Several Measures for the Management Committee of Foshan High-tech Industrial Development Zone to Improve Innovation Capability and Optimize Innovation Environment

Several Measures for the Management Committee of Foshan High-tech Industrial Development Zone to Improve Innovation Capability and Optimize Innovation Environment

In order to implement the "Opinions of the People's Government of Guangdong Province on Promoting the High-Quality Development of High-tech Industrial Development Zones" (People's Government of Guangdong Province [2019] No. 28), and the spirit of "Notice on the People's Government of Foshan Municipal Government on Printing and Distributing Several Policy Measures for Foshan's Comprehensive Construction of a National Innovative City to Promote Scientific and Technological Innovation (People's Government of Foshan Municipal [2019] No. 1), benchmark world-class high-tech parks and further leverage the core carrier and engine function of the Foshan High-tech Industrial Development Zone (hereinafter referred to as Foshan High-tech Zone) in the high-quality development of Foshan, promote the construction of Foshan High-tech Zone into an innovation-driven development demonstration zone, a cluster of emerging industries, a leading zone for transformation and upgrading, and a pioneering zone for high-quality development, contribute to the construction of an international technological innovation center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, increase support and the following policy measures will be formulated on the basis of relevant municipal policies.

1. Enhance corporate innovation capabilities

(1) Encourage enterprises to increase investment in research and development, and declare tax deductions for research and development expenses and financial subsidies for research and development expenses in accordance with policies. For enterprises that receive an annual research and development subsidy of more than 100,000 yuan, a post-subsidy will be given at 20% of the municipal science and technology financial subsidy.

(2) Support enterprises to buildresearch and development (R&D) institutions. Explore the establishment standards of enterprise R&D institutions, and improve the level of R&D institutions of high-tech enterprises above designated level; encourage qualified enterprises to build enterprise research institutes, and grant funding of 1 million to 3 million yuan for each approved enterprise research institute according to different levels; support leading enterprises to build benchmark R&D institutions, and provide one-time funding of 1 million yuan and 500,000 yuan for the approved high-tech zone benchmark laboratories and benchmark engineering (technology) centers respectively; a one-time post-subsidy of up to 1 million yuan and 5 million yuan will be given to the approved construction of provincial-level or above (enterprises) key laboratories, joint engineering laboratories (research centers), and industrial (manufacturing, technology) innovation centers respectively at the provincial and national levels; a one-time subsidy of 2 million yuan will be given to institutions approved to build national enterprise technology centers.

(3) Promote the opening and sharing of innovative resources, and promote the integration and development of large, small and medium-sized enterprises; build a big data platform for scientific research instruments to provide small and medium-sized enterprises with scientific research infrastructure and large-scale scientific research equipment sharing services, and reduce the innovation costs of small and medium-sized enterprises; the industrial technology innovation alliances and high-tech enterprise innovation alliances that are headquartered in the high-tech zone and recognized by science and technology departments above the municipal level will be given a post-subsidy of up to 500,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan respectively.

(4) Support enterprises to carry out major scientific research projects to improvethe scientific research level and core technology research capabilities; for enterprises and institutions that undertake major provincial and national scientific and technological projects, a maximum post-subsidy of 1 million yuan and 5 million yuan will be granted according to 50% of the amount of financial support from the project department.

2. Develop high-tech to cultivate emerging industries

(5) Improve the full life cycle services of high-tech enterprises, promote the agglomeration and growth of high-tech industries; promote the development of small and medium-sized enterprises with "profession, specialization, specialty and innovation", cultivate specialized "little giants" in subdivisions, and provide a post-subsidy of 300,000 yuan for the newly recognized single champion of manufacturing enterprises; establish a high-tech zone gazelle enterprise bank to cultivate a group of high-tech enterprises with fast growth and strong innovation capabilities, and a post-subsidy of 250,000 yuan will be given to the newly recognized gazelle enterprises.

