Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1298 Cooperation with Oxford

The contradiction between the state and the market is a difficult problem that the whole world is facing.

The social function of the state-run is to meet the needs of the country and realize the interests of the country, but such a function may not meet the needs and interests of ordinary people, which will cause conflicts between the two parties.

In the field of science and technology, it refers to the transformation of technology from academic research to the market.

Lu Qi has worked in the United States for so many years, and this time he has just returned from an inspection trip to three universities near London, and he is deeply touched by this.

There are more than 700 federal scientific research institutions in the United States, such as the National Institutes of Health of the US health system, the American Institute of Standards and Technology under the Bureau of Standards and Technology, GOGO laboratories, etc., all of which are state-owned enterprises.

As long as it is a state-owned enterprise, it will inevitably bring huge waste of manpower, material resources and funds.

In contrast, the gap is particularly obvious.

The top colleges and universities in the United States are all private, and their funding comes from tuition fees, donations, and services...with a clear market orientation.

What technology is needed by the market and what is the future direction of technology, they will focus on researching the subject in that field.The conversion rate of scientific research is very high, and Silicon Valley has developed with the technical support of several universities such as Stanford, Southern California, Berkeley, and MIT.

However, public universities and many state-run scientific and technological research institutions are nonsense. There are a lot of government-driven scientific research results, but it is difficult to translate them into practical applications. There is input but no output.

It was all taxpayer money and put a lot of pressure on the White House.

In order to solve this problem, several presidents in the past two decades have successively introduced a series of reform bills to promote the marketization of federal scientific research institutions.

The effect is average.

The most typical example is NASA, whose aerospace technology is clearly the best in the world, reaching the highest level of human beings.But they can't do many things they want to do, so they can only outsource the project.

If you do it yourself, it will cost too much money!
It can only be outsourced to private companies, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and SpaceX.

This is true in the United States, and even more so in the United Kingdom.

Worse than America.

Because Cambridge University, Oxford University, and London University are also public, and the main source of funding is the British government.In order to solve this situation, the UK has also carried out a series of policy reforms, including the establishment of a technology management department within the Ministry of Commerce, allowing national laboratories to cooperate with enterprises and universities in research and development, performance appraisal systems, and technology transfer as a laboratory, scientist, Evaluation indicators for engineer work, establishment of reward system and distribution system, etc.

The most important thing is the reward and distribution of the scientific research team.

Among them, Cambridge's Enterprise and Oxford's Innovations are the most well-known. These are two sales companies that specialize in selling technology and patents.

After the scientific research team produces the scientific research results, they can entrust it to the sales company, and the professional sales will connect with the market to complete the technology transfer.

Professionals do professional things, scientific researchers do scientific research, and sales people do sales.

After hearing this, Liang Jing immediately asserted: "This model is better than domestic ones."

Lu Qi has been abroad for many years, and he doesn't know much about the domestic environment. "Is this the mainstream?"

Liang Jingdao: "In China, professors' teams directly connect with the market and contact companies by themselves. Those professors who have market resources are particularly popular because they are better able to transform the market. Some young people with strong technical strength but lack of resources can't do it. If the market transforms, you can’t get project funds, and if you can’t get project funds, you can’t make projects to attract attention, forming a vicious circle.”

Lu Qi frowned, it was difficult to understand, "The specialty of scientists is doing scientific research, let them do the market..."

"What you said, you are also a scientist."

Zhou Buqi laughed and made a joke.

Like Shen Xiangyang, Lu Qi is the world's top artificial intelligence scientist.

Lu Qi shook his head, "I'm not good at marketing either. What I do is enterprise management, and let people who understand the market do the marketing. In terms of scientific research, I only provide general directions, and I don't even do architecture."

Zhou Buqi waved his hands, and said a little decisively: "The national conditions are different. The popular domestic policy is 'Give fame but not profit, and promise not to gain name'. Positions like doctors, teachers, and scientists are not given enough benefits, so The reputation is particularly high. With a good name, some positions will be sanctified, such as doctors, teachers, and scientists. Especially scientists, they can’t wait to be respected as gods, as if they know everything. Running a business, since running a school can also do marketing, since doing strategy can also do sales.”

Liang Jing has been in close contact with Tsinghua University during this period, especially those scientific research professors who spend time together almost every day, so she understands this situation very well, "What the boss said...is a big concept, and the details are actually very simple."

"Oh? What's the reason?"

"trust."

"trust?"

"Yes, that is, um..." Liang Jing hesitated for a moment, a little helpless, "It's just that the scientific research team is worried about authorizing the scientific research results to third-party companies for sale, so they can only sell them by themselves."

Lu Qi was slightly taken aback, "Why?"

Liang Jing looked at him suspiciously.

Wasn't he a professor at Fudan University before?How can you not know?

Zhou Buqi coughed lightly and explained to him, "When he was in China, there was no policy in China that allowed the transfer of scientific research achievements in universities to private enterprises."

