Top of the big era

The contradiction between state-owned enterprises and the market is a difficult problem faced by the whole world.

The social function of state-owned enterprises is to meet national needs and realize national interests. However, such functions may not meet the needs and interests of ordinary people, which will cause conflicts between the two parties.

In the field of science and technology, it refers to the transformation of technology from academic research to the market.

Lu Qi has been working in the United States for so many years, and this time he has just returned from an inspection trip to three universities near London, and he is deeply touched by this.

There are more than 700 federal scientific research institutions in the United States, such as the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. health system, the American Institute of Standards and Technology under the Bureau of Standards and Technology, GOGO Laboratories, etc., all of which are state-owned enterprises.

As long as it is a state-owned enterprise, it will inevitably bring huge waste of manpower, material resources and funds.

In contrast, the difference is particularly obvious.

The top colleges and universities in the United States are all private, and their funding comes from tuition, donations, services... and they have a clear market orientation.

Whatever technology the market needs and what the future technology direction is, they will focus on tackling issues in that field. The conversion rate of scientific research is very high. Silicon Valley developed with the technical support of Stanford, Southern California, Berkeley, MIT and other universities.

However, public universities and many state-run scientific and technological research institutions are very nonsense. There are a lot of government-driven scientific research results, but it is difficult to translate them into practical applications. There is investment but no output.

This is all taxpayer money spent and puts a lot of pressure on the White House.

In order to solve this problem, several presidents in the past two decades have successively introduced a series of reform bills to promote the marketization of federal scientific research institutions.

The effect is so-so.

The most typical one is NASA. Its aerospace technology is clearly the best in the world and has reached the highest level of mankind. But they can't do many things they want to do, so they can only outsource the projects.

If you do it yourself, it will cost too much!

It can only be outsourced to private companies, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and SpaceX.

This is true in the United States, and even more so in the United Kingdom.

Worse than the United States.

Because the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and the University of London are all public, their main source of funding is the British government. In order to solve this situation, the UK has also carried out a series of policy reforms, including the establishment of a technology management department within the Ministry of Commerce, allowing national laboratories to cooperate with enterprises and universities in research and development, a performance appraisal system, and technology transfer as a tool for laboratories, scientists, Assessment indicators for engineers' work, establishment of reward system and distribution system, etc.

The most important thing is the rewards and distribution of scientific research teams.

Among them, Enterprise in Cambridge and Innovations in Oxford are the most well-known. These are two sales companies that specialize in selling technology and patents.

After the scientific research team produces the scientific research results, they can entrust it to a sales company, where professional sales will connect with the market to complete the technology transfer.

Professional people do professional things, scientific researchers do scientific research, and sales people do sales.

After hearing this, Liang Jing immediately asserted: "This model is better than the domestic model."

Lu Qi has been abroad for many years and doesn’t know much about the domestic environment. “Is this the mainstream?”

Liang Jing said: "In China, professor teams directly connect with the market and contact companies themselves. Professors with market resources are particularly popular because they are better able to market transformation. Some young people who have strong technical skills but lack resources cannot do it because they can't If the market is transformed, you won’t be able to get project funds, and if you can’t get project funds, you won’t be able to build projects to attract attention, forming a vicious cycle.”

Lu Qi frowned, finding it hard to understand, "The specialty of scientists is scientific research, let them do marketing..."

"What you are saying is that you are also a scientist."

Zhou Buqi laughed and made a joke.

Lu Qi, like Shen Xiangyang, is the world's top artificial intelligence scientist.

Lu Qi shook his head, "I'm not good at marketing either. What I do is business management, and let people who understand the market do the marketing. In terms of scientific research, I only provide general directions, not even the structure."

Zhou Buqi waved his hand and said somewhat arbitrarily: "The national conditions are different. What is popular here in China is 'promise but not profit, and promise of profit but not fame'. Positions such as doctors, teachers, and scientists do not provide enough benefits, so Prestige is particularly high. With a good reputation, some positions will be sanctified, such as doctors, teachers, and scientists. Especially scientists, they want to be respected as gods, as if they know everything, and since they can be officials, they can When running a business, you can also do marketing since you manage schools, and you can also do sales since you do strategy."

Liang Jing has had close contacts with Tsinghua University during this period, especially the scientific research professors, whom she spends time with almost every day, so she understands this situation very well, "What the boss said... is a big concept, but the details are actually very simple."

"Oh? What's the reason?"

"trust."

"trust?"

"Yes, it's just that, um..." Liang Jing hesitated, a little helpless, "It's just that the scientific research team doesn't trust the authorization of scientific research results to third-party companies for sale, so they can only sell them themselves."

Lu Qi was slightly startled, "Why?"

Liang Jing looked at him suspiciously.

Didn't he used to be a professor at Fudan University? How could you not know?

Zhou Buqi coughed lightly and explained to him, "When he was in China, the country had not yet introduced policies that allowed the transfer of scientific research results from universities to private enterprises."

At this time, he already understood what Liang Jing meant.