(6) Establish a number of high-quality developmentleading enterprises; refer to the Torch Program Evaluation System of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and focus on the torch statistics of the high-tech zone enterprises to carry out the classification and evaluation of knowledge creation and technological innovation, industrial upgrading and structural optimization, internationalization and participation in global competition; a post-subsidy of 1 million yuan will be given to companies ranked 1-3, a post-subsidy of 500,000 yuan for companies ranked 4-15, and a post-subsidy of 200,000 yuan for companies ranked 16-30; employees participating in the statistical reporting of the unified enterprises shall be given a post-subsidy of up to 1,500 yuan. The post-subsidy funds can be used to reward teams and individuals for business management, R&D and production, and outstanding contributions.

(7) Promote the intelligent manufacturing transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry in the high-tech zone, build a batch of demonstration factories with flexible, intelligent, and refined production capabilities, and grant up to 500,000 yuan and 1 million yuan subsidy respectively to enterprises selected as provincial and national intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstrations; carry out the cultivation of smart factories and "lighthouse factories" for the manufacturing industry in the high-tech zone, guide leading enterprises to establish a world-class intelligent manufacturing standard system, and for those who are approved to build smart factories or "lighthouse factories" in the high-tech zone, each will be given 1 million yuan in subsidies, and a one-time subsidy of 10 million yuan will be given to enterprise internationally recognized as a "lighthouse factory" by renowned institutions or organizations.

(8)Increase support for companies with new industries, new formats, new models, and new technological characteristics, and cultivate a group of unicorn companies with high international influence by category step by step; one-time subsidies of 1 million yuan, 5 million yuan, and 10 million yuan will be given to seeded unicorn companies, potential unicorn companies, and newly recognized unicorn companies respectively.

(9) Support the development of pilot demonstrations ofpioneer technology application scenarios; take the lead to promote the use of new-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, big data, block chain, new energy and other technologies in the high-tech zone, and promote the accelerated development of emerging industries; 1 million yuan financial support will be given to each project included in the pilot demonstration.

3. Build a regional innovation platform

(10) Support the branch parks of the high-tech zone to buildfeatured parks with distinctive characteristics of leading industries, distinctive agglomeration effects, strong space carrying capacity, professional operation and management, and complete service supporting facilities in accordance with their industrial positioning. A one-time support fund of 2 million yuan will be given to those approved by the National Green Ecological Demonstration City; a one-time support fund of 1 million yuan will be given to those approved by the Guangdong Green Ecological Demonstration Zone; a support fund of 1 million yuan will be given to professional parks and featured industrial bases licensed or approved by relevant national apartments.

(11) Support the construction of large-scale comprehensive research institutes and innovation centers. The high-tech zone will give a highest support fund of 10 million yuan to each large-scale comprehensive research institute and innovation center that are newly built by the municipal government in cooperation with top domestic and foreign colleges and universities, and finally settled in the high-tech zone. What’s more, the research institute or innovation center will be given a highest financial support of 3 million yuan in the year it settled down.

(12) Support enterprises and high-level research institutions to build a high-end collaborative innovation platform that hasdistinctive driving effects on the industry development, and promote the in-depth integration of industry, university, research, and application surrounding the new development needs of major industrial innovation. According to the proportion of no more than 10% of the total project investment, the annual financial support shall not exceed 2 million yuan, and the continuous support shall not exceed 3 years.

(13) Support the construction of high-level new R&D institutions.Strongly cultivate new-type R&D institutions, a one-time subsidy of 200,000 yuan will be given to the recognized provincial new-type R&D institutions; a one-time subsidy of 500,000 yuan will be given to the recognized high-level provincial new-type R&D institutions.

4. Create a hot-spot to gather talents

(14) Support enterprises and institutions to introduce high-level talents. Newly introduce full-time Nobel Prize winners, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, and strategic scientists, who are among the world's leading levels and discuss each matter and deal with special matters. A one-time subsidy of 30,000 yuan per person and 10,000 yuan per person for talent introduction will be given to employers newly-introducing talents of senior professional title (or doctoral degree) and intermediate professional title (or master degree) who have signed and fulfilled a work contract for more than three years on the basis of municipal financial assistance to individuals. Set up doctoral research start-up projects, elite youth research projects and outstanding youth research projects, highlighting the precise support of talent gradient training.

