Release time: November 10, 2024 | Source: Xinhua News Agency
In early winter, the laboratory of Hefei Shenbi Biotechnology Co., Ltd. is busy. Here, the reporter saw plants that glowed, and the magical scenes in the science fiction movie "Avatar" became a reality.
It turns out that Shenbi Biotechnology integrates the luminescent pathways of fungi through technical means and implants the luminescent genes of fireflies and other organisms into plant cells, allowing plants to glow at night.
Shenbi Biology is a technology-based small and medium-sized enterprise incubated in the Silicon Valley of the University of Science and Technology in Hefei City, Anhui Province. Its "Glowing Sunflower" and other series of products will soon be launched on the market.
In March 2023, Li Renhan, the head of Shenbi Biotech, left a message on the official website of Hefei High-tech Zone, hoping to industrialize the technology in Hefei. Two days later, he received a call from the staff of the Hefei High-tech Zone Management Committee, inviting him to "take a look" at HKUST Silicon Valley.
The University of Science and Technology Silicon Valley officially started construction in June 2022, and has spatially planned "one core, two parks and one town": located in the core area around the Anchuang Valley in the Hefei High-tech Zone, Shushan Park, "two parks" of the High-tech Park and "iFlytek Town".
According to the construction plan, USTC Silicon Valley focuses on the transformation of innovation achievements, the incubation of innovative enterprises, the catalysis of innovative industries, and the optimization of innovative ecology. With the global alumni of USTC and other universities and colleges as a link, it gathers the world’s innovation forces, and is based on the new space of the Hefei urban area to create a demonstration project that is the source of scientific and technological innovation and a gathering place for emerging industries.
"When it settled in HKUST Silicon Valley at the end of 2023, the entrepreneurial team had only three people. In less than a year, the company already had more than a dozen R&D personnel and an R&D laboratory of more than 1,000 square meters." Li Renhan said that HKUST Silicon Valley helps companies find funds, policies, and talents, and also helps companies find application scenarios.
"I am very lucky and cherish to be here!" In Li Renhan's view, HKUST Silicon Valley is another "home" for "science drifters".
At present, HKUST Silicon Valley has established innovation centers at home and abroad in innovation highlands such as Silicon Valley in the United States, Tokyo in Japan, Cambridge in the United Kingdom, Lyon in France, Beijing, and Hong Kong to link global innovation resources. It has also become a destination for “science and technology development” around the world and a bright business card for the innovative development of Anhui Province.
From the Silicon Valley of the United States to the Silicon Valley of HKUST, Xu Weiwei traveled across the ocean and returned to China to start a business in 2022, becoming a transnational "science drifter". He focused on high-performance power management chips, the "heart" of electronic devices, and co-founded Hefei Chengling Microelectronics Co., Ltd. with professors from the University of Science and Technology of China. This technical direction is also in line with the development direction of Anhui Province’s leading industries.
"After landing, the company received support from provincial and municipal three-level guidance funds, and has now completed the Pre-A round of financing." Xu Weiwei said that in addition to helping the company match investment and financing and implement various entrepreneurial policies, the staff of the USTC Silicon Valley Service Platform Company also helped complete industrial and commercial registration, bank account opening, personnel training and other tasks.
"Science drifters" bring their technology to start a business. What they need most is care and what they lack most is entrepreneurial capital. In the Silicon Valley of HKUST, “science and technology create the questions and finance answers the questions.” More and more technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises like Chengling Microelectronics are receiving financial support.
"We advocate using patient capital to accompany the growth of technology companies. The established HKUST Silicon Valley Guidance Fund insists on investing early, small, long-term, and hard technology, with a risk tolerance of 50%." Wu Hailong, chairman of HKUST Silicon Valley Service Platform (Anhui) Co., Ltd., said that HKUST Silicon Valley is committed to creating a "fund jungle" and has established a "fund circle of friends" with more than 300 investment institutions.
According to statistics, as of the end of September, 1,725 new technology companies have settled in the Silicon Valley area of HKUST, with a total of more than 6,000 technology companies and technology innovation service institutions, more than 60,000 innovative and entrepreneurial talents of various types, 12 domestic and overseas innovation centers, and more than 200 funds of various types, with a total scale of more than 240 billion yuan.
Optimize the talent attraction and retention mechanism, explore new models of industrial cultivation, and build a "science and industry city" integration space... Over the past two years, Anhui has planned 25 reform measures in 8 major aspects around the Silicon Valley of the University of Science and Technology, creating a "test field" for the reform of science and technology systems and mechanisms, and a "high-yield field" for the development of high-tech industries.
The relevant person in charge of the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission said that HKUST Silicon Valley will continue to anchor the two goals of being a "test field" for the reform of science and technology systems and mechanisms and a "high-yield field" for the development of high-tech industries, speeding up the construction of demonstration projects as a source of scientific and technological innovation and a gathering place for emerging industries, and building HKUST Silicon Valley into a core open scientific and technological innovation platform for cultivating and developing new productive forces in the province.
January 13, 2026
January 13, 2026
January 13, 2026