At the critical juncture of the transition between old and new driving forces, there is a long-standing problem that troubles the industry: China has a huge number of patent applications and research funding, but the conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements, which is a core indicator of innovation efficiency, still lags behind developed countries in Europe and America. The conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements in our country has increased from 25% in 2010 to 35%, but there is still a gap compared to developed countries. ”Ma Weihua, Chairman of the National Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Guidance Fund, publicly stated at a forum this year. There is a gap called the 'Valley of Death' between the 'samples' in the laboratory and the' goods' on the production line. In Shanghai, a professional group known as "technology managers" and a group of new technology service institutions are trying to bridge this gap and become key "ferryman" connecting the innovation chain and the industrial chain. Upgrading from a "technology matchmaker" to a specialized technology transfer institution called a "scientist partner" is a key entity in promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and facilitating the market-oriented allocation of technological elements. However, traditional technology transfer institutions face many difficulties in promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and promoting their own development due to common problems such as weak professional capabilities and single sources of income. How to form a virtuous cycle of its own is what Shanghai has been exploring in recent years. At present, Shanghai is promoting the emergence of various service entities such as technology trading venues, technology transfer functional platforms, market-oriented and specialized technology transfer institutions, and carrying out innovative models such as "incubation investment combination", "service for equity", and "technology managers serving as CEOs" to break through the bottleneck of service value. A survey by First Financial found that a new type of service institutions are emerging in Shanghai. These institutions have surpassed the simple docking model of traditional "technology matchmakers" and upgraded to "scientist partners", playing roles such as innovative discovery, value co creation, venture capital, and resource integration. They accompany scientific researchers throughout the process of transforming their achievements, effectively breaking through the value bottleneck of traditional technology services. Typical institutions represented by Shanghai Guoke Xinyan International Technology Transfer Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guoke Xinyan") and Shanghai Tanjiu Technology Transfer Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tanjiu") are breaking through the service boundaries of traditional technology transfer institutions, exploring the establishment of "achievement transformation clinics", innovating the "incubation investment combination" model, and appointing technical managers to sink projects, effectively breaking through key bottlenecks in achievement transformation. Zou Tao, founding partner of TanJiu Technology, introduced to First Financial that they have served in the fields of AI, robotics, advanced manufacturing, new materials, biomanufacturing, life and health, environmental ESG, etc. for over 5 years, with more than 300 projects involved in achievement transformation, technology transfer, and incubation investment cases; Among them, the registration of achievement transformation contracts and the total amount of technology transactions reached nearly 2 billion yuan, and the incubated project enterprises achieved a cumulative market-oriented financing amount of over 2.6 billion yuan, with a total project valuation of over 12 billion yuan. Taking the natural product synthetic biology project they facilitated as an example, although the technical founders of the project are two academicians who have mastered internationally leading biosynthetic technology after more than ten years of research and development, the founding team is composed of well-known academicians and technical experts, showing obvious shortcomings in product and commercial landing capabilities and energy. As the project incubation party and business operation team, we participated in the implementation incubation and operational empowerment of the entire project chain, and served as company directors, leading the company's achievement transformation, technology transfer, concept verification, previous financing, commercial operation, and pilot platform construction. ”Zou Tao introduced that since the establishment of the company in 2021, they have assisted the company in completing three rounds of financing, with a total financing amount of nearly 100 million yuan. They have also completed the construction of the first natural product biomanufacturing demonstration line in China and been selected as one of the first national level biomanufacturing pilot capacity building platforms. Their production products have been applied in actual products by multiple leading enterprises. He explained to reporters that a body entirely composed of technical teams, even if the initial results are transformed and a landing company is formed, without subsequent incubation and empowerment from the perspective of investment banks to examine the industrialization process, still cannot cross the "Darwin Sea" in the process of technology transformation. Technology, business, and capital are indispensable iron triangles in technology transfer and transformation. With technological strength alone, or even with the combination of industry, academia, and research, without the dual efforts of technology managers and project managers, as well as the deep involvement of technology investment banking teams accompanying incubation, research teams still find it difficult to independently, quickly, and effectively turn technology into high-value products and achieve technology commercialization. With the deepening involvement of specialized technology transfer institutions, the business model of Shanghai's technology service industry is undergoing a qualitative change, bidding farewell to the traditional model of relying on technology trading revenue and financial subsidies, and accelerating the transformation towards a technology investment bank model with value elements as the core. This professional service path that focuses on the cultivation