On July 15, 2023, at the Shanghai Lin-gang Special Area—a national strategic reform frontier—the "Peking University International Sci-Tech Innovation Center at Lin-gang Special Area, China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone(PKU-IICSH) was inaugurated by Gong Qihuang, President of Peking University and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, alongside Chen Jinshan, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and Secretary of the Party Working Committee of Lingang Special Area. This sci-tech collaboration platform, jointly established by Peking University and Lin-gang Special Area Administration(LSAA), China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, has now embarked on its mission to advance university-regional synergy.
On March 29, 2021, to thoroughly implement the CPC Central Committee and State Council's major strategic decisions on innovation-driven development, diligently execute the key directives of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s inspection in Shanghai, and leverage the respective strengths of the Lin-gang Special Area and Peking University, Peking University(PKU) and LSAA signed a cooperation agreement. This initiative focuses on cutting-edge global science and national strategic needs, advances a new model of industry-academia-research integration, and harnesses PKU’s innovation capabilities and talent resources in science, medicine, and engineering. Through in-depth cultivation and financial support, the collaboration aims to accelerate technology transfer, incubate high-tech enterprises, establish a world-class innovation platform with international influence, and bolster Shanghai’s construction as a globally influential hub of scientific and technological innovation.
On September 28 of the same year, during his inspection of PKU, Comrade Li Qiang, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Premier of the State Council, and former Secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee—emphasized that Shanghai and PKU must further elevate themselves as hubs for groundbreaking innovation. The aim is to build PKU-IICSH into "a signature university-municipality collaboration project."
Up to now, based on the industrial layout of Shanghai and Lingang, and leveraging PKU’s disciplinary strengths, the Center has set up more than ten technology R&D platforms. It has strengthened market-oriented operation services through mechanisms such as dynamic management and performance assessment. These platforms cover multiple fields, including high Performance integrated photonics circuits、trustworthy parallel intelligence, earth and space technology, and sci-tech finance & data operation. The Center actively promotes organized scientific research and achievement transformation, effectively serving the development needs of the regional economy.
The Center emphasizes both quantity and quality in enterprise incubation. In 2024, it actively supported the first Lingang X-TIME Sci-Tech Innovation Competition, recommending 30 incubated and reserved projects for registration. Among them, 21 entered the semi-finals (accounting for 1/6 of semi-final projects), 11 entered the finals (accounting for nearly 1/4 of final projects), and ultimately won 1 second prize, 5 third prizes, and 5 merit awards. In the 2025 pilot program of converting grants into equity investment in Lingang Special Area, two projects recommended by the Center —were successfully shortlisted as the first batch of pilot projects, accounting for 1/4 of the total signed projects. The Center assisted Lingang in exploring an effective implementation path for "linkage between grants and investment", making positive contributions to innovating the mechanisms for sci-tech achievement transformation and project incubation in Lingang Special Area.
With talent as its cornerstone, the Center has built an operation and R&D team of nearly 60 people, including 24% with doctoral degrees and 43% with master's degrees, forming a rational talent echelon. In terms of organizational structure, under the leadership of the Council, the Center is managed through unified decision-making by the Director's Office Meeting. Its business scope covers technological R&D cooperation, enterprise incubation, investment fund management, and sci-tech ecosystem development, establishing a sound management system. To address the core challenges in forming teams for early-stage sci-tech achievement transformation, the Center has established a "resource partner" cooperation mechanism, inviting practical talents with rich industrial resources to join as partners for scientists’ innovation and entrepreneurship. It has also built a "sci-tech talent community" to create a "gathering hub" for high-quality cooperation opportunities in sci-tech innovation and enterprise incubation.
2. Pooling Sci-Tech Innovation Elements: Serving Industrial Layout
Over the past two years, the Center has developed a distinctive path of "building platforms, aggregating resources, and promoting transformation" in serving Lingang's sci-tech innovation ecosystem.
The Center has actively promoted the construction of characteristic "sci-tech service platforms", creating multi-dimensional support systems around key industrial sectors such as AI and low-altitude economy: It has collaborated with the China Cyberspace Security Association (under the Cyberspace Administration of China) to build the "Trustworthy AI Application and Data Synergy Public Service Platform". It has supported the "The 1st Shanghai Yanyuan-Dishuilake Collegiate Al+International Startup Challenge" in Lingang Special Area and launched the construction of the "Lingang Special Area Data and AI Talent Training Base" to attract high-quality "digital nomads" to Lingang and secure a high ground for young AI talents. Simultaneously, it has advanced carriers such as the "Low-Altitude Integrated Flight Demonstration Platform", "High-Level Talent Intellectual Property Service Station", and "Peking University Alumni Yangtze River Delta Sci-Tech Innovation Service Platform" to provide platform support for the core functions of "enterprise incubation and talent aggregation".
