Original Title: Several Policy Measures to Accelerate the High-Quality Development of High-Tech Enterprises To accelerate the high-quality development of high-tech enterprises in our city, and in accordance with the “Notice of the Wuxi Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Wuxi Municipal People’s Government on Issuing the ‘Policy Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of an Industrial Science and Technology Innovation Hub with International Influence’” (Xiwei Fa [2022] No. 86) andthe “Notice of the Municipal Government Office on Issuing the Action Plan for Strengthening the Leading Role of Enterprises in Technological Innovation in Wuxi” (Xi Zheng Ban Fa [2024] No. 14), these policy measures are hereby formulated.
I. Strengthening the Foundation for the Development of High-Tech Enterprises
1. Intensify Efforts to Attract and Cultivate Technology-Based Enterprises. Fully leverage the policy advantages of the “Taihu Talent Plan” and the functions of platforms such as “Science and Technology Innovation Outposts” to precisely connect with regions rich in science and technology innovation and industrial resources, and continuously intensify efforts to attract and cultivate technology-based enterprises. Each city (county) and district shall grant a reward of 10,000 yuan to enterprises newly attracted and established that have passed the national evaluation for technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises and been included in the national registry for the first time.Municipalities (counties) and districts shall provide annual rewards totaling no less than 200,000 yuan to high-tech enterprises that have relocated in their entirety from outside Wuxi’s administrative boundaries to within the city and have completed the relevant change procedures within the validity period.
2. Encourage the accelerated growth of technology-based enterprises. Enterprises are encouraged to increase R&D investment, strengthen talent recruitment, apply for intellectual property rights, expand high-tech revenue, and improve R&D management in accordance with the "Measures for the Administration of High-Tech Enterprise Certification," thereby creating conditions to apply for high-tech enterprise certification. For enterprises that submit valid applications, the municipal government will provide a financial subsidy of up to 10,000 yuan, and the district government will provide 20,000 yuan; for enterprises certified for the first time, the municipal government will provide a certification reward of up to 100,000 yuan, and the district government will provide 200,000 yuan;For enterprises that are re-certified after reapplying, the municipal government will provide a certification reward of up to 30,000 yuan, and the district government will provide 70,000 yuan. We will improve the tiered cultivation system for innovative enterprises, featuring tiered support, targeted measures, and platform empowerment. The municipal and district governments will provide rewards of up to 500,000 yuan, 2 million yuan, and 5 million yuan, respectively, to selected “Eaglets,” “Gazelles,” and “Pre-Unicorn” enterprises.
3. Enhance the incubation capacity of innovation platforms. Encourage innovation platforms—such as maker spaces, technology business incubators, accelerators, and integrated science and technology complexes—to focus on attracting and incubating technology-based enterprises while expanding their scale and scope, thereby continuously upgrading their capabilities and improving efficiency.New-type R&D institutions are encouraged to take equity stakes in incubated enterprises. Focusing on cutting-edge fields of emerging and future industries, they should identify 100 technology transfer projects annually that feature high technical barriers and promising market prospects, ensuring these projects are “hatched along the way and commercialized on-site.”Incorporate core indicators such as the incubation of technology-based enterprises and the cultivation of high-tech enterprises into the performance evaluation systems of innovation platforms and new-type R&D institutions, treating them as key factors in determining financial support. For innovation platforms demonstrating outstanding performance in incubating and cultivating high-tech enterprises, the municipal government will annually award up to 3 million yuan in incentives based on assessment results, with amounts varying by category and tier.
4. Guide enterprises to increase R&D investment. Encourage enterprises to increase R&D investment and continuously conduct basic research and technological breakthroughs. The municipal government will provide R&D funding of up to 5 million yuan to project entities, categorized and tiered based on the results of competitive selection, for industrial foresight and key core technology R&D projects.Enterprises are encouraged to engage in industry-academia-research collaboration. A subsidy of up to 1 million yuan will be provided, equivalent to 30% of the actual funds the enterprise has previously paid to universities and research institutes for such collaborations. Enterprises are encouraged to transfer and commercialize advanced scientific and technological achievements. A reward of up to 1 million yuan per enterprise per year will be granted, equivalent to a maximum of 5% of the actual transaction value of registered technology contracts.
5. Strengthen the creation and management of intellectual property. All regions are encouraged to intensify efforts to guide and incentivize enterprises to create high-quality intellectual property. Municipalities (counties) and districts shall award a 10,000 yuan incentive to enterprises that are newly included in the national database of science and technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises and hold Class I intellectual property.Municipal authorities will evaluate each region’s “number of invention patents per 10 billion yuan of regional GDP” and, based on the evaluation results, allocate funds to each region within the annual budget through a special “transfer-from-allocation-to-grant” transfer payment mechanism. These funds shall be统筹 by each region for fostering and rewarding the authorization of invention patents and other intellectual property within their jurisdiction.
