Innovative Talent Department Director of Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute (Xiamen) Tu Conghui
All the busy takeoff and landing airplanes in Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport will pass by the towering tall buildings around it. The science and innovation park in Huli District is located in the field where you can look up at the air route. Six years ago, Fujian native person Tu Conghui who graduated from Tsinghua University earlier flew back to Xiamen from this route and came to Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute (Xiamen) in this science and innovation park, and this made her feel a wonderful fate.
Tu Conghui is the Innovative Talent Department Director of Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute (Xiamen) and the Executive Deputy General Manager of Tshinghua Innovation (Xiamen) Investment Management Co., Ltd. As a graduate of Tsinghua University, the most first-class university in China, she continued her relationship with “Tsinghua” in Huli District, Xiamen. At the beginning, she felt that she had become a “student” in another sense.
As the birthplace of Xiamen Special Economic Zone, Huli District has officially started the exploration of “science and technology innovation ecology” in recent years. The surrounding old industrial zone has been continuously transformed and upgraded into the science and innovation park. A modern science innovation city is rising in Huli. Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute (Xiamen) also came into being in 2015, and has become an important engine of this scientific innovation field.
Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute (Xiamen)
Tu Conghui is very familiar with the eight words “Continuous self-improvement and moral support” when walking into the institute, which is the motto of Tsinghua University. Now it seems to coincide with the “key words” science and technology innovation in Huli District.
Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute (Xiamen) is the fifth local research institute jointly built with Tsinghua University after Shenzhen, Beijing, Hebei and Zhejiang. It uses the talents and technological advantages of Tsinghua and Xiamen to set up key laboratories in semiconductor technology, medical engineering, new energy and new materials, biomedicine, ecological environment, big data and artificial intelligence, and set up joint research centers, enclave R&D center, industrial innovation center, public service platform, technology transfer center, innovation and entrepreneurship incubation base, etc.
Tu Conghui came here in the second year of the founding of the research institute. What made her has a “student” mentality again is that she had many specific topics in front of her. Huli District is the earliest “experimental field” for the construction of Xiamen Special Economic Zone. From the construction of the special zone when the Foreign-funded enterprises poured in, to the present when the special economic zone, the free trade experimental zone, the independent innovation demonstration zone, the import trade demonstration zone, the cross-strait integration development demonstration zone and other national strategies are superimposed here. The content of institutional innovation, financial innovation and trade innovation is very sufficient, which is also the core reason for attracting the Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute to settle here.
However, although domestic and foreign scientific and technological talents such as Tu Conghui came to join us, without financial support and continuous model innovation and only had talents and scientific and technological achievements in the initial stage of the Institute, the talents might not be able to stay, and the achievements might not be able to transform as smoothly as expected.
This is also a subject and a test for the science and innovation policy of Huli District Government. In the face of the new wave of science and innovation that is vigorous and iterative, we must have stronger policy flexibility and more flexible combination of “fighting methods” to make the Golden Phoenix more “poetic” to live on the Chinese parasol tree.
Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute is one of the key “problem breakers” in Huli District to explore a new model for the development of science and innovation industries. The mission of the institute is different from the previous lengthy statement, but it has a sense of scene: “Bridge, Cradle, Ecology”. These six words are extremely consistent with the underlying logic of science and innovation policy innovation of the Huli District Government.
What kind of strong support and unobstructed deck does a bridge need? How can a cradle effectively incubate the most healthy and dynamic enterprises and projects? In fact, everything is closely related to “ecology”. Here, Tu Conghui and her science and innovation partners quickly learned how to create a science and innovation “highland” quickly and effectively in a few years, with the integration and unification of multiple elements of “government, industry, university research funds”.
In 2018, the first Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute industrial matching sub-fund was signed. In 2019, the cross-strait semiconductor industry fund was initiated and established. In 2020, Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute Holding Fund Company Tshinghua Strait was established. Relying on the advantages of science and technology, talent and resources of Tsinghua University, industrial chain of Xiamen, the fund focuses on investing in semiconductor, big data, artificial intelligence, big health and other fields. We will help more scientific and technological achievements transformation and projects settlement in Xiamen.
On the basis of “production, learning and research” mode of the traditional Chinese science and innovation park, two keywords, “politics” and “gold” were added, and a new chess game immediately became more and more lively. The enterprises established by Tsinghua alumni are generally excellent in technology, while the market and capital may become weak areas. By consolidating and strengthening the weak areas, the transformation efficiency of high-tech achievements has improved, and the power of “role models” has also brought more high-quality projects, enterprises and talents.
Yes, if you take a look at the enterprises and projects incubated in the “cradle” of Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute, you will feel that you have entered a “future world” in advance: unattended and unmanned “transparent workshop”, medical 3D printing technology, zero carbon smart energy digital technology, and “mysterious” restoration technology that can repair the late Egyptian Dynasty paintings, Of course, there must be the most popular “Meta-verse” digital twin PAAD tool chain.
As one of the participants and promoters of this “future world”, Tu Conghui believes that getting benefit from the policy support of Xiamen City and Huli District, the number of enterprises and talents settled in Cross-strait Tshinghua Research Institute (Xiamen) has been increasing in just a few years, which is a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. In this process, people no longer just call Huli District an “industrial zone”, or simply remember its past glory as the “birthplace of Xiamen Special Economic Zone”. Now, when people talking about the characteristics and labels of the industrial development in Huli District, more attention is paid to integrated circuits, new materials, biomedicine……Each new growth level is welcoming the imagination of the future under the new science and innovation ecology.
In 2022, two ten billion level new energy projects launched in Xiamen Torch High tech Zone. These newly rising new energy “oil field” attract the world’s attention once again. This is also benefit from the exploration of the policy guidance fund, which enables capital and technology to empower enterprises together and attracts high-level innovative and entrepreneurial talents. Xiamen has been selected as “the most attractive and potential Chinese city in the eyes of foreign talents”, and therefore deserves its title.
The economy of Huli in nowadays has greatly increased its export-oriented range, and has basically formed a “five plus one” key industrial system, including advanced manufacturing, trade logistics, new generation information technology, tourism culture and health, emerging finance, and characteristic industry construction, forming an all-round, multi-level, and wide-ranging open economic pattern.
However, Tu Conghui and her partners are more willing to introduce and recommend the concept of “nanny style plus expert” service enterprises here, tell people what “mutual recruitment and mutual introduction” is, and let people know that here not only values “attracting investment”, but also emphasizes “attracting talents and wisdom”. Because they can clearly feel, even compared with just a few years ago, the desire to take root here is naturally revealed from the eager and enthusiastic eyes of alumni and young talents who sit in front of them to negotiate projects.
“Nowadays seeing more and more talents from domestic and abroad returning to their hometown, we will not stop here. We also hope to explore the more novel talent introduction mode for Huli District. For example, to enable high-quality and leap-type development of Huli District, Xiamen by means of “seeking talents from surrounding areas” and “strengthening local professional training in situ incubation and cultivation”.” Tu Conghui said.
In the nearly ten years from 2012 to 2021, the average growth rate of Chinese digital economy is 15.9%, and the application of cutting-edge technologies has spawned many new industries and new driving forces. The science and innovation new mode of cluster, high-end, intelligent and green development in Huli District, Xiamen has provided an enlightened, intelligent and pragmatic example for many old industrial parks in China for accelerating their retirement and transforming into “intelligent manufacturing headquarters”.