of early science and technology innovation projects is solving the problem of technology transformation through a closed loop of "technology value exploration+incubation empowerment+operation execution+3C talent dispatch+capital operation". The transformation of achievements requires crossing two 'valleys of death' from technology to product and from product to commercialization, and must build a four in one investment banking service platform of 'technology manager+concept verification+financial empowerment+industry explosion'. ”Tong Yanhui, founder of Guoke New Research, said. In response to the pain point of the general lack of composite transformation talents in the industry, the company positions technology managers as "investment bank project leaders" and launches the "technology manager concurrently serving as CEO" model - allowing technology managers to establish deep collaborative relationships with research teams from the project screening stage, fully leading technology value evaluation, patent layout, and transformation path design, and directly serving as the acting CEO of entrepreneurial enterprises, coordinating core management affairs such as team building, business plan formulation, and operational architecture construction, becoming the "science and technology innovation investment bank entrepreneurial partner" connecting the research and capital ends. In the post investment empowerment of the innovative drug technology platform project, the advantages of this technology investment banking model have been demonstrated. In addition to providing basic services for patent packaging and transfer, they also provide top-level architecture design, pipeline planning, matching with multi-dimensional elements such as commercialization, clinical, technology, and capital, and subsequent infrastructure construction and product promotion to escort technology from the laboratory to the capital market. This technology investment bank model not only alleviates the initial financial pressure for researchers to start their own businesses, but also plays a role in the bank's credit endorsement and resource integration, helping enterprises connect with more venture capital. Data shows that since its establishment in 2020, Guoke Xinyan has invested in incubating nearly 20 early-stage projects, with an average of 3-4 new equity targets added annually. The valuation of incubated projects has increased by 10-20 times, and has helped companies raise nearly 2 billion yuan in financing. Technical managers are the technology service institutions behind the upgrading and replacement of core assets, and they are the technology achievement transformation ecology constructed by Shanghai's market-oriented mechanism. The traditional mode of technology transfer has long been plagued by a vicious cycle of low efficiency. The head of a technology achievement transformation service agency vividly likened it to: "In the past, the transformation of achievements in universities and hospitals often relied on 'fate' or administrative directive style 'matching'. This inefficiency is first reflected in the mismatch between supply and demand: scientists hold technology to find buyers, while enterprises have demand but dare not start because of obscure patent documents and unverified laboratory data. At the same time, the more core pain point than docking lies in the institutional shackles of "pricing and compliance" - how to price intangible assets of public institutions without involving the loss of state-owned assets? How to distribute the profits of scientists legally and compliantly? How to break through these bottlenecks and provide opportunities for professional service agencies to enter. What we are doing now is giving technology a 'bath' and 'packaging'. ”The person in charge explained. A primitive technology needs to undergo intellectual property cleaning (to ensure no disputes), evaluation of technological maturity, verification of commercial scenarios, and even require service institutions to advance funds for concept validation before it can become a tradable "target" in the market. In this ecosystem, technology managers are the core asset. Against the backdrop of promoting the "full chain" reform of technology transfer in Shanghai, technology managers are no longer simply "matchmakers", but rather composite "product managers". Relying on platforms such as the National Technology Transfer Talent Training Base, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, and the National Technology Transfer Eastern Center provide professional courses and training bases for academic education and non academic technical manager training in the field of technology transfer. Priority is given to providing internship technical managers for reform pilot units. The picture shows the Golden Leaf of the Eastern Center. Zou Shujun, the CEO of the Eastern Center, told First Financial reporters that behind the increase in data conversion of achievements in Shanghai in the past two years, in addition to the role of empowerment reform, there is also the growth of a large number of technical managers. He introduced that in the past two years, the Eastern Center has increased its efforts to cultivate technology managers. Currently, it has cooperated with 8 universities in Shanghai to offer degree education courses related to technology transfer. At the same time, in order to better cooperate and benefit from market-oriented and enterprise technology managers, it has also applied to establish the first technology management firm in Shanghai. The directions discussed by scientists and entrepreneurs are still quite different. We (technology managers) need to do a good job in translation and implement each one. Shanghai also favors this group of professionals engaged in professional services, and plays a "combination punch" to cultivate and develop a professional team of technology managers. In the 2025 "Eastern Talent Plan", for the first time, a technology transfer field will be established separately, forming a complete talent echelon of "young, top-notch, and leading"; In the evaluation of professional titles in the fields of economics, natural sciences, and engineering in Shanghai, disciplines or directions related to technical managers have been established to connect career development paths; At the same time, technology managers who have achieved significant market performance will be directly included in the scope of talent introduction and settlement, systematically enhancing their professional identity and social status. (New Society)