6. Strengthen the application and promotion of innovative products. Encourage enterprises to intensify efforts in new product development and promotion, and increase the proportion of new products in their main business revenue. Support the development of major application scenarios in future frontier fields, as well as open, comprehensive, and industry-specific integrated application scenarios, using these scenarios to drive the finalization of technical products, the cultivation of user groups, and the identification of market demand.Municipal-level innovative products and high-tech products will be recommended for inclusion in the provincial guidance catalog for the application and promotion of major innovative products. We encourage the creation of application projects for new technologies, new products, and new business models, and will provide funding of up to 1 million yuan to implementing entities based on a certain percentage of their actual project investment. A green channel will be established for the online listing of eligible innovative pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
II. Enhancing the Quality of High-Tech Enterprise Development
7. Support high-tech enterprises in establishing R&D institutions. Support enterprises in establishing high-level R&D institutions at the municipal level or above, and promote a “dual improvement” in the establishment rate of R&D institutions among industrial enterprises above designated size and the coverage rate of R&D activities among enterprises. For enterprises approved to establish national or provincial-level enterprise R&D institutions, provide rewards of up to 3 million yuan and 500,000 yuan, respectively, based on their R&D investment and outputs such as invention patents.High-tech enterprises are encouraged to establish overseas R&D institutions, with operational subsidies of up to 2 million yuan provided on a merit-based basis. High-tech enterprises are encouraged to establish municipal-level key laboratories, with funding of up to 2 million yuan provided on a merit-based basis according to operational performance; for those upgraded to provincial-level key laboratories, rewards of up to 20 million yuan will be provided in phases.
8. Support for High-Tech Enterprises in Establishing Innovation Consortia. High-tech enterprises and other leading enterprises are encouraged to take the lead in forming innovation consortia.For recognized ecosystem-based innovation consortia, the municipal government will provide up to 10 million yuan in construction funding; for recognized task-oriented innovation consortia, joint research projects organized through mechanisms such as “open challenges” will be eligible for tiered R&D funding of up to 5 million yuan based on merit; for innovation consortia that secure national or provincial major science and technology projects, the municipal and district governments will collectively provide up to 2 million yuan in matching support.
9. Support high-tech enterprises in attracting R&D talent. Encourage enterprises to recruit scientific and technological talent from universities and research institutes to serve as “Vice Presidents of Science and Technology” and to appoint “Industry Professors.”Enterprises are encouraged to establish talent attraction and retention platforms such as academician workstations, postdoctoral workstations, and foreign expert studios. Municipal-level enterprise academician workstations that demonstrate significant results after evaluation will receive up to 500,000 yuan in research project funding; those designated as provincial-level academician workstations will receive matching funds equivalent to 50% of the provincial research project support. Units awarded national or provincial talent introduction projects will receive rewards of up to 100,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan, respectively.High-tech enterprises are encouraged to create research assistant positions to more actively recruit college graduates.
10. Support high-tech enterprises in expanding into overseas markets. Guide technology-based enterprises to proactively conduct overseas intellectual property early warning activities to mitigate intellectual property risks. For enterprises that successfully enforce their intellectual property rights in foreign markets, provide financial subsidies of up to 50% of the actual costs incurred for enforcement. The maximum municipal-level subsidy per project is 100,000 yuan, with a cumulative maximum of 500,000 yuan from both municipal and district-level funds.Enterprises that proactively conduct patent analysis and early warning or overseas trademark registration monitoring services to expand their overseas markets will receive financial subsidies of up to 50% of the actual costs incurred. The maximum municipal-level subsidy per project is 100,000 yuan, and subsidies from both the municipal and district levels will not be duplicated.
III. Enhancing the Quality and Efficiency of Services for High-Tech Enterprises
11. Strengthen Policy Guidance. Modern industrial development funds at both the municipal and district levels shall prioritize support for high-tech enterprises. In formulating, issuing, and implementing business-friendly policies, relevant functional departments shall focus on the development needs of high-tech enterprises to propose targeted and differentiated policy provisions. The implementation standards, evaluation requirements, funding arrangements, and implementation periods for all policies shall be subject to specific official documents.Science and technology departments shall regularly compile and summarize various policy measures and service initiatives, and proactively disseminate them to eligible high-tech enterprises to expand the reach of these policies.