The Center has actively built a cooperative ecosystem network. It has established strategic cooperation and business ties with development entities such as Nanhui New Town, Lingang Sci-Tech City, Minhong Real Estate Group, and Fengxian Life Blue Bay. It has also formed strategic partnerships with over 50 domestic and foreign institutions, including the Yangtze River Delta National Innovation Center, Alibaba Cloud, Huawei, SenseTime, Bank of Shanghai, EU-Asia Center, UAE-China Innovation Center, constructing a collaborative network of "government + universities + enterprises + institutions". Based on this, the Center has leveraged its subordinate R&D platforms to expand horizontal cooperation, build joint laboratories, and strengthen the local industrial application and scenario-based implementation of technologies in R&D fields such as silicon photonics chip spectrometers, trusted parallel intelligence (TPI), spatio-temporal coding-based applications, and the "innovation scoring system".
Since the end of 2023, the Center has actively promoted the industrial layout of low-altitude economy in Lingang. It has taken the lead in launching Shanghai’s first low-altitude integrated flight demonstration platform, which is supported by a unified low-altitude intelligent connection technology system in designated areas of Lingang to create "practical" integrated flight scenarios. It has proposed the "1+6" industrial promotion model: 1 "full-space unmanned technology system" & "technology R&D center" + 6 promotion elements (integrated flight demonstration, professional operation platform, high-quality incubator, industrial guidance fund, talent training base). This model has provided a Lingang case for the low-altitude economy and successfully helped Lingang Special Area become one of the first 4 pilot areas in Shanghai eligible to apply for low-altitude airspace. The Center continues to optimize resource allocation to enhance original and disruptive sci-tech innovation in Lingang Special Area, accelerating the sound development of China's low-altitude economy industry.
3. Layout of Early-Stage Venture Investment: Building a Closed Loop for Incubation and Transformation
Through in-depth research and analysis, the Center has addressed the difficulties and bottlenecks in early-stage sci-tech achievement transformation and enterprise incubation. It has actively promoted the establishment of its own fund manager, firmly laid out sci-tech finance, enriched methods for serving early-stage sci-tech enterprises, and formed a closed loop for enterprise incubation—laying a solid foundation for the Center’s sustainable development in the future.
In April 2023, "Yanyuan Fund", the fund manager subordinate to the Center, completed the registration with the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) as a private fund manager. The Center thus became the first sci-tech innovation platform in Lingang with a fund manager. "Yanyuan Fund" has now become an important venture capital force in supporting the transformation system of Peking University’s sci-tech achievements.
Adhering to the investment philosophy of "focus, concentration, and professionalism", "Yanyuan Fund" focuses on "investing early, investing in small enterprises, and investing in technology". It targets key investment areas such as life sciences, information technology, new energy, and new materials from universities and research institutes, while also considering other high-quality social sci-tech projects.
At present, "Yanyuan Fund" has participated in investing in multiple sci-tech start-ups founded by Peking University scientists in fields such as embodied intelligence, quantum technology, and biomedicine, including Galaxy Robotics, Guoce Quantum, and Beiqi Biology, attracting wide attention in the sci-tech investment community. In addition, the Center has actively responded to the "investment-recruitment linkage" initiative of the LSAA . Through investment from "Yanyuan Fund", it has attracted a ReRAM memory chip enterprise to settle in Lingang, driving nearly 100 million yuan in investment and further enriching Lingang’s integrated circuit industrial layout.
4. Serving " Young City for the Youth"
The " PKU-DSLLH" is a high-end series of lectures co-initiated by the Center, the Department of Science and Technology Development of Peking University, and the Department of Social Sciences of Peking University, with in-depth participation from relevant units such as Peking University Press and Peking University Alumni Association. Relying on Peking University’s profound academic accumulation and expert resources in humanities and social sciences, it focuses on fields such as economic development, humanistic art, and social governance. As an important humanistic brand of Lingang Special Area, since its launch in August 2023, the PKU-DSLLH has held twenty-three high-end lectures, attracting nearly 9,000 on-site participants and over 800,000 online impressions. It has effectively enhanced the cultural soft power and competitiveness of Lingang Special Area and Nanhui New Town, injecting stronger humanistic vitality into " Young City for the Youth", and has become the most iconic cultural brand event in Lingang. In August 2024, Peking University Humanities Lectures for Young People: Selected from PKU-DSLLH (Volume 1) was officially published by Peking University Press; the publication of Volume 2 is currently in full swing.
