The Collaborative Innovation Research Center, South China University of Technology (hereinafter referred to as “the Center”) is a research institution established by South China University of Technology to engage in industry-university-research cooperation, collaborative innovation management, technological innovation development and technology policy. The Center is led by Professor Zhu Guilong from the School of Business Administration. There are 18 full-time and part-time researchers in the Center’s research team, including 12 full-time and 6 part-time academic members, specifically, 11 professors (three distinguished professors of Zhujiang Scholar granted by Guangdong province, one scholar awarded the National Science Foundation for Outstanding Young Scholars), three associate professors, and 11 PhD candidates.
There is a Management Consultancy Department and a Research Department affiliated to the Center that are facing the governmental departments and enterprises and institutions to carry out theoretical and application research on collaborative innovation, technological innovation system and innovation policies. After years of development, the Center’s research team was granted the title of “Innovation Driven Development of Guangdong in its Transition Period: Strategy and Path”, which is supported by the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation and awarded the Third-party Evaluation Think Tank of the Major Technology Program and Platform Implementation.
Relying on the scientific platform of the “Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Innovative Methodology & Decision-making Management System”, the Center is rooted in Guangdong’s innovational practices. Taking Guangdong's independent innovation practices as the research orientation, it focuses on researches in the fields of cooperative innovation, innovation and regional development, and innovation policy. In recent years, the Center’s research team members have obtained more than 40 research projects supported by national and provincial departments, and produced more than 60 academic papers published on domestic and international journals, formed research characteristics in the fields of regional innovation system and industry-university-research collaborative innovation, and delivered influential research results. Specifically, the Center’s Key Project in Philosophy and Social Science Foundation by Ministry of Education titled in Research on Theory and Policy of Industry-University-Research Cooperation in China is currently the research project ranking the highest level in domestic collaborative innovation field.
In recent years, the Center’s research team took the innovation-driven development practice of Guangdong in its transition period as the research object, focusing on the research topics such as the formation of the Guangdong International Science and Technology Innovation Center in the Greater Bay Area, the capacity structure its evolution required in implementing the innovation-driven development strategy in Guangdong, the synergize of the main elements of the innovation system in Guangdong, coupling and evolution of Guangdong‘s industrial chain, innovation chain and financial chain, Guangdong service-oriented manufacturing’s strategy and path, innovation and environmental sustainability, etc. it is expected that all of these mentioned research outcomes will provide theoretical guidance for Guangdong's innovation-driven development practices, and also provide useful recommendations for other provinces and cities for their innovation development process.
Director of the Research Center
Professor Zhu Guilong, PhD supervisor of South China University of Technology, is also the Member of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Committee of MOE, the Outstanding Social Scientist of Guangdong Province, and a scholar awarded Special Government Allowance of the State Council of China. Professor Zhu has engaged in more than 30 research project as the principle investigator, such as the research project supported by the key project of NNSF, the key project of Philosophy and Social Science Foundation by MOE, as well as other project of ministry and provincial level. He has produced a number of research outcomes, including three academic monographs, and more than 150 papers in domestic and international journal in the field of innovation management. His research results have been granted the Second Prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of Ministry of Machinery Industry, and the First Prize of Guangdong Province Philosophy and Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award, etc. Professor Zhu started the cutting-edge and cross-cutting research on science and technology innovation management in a very earlier time in the country, and he firstly raised the topic of virtual scientific research organization and the concept of industry-university-research cooperation network organization. As a result, he has conducted the interdisciplinary research on organization management, and comprehensive research in collaborative innovation and industry-university-research cooperation, and obtained fruitful results.
For more than 20 years, the Center has always adhered to the practice-oriented research as the purpose, proposed the ideas of China's situational characteristics from scientific perspective, and worked out and constructed the SCP theory of China's industry-university-research cooperation based on the capability structure perspective. In this regard, the Center’s research team has put forward a series of new ideas and new propositions and produced some research outcomes on the topics lf innovative system management, industry-university-research cooperation innovation system, technology evaluation theory and methods, etc. Therefore, the Center is dedicated to enriched and developed China's innovation management theory, and contribute itself to form its “unique” research characteristics and influence in the field of innovation. In adhering to the theoretical innovations of China's situation and serving the society, the Center has provided policy advice on cooperation with the relevant departments of the Guangdong Province on management practices such as the construction of regional innovation systems and technological innovation platforms, the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and the reform of university in building collaborative innovation systems. Beyond this, it has provided instructions on developing the innovative development strategies and setting up innovation systems for a number of enterprises, which have been fully affirmed and highly evaluated by the government department of the province.
