Guangdong’s New R&D Institutes: China’s Regional Tool for Innovation and Technology Transfer

In pursuit of technological development, China has created new organizations to promote innovation. In this brief, Marcus Conlé, an associate at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), examines New Research and Development Institutes (NRDIs), which are designed to foster knowledge transfer to industry. NRDIs were pioneered in Guangdong province in the 1990s, and have gained prominence in China’s national science, technology, and innovation policies since the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020). NRDIs are defined by their market orientation and extremely flexible organizational form. They work by establishing “innovation platforms” with local governments and private knowledge actors to carry out research and development (R&D), commercialize scientific and technological achievements, incubate local technology industries, and cultivate high-end talent. NRDIs have been instrumental to regional development in Guangdong, and especially Shenzhen, where they have succeeded in attracting talent from outside the region. NRDIs have important policy implications for international competition for talent. Understanding NRDIs is crucial for other countries that want to improve their own inter-regional innovation resources and respond to the challenge of China’s drive to attract global talent and knowledge resources.

This brief is part of a special series organized jointly by the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) and the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS). This analysis was originally presented at the Conference on the Chinese National Innovation and Techno-Industrial Ecosystems in Berlin, September 5–6, 2023.

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