Since its establishment in December 2022, the Party Branch of the Center has actively played a leading role in Party building, deeply integrating Peking University's red heritage with the development characteristics of Lingang Special Area as "Young City for the Youth". It has focused on building a Party-mass service platform with Peking University characteristics. The "Peking University Lin-gang Party-Mass Service Center" undertakes functions such as ideological and political education & practice, youth science popularization, and sci-tech innovation services. It has successively obtained honors and qualifications including the "Characteristic (Grade A) Party-Mass Service Platform of Lingang Special Area", the title of "Peking University Ideological and Political Practice Course Education Base", and the qualification of "Financial Party-Mass Service Post of Lingang Special Area". In June 2025, the Center's Party-Mass Service Center was awarded the "Star-Level Party-Mass Service Platform of Lingang Special Area" (one of only 7 in Lingang).
In addition, the Center has successively obtained the following honors and qualifications: Designation as one of the first batch of "Senior Entrepreneur Training Bases" in Lingang Special Area (one of 5 units); Qualification as a "Shanghai Youth Sci-Tech Laboratory" (first batch in Lingang); Qualification as a "Shanghai Sci-Tech Innovation Voucher Cooperation Unit"; Designation as a "Campus Talent Recruitment Station of Lingang Special Area"; Qualification as one of the first batch of "Fair Competition Policy Guidance Direct Train" pilot units by the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation (one of 3 units).
5. Linking Internal and External Resources: Cultivating a First-Class Sci-Tech Innovation Ecosystem
Standing at the new starting point of its second anniversary, the Office of Science and Technology Development, Peking University and the Peking University Alumni Association have jointly launched the INNO-YES, which includes eight components with their core functions clarified:INNO-YES Lab (concept verification), Yanyuan International Sci-Tech Innovation Competition (project recruitment), INNO-YES Incubator (enterprise incubation), Yanyuan Fund (early investment), INNO-YES HUB (talent aggregation), INNO-YESSci-Tech Innovation Review (think tank service), INNO-YES Salon (communication platform), INNO-YES Public Welfare (public lectures & science popularization). As the leading implementation unit, the Center actively coordinates internal and external sci-tech innovation resources to build a systematic, professional, brand-oriented, and international Peking University-based sci-tech service platform. This is also a key measure to deepen achievement transformation and implement the "high-efficiency one-stop full-process management" during the 2025 "Peking University Sci-Tech Innovation Year". The Center will jointly build and share these components with Peking University's off-campus research institutions, alumni service platforms, and ecosystem partners.
Up to now:For the "INNO-YES Lab" component, a number of local governments and leading enterprises have expressed interest in cooperating on concept verification funds or bases;The "Yanyuan International Sci-Tech Innovation Competition" has been launched first in Lingang (Shanghai) and will later expand to several cities at home and abroad to continuously gather high-quality projects and high-level talents; The headquarters of " INNO-YES Incubator" has been established in DH3 Building of Dinghao (Beijing). It has already formed strategic cooperation with well-known institutions such as Beijing Venture Capital, Shanghai Sci-Tech Group, Guangzhou Financial Holdings Fund, Shenzhen Angel Mother Fund, Huatai United Securities, CSC Financial Co., Ltd., and has completed the selection of the first batch of high-quality incubated projects. In the future, INNO-YES Incubator will further leverage the collaborative innovation advantages of Beijing and Shanghai, enhance its platform function of aggregating and incubating early-stage projects, and serve Peking University’s off-campus research institutions (including the Center), alumni’s sci-tech innovation and entrepreneurship, and local economic development;"Yanyuan Fund" will further explore and invest in high-quality projects through mechanisms such as "incubation-investment linkage" and "grant-investment linkage";"INNO-YES HUB" has gathered sci-tech talents and industrial talents, forming a preliminary community scale; "INNO-YES Sci-Tech Innovation Review" serves as a think tank for achievement transformation to support industrial development;"INNO-YES Salon" provides a communication space for Peking University teachers, students, alumni, and friends of the university; "INNO-YES Public Welfare" will continue to launch public welfare lectures, science popularization activities, and industrial forums, and contribute to the university’s development in due course.
In the future, the Center will continue to be rooted in Peking University, oriented towards industries, and build a platform for exchanging and aggregating global high-quality sci-tech innovation resources. It will promote in-depth integration of sci-tech innovation and industrial innovation, provide in-depth services for sci-tech achievement transformation, accelerate the development of new quality productive forces, and strive to become a source of original innovation, a gathering place for first-class talents, an incubator for high-quality achievements, and a cradle for high-end industries.