Yes, trust!

Who can guarantee that third-party sales companies will serve the interests of scientists wholeheartedly?

For example, a research team at Tsinghua University developed an artificial intelligence algorithm that is very advanced. Ziweixing will invest 5 million yuan to buy it. If you contact a third-party sales company, there will be trouble here.

The person in charge of a third-party company can register an intermediary company through relatives and friends, and then the intermediary company will connect with the third-party company and buy the artificial intelligence algorithm for 1 million yuan.

Then, the intermediary company completed the technology transfer with Ziweixing for 5 million yuan.

Through this wave of operations, a small number of people can earn a price difference of 4 million yuan through intermediary companies. The actual income attributed to the third-party company is only 1 million yuan, part of which is used as operating funds, and the remaining money is divided among the school and the scientific research team in proportion... This seriously damages the interests of the scientific research team.

Sure enough, Liang Jing's subsequent statement confirmed Zhou Buqi's suspicion, and then she added: "Isn't that the vice president of the Academy of Engineering, Yan Shouyang? He used to be a university professor but was later fired."

Zhou Buqi vaguely remembered that there was a doctor named Yan Shouyang who only joined the job in August this year, but the specific situation was not clear. "What happened to him?"

Liang Jing sighed, "He is only 31 years old this year. He became an associate professor one year after graduating from his doctorate. He developed a communication technology. He was young and had no connections in the industry, so he entrusted the dean of the college to help with marketing. He bought it for 300,000 yuan, and he was very happy to receive 100,000 yuan. Later, he found out that ZTE’s purchase price was 2.26 million yuan. Later, he fought a lawsuit for half a year, lost the lawsuit, and lost his job. ”

Zhou Buqi didn't find it strange, "It's normal to be cheated due to lack of legal awareness. The fact that the school has not set up a third-party sales company shows that it has no confidence in the supervision system. He also believes in this kind of human relationship. Learn from each experience and gain wisdom. Bar."

"Forget it, let's not talk about it." Shen Xiangyang ended the topic and looked at Lu Qi, "You have been around London, which one do you think is suitable?"

The three universities of London, Cambridge and Oxford are mortal enemies of each other.

Just like Ziweixing has established a deep cooperative relationship with Tsinghua University, it would be too difficult to cooperate with Peking University to establish a research institution. Of the three London technical universities, you can only choose one. (Oxford is very close to London and is also in this system)

Lu Qi said: "I think Oxford can do it. Oxford has transferred the most technological achievements and created the most technology spin-off companies in Europe."

Zhou Buqi asked: "What about the share?"

"This should be similar to that in China, right?" Lu Qi blinked, "They are all divided into 33%, 34% for the scientific research team, 33% for the school, and 33% for the funds."

Liang Jing smiled and said: "It's basically the same in China."

The fund share is 33%. If it is funded by the school, the income share belongs to the school; if it is funded by the government, the income belongs to the school; if it is funded by a national scientific research fund, the income belongs to the school or the scientific research fund; if it is funded by an enterprise, the income belongs to the school. It belongs to the enterprise.

For example, Ziweixing cooperated with Tsinghua University to establish the Ziweixing-Tsinghua Integrated Circuit Research Center, with a total start-up capital of 1.5 billion yuan. Among them, Ziweixing invested 500 million yuan, Tsinghua University invested 500 million yuan, and the government invested 500 million yuan.

The three parties share technology property rights in a ratio of 1:1:1.

If money is made from technology transfer, Ziweixing will get 34% and Tsinghua will get 66%. However, there are exceptions and additional terms. If Ziweixing wants to use the research results, it can have free temporary use rights. If you want to use it for a long time or buy it out, you have to negotiate with Tsinghua University.

If we cooperate with Oxford, we will definitely not be able to get such preferential terms. If the ratio of 1:1:1 can be guaranteed, China and Europe will be considered friendly.

Cooperation must be reached even if the terms of cooperation are worse.

Artificial intelligence is a typical interdisciplinary subject of social science and natural science, involving mathematics, statistics, psychology, neurophysiology, information theory, computer science, philosophy, cognitive science, uncertainty theory and cybernetics.

The intersection of so many disciplines means that if you want to truly make breakthrough technological progress in the field of artificial intelligence, you can only rely on universities. It is impossible for any company to recruit top scientists in so many fields.

Tsinghua's computer science department is very powerful and world-famous, even more powerful than Oxford. But the same cannot be said for other subjects. The difference is not just a little bit, but a comprehensive and all-round gap.

Ziweixing must make full use of foreign aid.

Luqi’s suggestion is to invest 50 million pounds first to establish a cooperative relationship and see the effect. If the effect is good, continue to follow up. If the effect is not good, stop the loss in time.

Seeing Shen Xiangyang's approval, Zhou Buqi made the decision, "That's it, we'll cooperate with Oxford in the name of Ziweixing Silicon Valley AI Laboratory. Lu Qi, please work hard and make more trips. If you need help, tell me, I bought Manchester United and had some political connections in London."