for local docking and gathering high-quality innovation resources, and enhancing regional scientific and technological strength. In recent years, Hohhot has actively established a school local cooperation mechanism, focused on industrial development needs, implemented a number of innovative cooperation projects, attracted a group of high-level innovative talents, and transformed a batch of high-quality scientific and technological achievements, providing strong scientific and technological support for Hohhot to build a regional science and technology innovation center and achieve high-quality development.
Promoting cooperation between Beijing and Mongolia to stimulate industrial innovation vitality
“At present, we have invested more than 170 million special scientific research funds accumulatively to overcome the technical problems of the global African swine fever vaccine, and promote the breakthrough of the five technical routes of non classical swine fever vaccine, including the cutting-edge technology of mRNA vaccine.” Dr. Li Jie of Jinyu Baoling Biological Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. introduced that through the cooperation between Beijing and Mongolia, they have completed the anti viral protection experiment of more than 2000 pigs and accumulated a lot of data with the cooperation of Chen Runsheng, an academician of the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. As of now, this research has obtained 2 authorized core invention patents, applied for and accepted 1 international invention patent, accepted 1 national invention patent, obtained 1 genetically modified organism safety certificate, and is also the first enterprise to submit the subunit African swine fever vaccine for clinical evaluation. Meanwhile, the mRNA vaccine production line has recently passed on-site static acceptance.
Personnel from the pathogen isolation platform of Jinyu Baoling Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. are conducting virus seed isolation and identification work (Yun Lijun)
Launching a new round of cooperation between the East and the West is a major decision and deployment made by the Party Central Committee. Last February, Inner Mongolia and Beijing signed a framework agreement on “Beijing Mongolia Cooperation and Political Consultative Conference Assistance” to strengthen complementary advantages, comprehensively deepen scientific and technological cooperation, and jointly promote the organization and implementation of the “Technology Innovation Doubling Plan” for Beijing Mongolia cooperation.
Taking advantage of Beijing’s resource advantages, the two sides have carried out deep and multi field scientific and technological cooperation in the field of innovation, injecting surging momentum into the innovative development of our city. Li Kongyan, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, said that the Municipal Science and Technology Bureau actively implements the “Technology Innovation Doubling Plan” for Beijing Mongolia cooperation, takes actual needs as the starting point, organizes and promotes cooperation in key areas of platform projects, connects and introduces talent achievements, strengthens innovation linkage with the Beijing region, promotes the deepening of Beijing Mongolia cooperation, and continuously injects innovative momentum into the high-quality development of the capital.
In 2023, Hohhot will promote the construction of 15 innovation platforms with 13 entities in Beijing and form 24 innovation consortia with 29 entities in Beijing; Supporting 53 scientific and technological cooperation projects with 30 innovative entities in Beijing; Relying on projects and platforms to support the flexible introduction of more than 100 high-level talent teams from Beijing in key areas; Based on the cooperation between Beijing and Mongolia, a number of breakthrough innovative cooperation achievements have been made in key areas, such as the construction of an evaluation system for the emulsification degree of infant formula mother in the dairy industry, the efficient separation and preparation of lactoferrin, and the leading technology for fresh packaging of dairy products; The first domestically developed herbicide resistant and low residue alfalfa germplasm has been created in the field of grass seed industry; The self-developed mRNA delivery system in the field of animal vaccines has broken through foreign patent barriers; The field of off grid wind solar hydrogen production has made a breakthrough in improving the dynamic temperature control performance of alkaline hydrogen production units, which can achieve rapid cold start of 1000 standard cubic meter alkaline hydrogen production units in 15 minutes; The key technology of non mulching dense planting and drip irrigation in the field of corn planting has achieved an average yield of 1206kg per mu in the demonstration area, setting a new high for green, high-yield and efficient yield per mu of corn, and increasing the yield by 330kg per mu compared to traditional planting.
As of the end of 2023, there are a total of 44 technology transfer platform carriers at or above the autonomous region level in the city, achieving new breakthroughs and leading the entire region for three consecutive years. Among them, the number of carriers increased by 50% year-on-year in 2023, and the number of technology transfer platform carriers showed a surge trend. There are a total of 59 scientific research institutions in the entire region, with 30 stationed in Hohhot, accounting for 51%; There are 8 leading technology enterprises in the autonomous region of the city, accounting for 20% of the total, and 533 national high-tech enterprises in the city, accounting for 28.1% of the total, an increase of 68 compared to 2022, a year-on-year increase of 14.6%. There are 649 national technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, accounting for 25.6% of the entire region, an increase of 236 from 2022, an increase of 57.1%.
Hohhot city focuses on regional advantageous areas, focuses on project “talent introduction”, broadens channels “talent cultivation”, actively explores new paths for scientific and technological cooperation and collaborative innovation mechanisms, strives to solve a number of key technical problems, transforms and applies a number of major scientific and technological achievements, and provides strong scientific and technological support for the high-quality development of the capital city. (Zhang Fangsun, Qi Yun, Li Jun)