12. Strengthen the supply of key resources. Support high-tech enterprises in flexibly selecting land use methods based on their needs. Under the dual oversight of “contracts and agreements,” various supply methods may be adopted, including long-term leases, lease-to-own arrangements, flexible-term land grants, mixed-use industrial land supply, and land auctions with attached planning and design proposals, to ensure precise alignment between industrial space and industrial projects. Optimize the specialized task force mechanism for land use approvals and implement a “one policy per project” approach for major projects of high-tech enterprises.We will continuously improve approval efficiency, enabling high-tech enterprise projects to be reported immediately upon arrival and providing support services such as “start construction immediately upon land acquisition.” We will strengthen the construction of the city’s public science and technology service platform, issue “innovation vouchers,” and guide high-tech enterprises to share and utilize scientific resources—such as large-scale scientific instruments—on the provincial science and technology resource coordination service platform.
13. Strengthen financial services. Introduce special policies to enhance financial services for technology-based enterprises, encourage banking institutions to increase the issuance of unsecured loans, and comprehensively utilize information such as enterprise innovation scores to continuously improve the “first-loan rate” for technology-based enterprises. Establish a regularized “investment-loan linkage” mechanism between the municipal angel fund and technology risk compensation loans to support the development of early-stage technology-based enterprises.Encourage insurance institutions to expand insurance services such as coverage for R&D expense losses and R&D interruption insurance to effectively mitigate corporate R&D risks. Focusing on the STAR Market, the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), and the Beijing Stock Exchange, promote the efficient integration of high-tech enterprises into multi-tiered capital markets.
14. Strengthen Follow-up Guidance.We will build a full-lifecycle service management system for high-tech enterprises and launch the “High-Tech Enterprise Service Cloud” on the Xike Enterprise Service Platform to provide high-tech enterprises with targeted policy guidance, convenient government services, and effective value-added services. We will conduct live-streamed sessions on relevant policies and project guidance for high-tech enterprises to facilitate smooth interaction between the platform and enterprises. We will fully leverage the role of the Municipal Association of High-Tech Enterprises to guide various intermediary institutions in strengthening industry self-regulation, standardizing professional conduct, safeguarding enterprise rights and interests, and jointly promoting the development of high-tech enterprises.
IV. Strengthening Support for High-Tech Enterprise Development
15. Strengthen Organizational Leadership and Performance Evaluation. Establish a coordination mechanism for high-tech enterprise cultivation. Municipal (county) and district-level governments must mobilize science and technology, finance, tax, and market regulation departments to collaborate with towns (subdistricts) and industrial parks to fully support the recruitment, cultivation, application, and service provision for high-tech enterprises. Fully leverage the guiding role of performance evaluations, optimize evaluation indicators, coordinate target setting, and reinforce primary responsibilities to ensure that high-tech enterprise cultivation objectives are implemented in detail and advanced with full force.
16. Strengthen technology-focused investment promotion and dedicated personnel. Optimize the technology investment promotion mechanism and establish an evaluation system that prioritizes quality over quantity and is based on criteria that are actionable, quantifiable, assessable, and verifiable.Encourage all cities (counties) and districts to establish specialized science and technology investment promotion teams based on provincial-level or higher innovation and entrepreneurship platforms, in line with our city’s “465” modern industrial cluster strategy, to enhance the innovation intensity and technological sophistication of attracted enterprises. Extensively integrate resources such as expert mentors and innovation platforms to form teams of mentors for cultivating technology enterprises and service specialists for high-tech enterprises. Strengthen interdepartmental coordination to promote the development of a grid-based science and technology service model characterized by “non-intrusive oversight and responsive support.”
17. Strengthen data management and information sharing. Develop a citywide intelligent evaluation and full-cycle incubation management system for technology enterprises, build a citywide big data platform for technology enterprises, and explore the implementation of an enterprise technological innovation index to provide categorized guidance and services based on the development stage of technology enterprises. Through digital and intelligent empowerment, city-district coordination, and the combination of “big data” with “on-the-ground efforts,” we will lay a solid foundation and expand the scope of work such as the evaluation of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises and the application and certification of high-tech enterprises.
18. Strengthen policy implementation and financial support. Fully implement preferential policies for technology-based enterprises, including additional deductions for corporate R&D expenses, preferential corporate income tax rates, additional VAT deductions for advanced manufacturing enterprises, and tax incentives for technology transactions. Municipal (county) and district governments shall establish mechanisms for the steady growth of fiscal science and technology funding and continuously increase financial investment in science and technology.
These policy measures shall take effect on August 1, 2024, and remain valid until December 31, 2025. Jiangyin City and Yixing City shall implement these measures by reference. The Municipal Government is responsible for interpreting these policy measures, with the Municipal Science and Technology Bureau and the Municipal Finance Bureau undertaking the specific interpretation work. In cases of overlap with other policies, implementation shall follow the principles of “applying the newest, most favorable, and highest standards, and avoiding duplication.”