(15) Increase funding for "high-tech technology" talent teams. 25% of the provincial financial subsidy will be given to the newly introduced provincial innovation and entrepreneurship teams; scientific research funding will be provided to newly introduced distinguished professors of "Changjiang Scholars Award Program", national experts of "Overseas High-level Talent Introduction Program", selected leading talents of "Pearl River Talent Program", and leaders in key disciplines of universities and colleges to carry out scientific research projects; a maximum of 2 million yuan subsidy will be given to talent team projects that are invested by private equity funds and newly settled in the high-tech zone according to 50% of the actual investment; a one-time subsidy of 1 million yuan and 500,000 yuan will be respectively given to the talent team projects settling in the high-tech zone that won the first and second prizes of the National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and the Foshan High-tech Zone Overseas Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Finals.

(16) Encourage enterprises and institutions to establish various innovative talent platforms. 500,000 yuan, 200,000 yuan, and 100,000 yuan subsidieswill be provided to the establishment of new postdoctoral workstations, corporate postdoctoral workstation substations, and postdoctoral innovation practice bases respectively; support large-scale backbone enterprises to build new corporate universities, and 1 million yuan subsidy will be given to each institution included in the construction and cultivation.

(17) Support the construction of talent service platforms, encourage the construction of high-level talent industrial parks and human resource service industrial parks, and encourage well-known talent service organizations at home and abroad to establish headquarters or branches inthe high-tech zone. 500,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan will be given to the world's top 500 human resource service companies for the establishment of headquarters or branches; 300,000 yuan and 150,000 yuan will be given to the domestic top 100 human resources service companies for the establishment of headquarters or branches; 200,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan will be granted to vice president of Guangdong Human Resources Industry Association or above, vice president of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other urban industry associations or above for the establishment of headquarters or branches.

5. Strengthen the construction of innovation incubator carriers

(18) Encourage well-known enterprises to build innovation incubator carriers in the high-tech zone, and encourage enterprises, universities and research institutes in the high-tech zone to transform spare factories, office buildings, and vacant land into innovation incubators. In accordance with the principle of two-way restraint, a subsidy of up to 3 million yuan will be given to newly built makerspace based on 50% of the actual cost of construction and renovation of necessary construction; Newly built technology business incubators over 5,000 square meters and scientific and technological enterprise accelerators over 10,000 square meters will be given three-year venue decoration and operating expense subsidies, whose total amount will be 50% of the actual costs of venue decoration and operation and shall not exceed 5 million yuan.

(19) Support the construction of high-quality innovation incubator carriers; 500,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan subsidies will be granted to newly recognized national technology business incubators and national technology business incubation units; a subsidy of 200,000 yuan will be given to the newly filed national makerspace; a one-time subsidy of 200,000 yuan will be given to the top five in the annual performance evaluation of the high-tech business incubator and the maker space in the high-tech zone, of which 50% will be given to the best contributor in the operating team.

(20) Encourage outstanding incubators abroad (overseas) to carry out international innovation projects and the introduction and incubation of innovative talents for the high-tech zone, and a post-subsidy of up to 500,000 yuan is provided for those established branches or joined cooperative units to carry out incubation services; foreign (overseas) incubators invested in or operated high-tech business incubators in the high-tech zone will receive a post-subsidy of 1 million yuan; a post-subsidy of 1 million will be given to enterprises and institutions in the high-tech zone to set up offshore incubators outside the country (border).

(21) Support innovation incubation carriers to implement cluster registration for incubating enterprises and provide residential custody services. A one-time subsidy of 100,000 yuan will be given to innovation and entrepreneurship carriers providing custody services to more than 30 incubating enterprises, and a subsidy of 10,000 yuan will be given for every additional 10 companies, and the maximum amount will not exceed 1 million yuan per year after successive increases.

