NANCHANG, June 9 (Xinhua) -- A growing number of high-level researchers are being embedded within companies to enhance innovation and push technological advances on the factory floor, as part of China's drive for high-quality development.
Jiangxi Naile Copper Co. Ltd. in Yingtan, east China's Jiangxi Province, is a case in point. Founded in 2003, Naile Copper has focused on high-end copper products, with oxygen-free copper tubes as its flagship product.
In the company's exhibition hall, chief engineer Ma Li pours hot water into two metal tubes -- one hollow copper tube remains cool to the touch, while the other, made of oxygen-free copper, quickly becomes very hot.
The company has broken through core manufacturing technologies previously monopolized by foreign firms, supplying heat pipes for critical cooling applications in central processing units, graphic processing units and insulated gate bipolar transistors, Ma said.
Addressing the company's demand for innovation in high-end copper products, Zhuo Haiou, deputy dean of the International Institute for Materials Innovation at Nanchang University, went on secondment from his university to the company to serve in a senior technical role in 2023.
"We promptly formed an interdisciplinary research team, combining talent from the university and the company," Zhuo said. "The core task was to overcome the technical challenges in the material properties and processing techniques of grooved copper tubes."
After nearly a year of repeated trials, the team successfully developed a high-performance oxygen-free copper grooved tube product, which now generates an annual output value of over 100 million yuan (about 14.7 million U.S. dollars).
The collaboration between the company and Nanchang University is part of a broader provincial push to embed researchers into enterprises.
In 2024, Jiangxi launched a dedicated "deputy manager of sci-tech" program, encouraging enterprises to recruit researchers from universities, research institutes, and state-owned enterprises across the country to serve in the role.
The program aims to deepen the integration of industrial, innovation, and talent ecosystems while boosting enterprise-level technological innovation and industrial transformation. In turn, enterprises provide a testing ground for their research, ensuring that scientific endeavors are well-targeted and practical.
Since the program's rollout, over 1,100 deputy managers of sci-tech have been recruited, serving more than 500 enterprises. They have facilitated nearly 300 scientific and technological achievements, generating direct economic benefits exceeding 1 billion yuan.
These efforts span 12 key industrial sectors, including electronic information, new energy and bio-medicine, injecting strong momentum into high-quality development.
Similar programs have been rolled out in other provinces, such as Henan and Anhui, giving a strong boost to technological upgrading and industrial innovation.
China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) calls for improving policies that allow researchers to take entrepreneurial leave or hold multiple positions with pay, encouraging top talent to move into enterprises. It also urges joint industry-university R&D to address industrial needs.
Yu Jianguo, a professor at East China University of Science and Technology, said high-level talent brings their knowledge and technologies to the front lines of industries, achieving a crucial leap from laboratories to production lines.
"This not only resolves the dual predicaments of universities' difficulties in transforming research results and enterprises' difficulties in obtaining technologies, but also initiates a virtuous cycle where talent leads innovation and innovation drives industries," Yu said.
In Xinfeng County, Jiangxi's Ganzhou City, the flexible talent recruitment mechanism has enabled deputy managers of sci-tech to serve as a bridge for sustained university-industry collaboration. To date, nearly 30 universities have partnered with local enterprises, supplying over 400 graduates annually and establishing more than 30 joint R&D platforms.
"The value of deputy managers of sci-tech is not just about solving today's challenges, but also about cultivating localized, specialized, and industry-ready talent for the future," said Chen Jintao, a Party official of the county. ■
