The following document, issued by the PRC Ministry of Education in 2016, establishes guidelines for how Chinese universities should convert their research breakthroughs into commercial or otherwise practical use. The document offers suggestions regarding the tricky problem of how to appraise the value of technological innovations, and attempts both to allow university professors to serve part-time or as adjuncts at corporations and to prevent the conflicts of interest that can arise from such arrangements.
The Chinese source text is available online at: https://web.archive.org/web/20201120010828/http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2017/content_5191706.htm
To the education departments (or education commissions) and science and technology (S&T) departments (or S&T commissions) of all provinces, autonomous regions and province-level municipalities, to the Education Bureau and the Science and Technology Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and to institutions of higher education directly under the Ministry of Education:
In accordance with the Law on Promoting the Conversion of Scientific and Technological Achievements, Certain Regulations on Implementing the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on Promoting the Conversion of Scientific and Technological Achievements” of the State Council, and the Action Plan for Promoting the Transfer and Conversion of Scientific and Technological Achievements of the General Office of the State Council, taking into account the actual circumstances of institutes of higher learning (“universities”), the following opinions are put forward in order to deeply implement the spirit of Several Opinions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and the State Council on Deepening the Reform of Systems and Mechanisms to Accelerate the Implementation of the Innovation-Driven Development Strategy, Opinions of the CCP Central Committee on Deepening the Reform of Talent Development Systems and Mechanisms, and Notice of the General Office of the CCP Central Committee on Issuing the Implementation Plan for Deepening S&T Structural Reform, and to push universities to accelerate the transfer and conversion of S&T achievements into practical applications (科技成果转移转化).