(22) Support the construction of innovation and entrepreneurship service platforms for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. A one-time subsidy of 1 million yuan and 500,000 yuan will be given to recognized national and provincial public service demonstration platform for small and medium-sized enterprises, a public technical service demonstration platform for small and medium-sized enterprises, a demonstration base for innovation and industrialization of private enterprises (SMEs), and a demonstration base for entrepreneurship and innovation of small and micro enterprises, according to the national and provincial levels.

6. Promote the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements

(23) Support enterprises, universities and scientific research institutes to establish online and offline scientific and technological achievements transfer and transformation platforms in the high-tech zone; a one-time subsidy of 100,000 yuan will be given to the scientific and technological achievements transfer and transformation cultivation units in the high-tech zone; a one-time subsidy of 500,000 yuan will be given to national technology transfer demonstration institutions recognized by the Ministry of Science and Technology; a one-time subsidy of 200,000 yuan will be given to national technology transfer demonstration institutions that set up branches in the high-tech zone.

(24) Support enterprises to undertake and transform scientific and technological achievements of universities, scientific research institutes and other institutions through the transfer of achievements and technology shareholding.A post-subsidy according to 50% of the municipal financial technology transaction funding will be given to projects with obvious industrialization effects; a post-subsidy of up to 3 million yuan within 10% of the investment will be given to enterprises undertaking completed and untransformed scientific research achievements of major national science and technology projects with the industrialization investment exceeding 30 million yuan; a maximum of 500,000 yuan will be given to each project that has successfully completed the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements organized by relevant national, provincial and municipal departments and implemented the transformation in Foshan.

(25) Support the construction of the service team for the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and grant 5,000 yuan to each employee in the high-tech zone whois identified as the municipal technical broker special commissioners; a post-subsidy will be given at 50% of the municipal financial bonus to the technical contract registration points that have won the technical contract registration bonus according to their services in the high-tech zone.

7. Promote the deep integration of technology and finance

(26) Encourage the gathering and development of equity investment institutions, and a subsidy of 500,000 yuan will be given to equity investment funds or equity investment management companies newly settled in the high-tech zone; a subsidy up to 500,000 yuan will be given to settled financial leasing companies to actively develop the financial leasing industry; a one-time subsidy of 300,000 yuan will be given to listed companies or their absolute holding subsidiaries, large backbone companies, backup backbone companies, and NEEQ companies that initiate and establish qualified equity investment funds; a one-time subsidy of 100,000 yuan will be given to the newly recognized science and technology branch to support commercial banks to establish technology sub-branch in the high-tech zone.

(27)A subsidy of up to 1 million yuan will be given based on 5% of the financing amount to the companies that have obtained equity investment of more than 1 million yuan to support corporate equity financing; a post-subsidy of 100,000 yuan will be given to the investment institutions that have held shares for more than 2 years with an average actual investment of over one million (inclusive) yuan per company; a cumulative post-subsidy of each investment institution shall not exceed 500,000 yuan.

(28)According to stages and progress, a post-subsidy of up to 4 million yuan will be provided to companies to be listed to support enterprises to go public and raise funds; a one-time subsidy of 200,000 yuan will be given to enterprises listed on the "New OTC Market" for the first time.

8. Encourage the creation and protection of intellectual property rights

(29) Encourage enterprises to strengthen the creation, use, protection and management of intellectual property rights, anda post-subsidy of 250,000 yuan and 150,000 yuan will be given to enterprises that have obtained national intellectual property demonstration and superiority; a 250,000 yuan, 150,000 yuan, and 100,000 yuan post-subsidy will be given to the gold award, silver award and excellence award winning projects in national patents (including design) competition respectively.

(30) Funding, 50% of the municipal financial subsidy, will be given to PCT international patent applications of enterprises in the high-tech zone to support enterprises to strengthen their patent distribution.

