On December 10, the “SRI Silicon Valley Innovation Training Camp” sponsored by QDII was officially opened in Qingdao Oceantec Valley. This camp, as one of the series of activities about achievement commercialization of Qingdao Oceantec Valley, is an innovation incubation training supported by Qingdao Oceantec Valley Administration, National Center for Ocean Technology Transfer, and SRI International. This is the first intensive guidance course after the entry of QDII in Qingdao Oceantec Valley.
More than 70 people attended the opening ceremony, including relevant leaders of Qingdao Oceantec Valley Administration, Ocean University of China (OUC) and Qingdao Equity and Venture Capital Association, as well as project representatives and the media.
Wang Yongjian, Deputy Director of the Qingdao Oceantec Valley Administration, said in his speech that the Qingdao Oceantec Valley Administration and SRI International reached a cooperation agreement in 2018 to jointly establish the QDII, in a bid to introduce the US Silicon Valley model to establish an incubator and carry out innovation training for the whole country. Qingdao Oceantec Valley will intensify efforts to promote policy innovation, optimize supporting services, create a top-level environment with core competitiveness, and strive to provide other institutions like QDII and talents in Qingdao Oceantec Valley with “conditions for innovation, a stage for entrepreneurship, and opportunities for development”.
At the opening ceremony, Dr. Huang Yannong, CEO of QDII, introduced the schedule and course content of the camp. He said that he’d like to sincerely welcome companies and teams with new technologies and unique business models to join in the SRI Silicon Valley Innovation Training Camp. The selected projects will be incubated for 3-6 months in the SRI system. Finally, quality projects with international market will be sent to the headquarters of SRI International in Silicon Valley, the USA, to participate in a venture capital preparation program lasting 1 or 2 weeks. They will conduct business negotiations with entrepreneurs and venture capitals in Silicon Valley to seek investments and gain international resources.
It is introduced that the innovation mentors leading the camp are Claude Leglise, CEO of SRI International's Global Innovation Leadership Center, and Andy Switky and Atsuko Hoshizumi, Innovation Partners of the Global Innovation Leadership Center.
The 38 projects participating in the camp were selected by SRI International as they stood out from more than a hundred projects proposed by research institutes , quality innovation enterprises, and national-level high-tech enterprises in different cities, as well as 985 and 211 universities in Qingdao.
The projects include automated marine equipment surface cleaning robot, Juta data, Poseidon’s Eye - intelligent underwater robot, special anti-scaling anti-wax alloy and its device technology, robotic metal parts grinding system, etc., covering several major technical directions such as marine intelligent manufacturing, new materials, and AI. During the five-day training, three experts from Silicon Valley will conduct comprehensive analysis and targeted guidance in two batches to sort out their key elements such as market positioning, technology marketing, user channels and business models.
Moreover, the Qingdao Oceantec Valley policy promotion session will be set up to accelerate the project implementation in QDII. QDII will provide the use of public office areas, professional teams’ assistance on laws and taxation, investment and financing opportunities, and alignment of government policy resources, to contribute to the industrialization of sci-tech achievements.
QDII will focus on the following two points in the future: The first is to recruit scientists and entrepreneurs who have some new technology and business ideas and seek help in developing a successful corporate and business plan from Qingdao, Shandong, and other places of China. QDII applies the best industrialization method of SRI International and Silicon Valley to provide guidance for the teams to establish a business in Qingdao. The second is that fast-growing or mature medium-sized international companies can rapidly expand their business by providing solutions based on the demands of the Chinese market. QDII will help companies locate partners, establish legal entities, arrange office space, and coordinate funds and government preferential policies (tax reduction, land, support funds, etc.). Similarly, QDII will also help Qingdao-based companies to gain overseas resources to compete in the international market.