At this time, he already understood what Liang Jing meant.

Yes, trust!
Who can guarantee that the third-party sales company will wholeheartedly consider the interests of scientists?
For example, a research team at Tsinghua University has developed an artificial intelligence algorithm, which is very advanced.Ziweixing will invest 500 million yuan to buy it.To contact a third-party sales company, there is something tricky here.

The person in charge of a third-party company can register an intermediary company through relatives and friends, and then the intermediary company will connect with the third-party company to buy this artificial intelligence algorithm at a price of 100 million yuan.

Then, the intermediary company completed the technology transfer with Ziweixing at a price of 500 million yuan.

Through this wave of operations, a small group of people can earn a price difference of 400 million yuan through the intermediary company.The income that really belongs to the third-party company is only 100 million yuan, and a part of it is used as operating funds, and the remaining money is divided among the school and the scientific research team according to the proportion... This seriously violates the interests of the scientific research team.

Sure enough, Liang Jing's subsequent statement confirmed Zhou Buqi's conjecture, and then she said: "Isn't Yan Shouyang, the vice president of the Academy of Engineering, a former university professor, but was expelled later."

Zhou Buqi vaguely remembered that there was a doctor named Yan Shouyang who joined the job in August this year, but the specific situation was not clear, "What's wrong with him?"

Liang Jing sighed, "He is only 31 years old this year, and he has been an associate professor for one year after graduating from a Ph. He bought it at a price of 30 yuan, and he got 10 yuan. He was very happy. Later, he found out that the purchase price of ZTE was 226 million yuan. Later, he fought a lawsuit. After half a year of fighting, he lost the lawsuit and lost his job. gone."

Zhou Buqi didn't find it strange, "Lack of legal awareness was cheated, which is quite normal. The school didn't set up a third-party sales company, which shows that it has no confidence in the supervision system, and he still believes in this kind of human relationship. A fall into a pit can lead to wisdom." Bar."

"Forget it, let's not talk about this." Shen Xiangyang ended the topic, looked at Lu Qi, "You have been around London, which one do you think is suitable?"

The three universities of London, Cambridge, and Oxford are sworn enemies of each other.

Just like Ziweixing has established an in-depth cooperative relationship with Tsinghua University, it would be too difficult to go to Peking University to establish a research institution.Among the three universities of technology in London, you can only choose one. (Oxford is very close to London and is also in this system)
Lu Qi said: "I think Oxford can do it. The technological achievements transferred by Oxford and the technology spin-off companies created by Oxford are the most in Europe."

Zhou Buqi asked, "What about the share?"

"This should be about the same as in China, right?" Lu Qi blinked, "It's divided into threes, threes, threes, 34% for the scientific research team, 33% for the school, and 33% for the funding party."

Liang Jing smiled and said, "It's basically the same in China."

The fund is divided into 33%. If it is funded by the school, the income will belong to the school; if it is funded by the government, the income will belong to the school; It belongs to the enterprise.

For example, Ziweixing cooperated with Tsinghua University to establish Ziweixing-Tsinghua Integrated Circuit Research Center, with a total start-up capital of 15 billion yuan.Among them, Ziweixing contributed 5 million yuan, Tsinghua University contributed 5 million yuan, and the government contributed 5 million yuan.

The three parties share the technical property rights according to the ratio of 1:1:1.

If technology transfer makes money, Ziweixing will get 34% and Tsinghua will get 66%.However, there are exceptions and additional terms. If Ziweixing wants to use the research results, it can have free temporary use rights.If you want to use it for a long time or buy it out, you have to negotiate with Tsinghua.

If you cooperate with Oxford, you will definitely not be able to get such preferential terms.If the ratio of 1:1:1 can be guaranteed, it is regarded as China-EU friendship.

Even if the terms of cooperation are worse, cooperation must be reached.

Artificial intelligence is a typical interdisciplinary subject of social science and natural science, involving mathematics, statistics, psychology, neurophysiology, information theory, computer science, philosophy, cognitive science, uncertainty theory and cybernetics.

The intersection of so many disciplines has led to the fact that if you want to make breakthroughs in the field of artificial intelligence, you can only rely on universities. It is impossible for any company to recruit top scientists in so many fields.

Tsinghua's computer department is very powerful and world-renowned, even more powerful than Oxford.But other disciplines are not good enough. The difference is not just a little bit, but a comprehensive and all-round gap.

Ziweixing should make full use of foreign aid.

Lu Qi's suggestion is to invest 5000 million pounds first to establish a cooperative relationship and see the effect.If the effect is good, continue to follow up, and if the effect is not good, stop the loss in time.

Zhou Buqi saw Shen Xiangyang's approval, so he made a decision, "Then it's settled, we will cooperate with Oxford in the name of Ziweixing Silicon Valley AI Laboratory. Lu Qi, please work hard, and make a few more trips. If you need help, tell me, I bought Manchester United and I have some dignitary connections in London."

(End of this chapter)