(31) A subsidy of 250,000 yuan will be provided to enterprises and institutions for each international standard formulation, and a subsidy of 150,000 yuan will go to the top 10 assisting in the formulation to support enterprises and institutions to lead and assist in the formulation of technical standards with independent intellectual property rights; a subsidy of 150,000 yuan will be given to those leading in the formulation of each national standard and a subsidy of 80,000 yuan will be given to the top 5 assisting in the formulation .

(32) Encouragethe settlement of well-known intellectual property service organizations at home and abroad to improve the level of professional intellectual property services in the high-tech zone. A one-time subsidy of 100,000 yuan will be given to newly established patent agencies; a one-time subsidy of 50,000 yuan will be given to to newly established branches of patent agencies. A subsidy of 2,000 yuan will be given to enterprises for each authorized domestic invention patents in the high-tech zone represented by the patent agency.

9. Link with international innovation resources

(33) Attract leading global innovative companies to build regional headquarters and R&D centers in the high-tech zone, support overseas first-class institutes and R&D institutions to set up R&D centers in the high-tech zone, support scientific and international technological organizations and international service organizations to set up branches in the high-tech zone,and provide a one-time subsidy of no more than 5 million yuan to each unit. Encourage companies to set up overseas R&D institutions and overseas innovation centers. A one-time support of no more than 1 million yuan and an accumulative maximum of 3 million yuan each year will be provided to each branch.

(34) Support enterprises and institutions to participate in international scientific and technological innovation cooperation, and provide supporting support for enterprises and institutions that have obtained national and provincial international scientific and technological innovation cooperation projects according to the amount of national and provincial funding of 1:0.5, up to a maximum of 2 million yuan.

(35) Strengthen the docking of employment and entrepreneurship resources in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and link with Hong Kong youth employment and entrepreneurship institutions. A post subsidy of 20% of the city’s financial subsidy will be given to encourage Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao youth innovation and entrepreneurship bases to settle in the high-tech zone.

10. Create an atmosphere of innovation and entrepreneurship

(36) Support school-enterprise alliances, provide enterprise employees and students with educational qualifications promotion and internship practice platforms, expand the popularity and social influence of universities, and realizea win-win situation for enterprise, employees, students, and universities with the mode of famous enterprises-famous schools mutual benefit cooperation. A respective subsidy of 100,000 yuan will be given to enterprises that have established internship bases for college students and colleges and universities that have established training bases for their employees.

(37) Support enterprises, institutions, industrial trade associations, societies and other institutions to hold non-profit industry activities and academic conferences with great influence in the high-tech zone to promote entrepreneurial innovation exchanges and cooperation. A best subsidy up to 100,000 yuan and an annual subsidy up to 300,000 yuan for each unit will be provided to the activities filed by the Management Committee preferentially.

(38)Strengthen scientific and technological awards, and grant subsidy to enterprises and institutions as the first completing unit of provincial-level or above science and technology award winning projects in the high-tech zone. A subsidy of 10 million yuan will be provided to national science and technology award; 3 million yuan to the first prize; 2 million yuan to the second prize; 250,000 yuan to the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award; 5 million yuan to the special prize of Guangdong Science and Technology Award; 1 million yuan to the first prize, and 500,000 yuan to the second prize. 100,000 yuan to the science and technology cooperation award; social organizations such as industry associations and societies are encouraged to set up social science and technology awards for high-tech zone.

This policy is valid for three years and will be implemented from November 1, 2019. The Foshan High-tech Zone Management Committee is responsible for the interpretation. The specific application procedures, required materials, and evaluation methods are separately formulated by the Foshan High-tech Zone Management Committee or clarify in the annual declaration guidelines. The required funds shall be arranged by the municipal fiscal budget. The registration place of enterprises, institutions and social organizations that enjoy support and services in this policy must be located in Foshan High-tech Zone. In Foshan High-tech Zone, relevant policies previously formulated by Foshan High-tech Zone inconsistent with this policy, shall take this as the standard.

The CPC and Government Office of Foshan High-tech Industrial Development Zone

Issued on November 1, 2019