Vienna, Beijing 7 August 2025 – If we want to understand structures and performance of National Innovation Systems (NIS) - like the one of the Peoples Republic of China - we got to collect data and impressions of the system’s structure and operations in practice on the ground. Since four decades China follows an ambitious path of strategically building a world leading NIS until mid of the 21st century. To be successful in the long run all necessary subsystems must be individually fully operational and converge seamlessly into one system where the whole is more than the sum of its pieces. At the core is talent – the nation’s human capital and cultivation of its bright people, their couriosity, learning capacity, ambition and inventiveness. This has to be embedded in and empowered by excellent infrastructure and the opportunity of knowledge flows between talents and institutions. A failure-positive culture, multimodal testing avenues and an integrated knowledge-based value creation process from basic-research to application of innovation in corporations and society are essential for success as well. In a consecutive series of national strategic plans over the decades the Chinese government provided the framework and upon it financed systematically the evolution of its NIS to position PR China as an innovation nation on global scale. In its 14th Five Year Plan China put the focus on the development of four national innovation hot spots. One of them is located in the Huairou district in China’s capital city Beijing.

During CDA’s invited visit to Chinese Academy of Sciences’ University (UCAS) in Bejing in November 2024 Dean Hong Yongmiao and Vice-Dean Zhao Hong facilitated an official visit of CDA President Alexander G. Welzl to the UCAS Yanqui Lake campus on 8 November 2024. Welcomed by innovation expert and UCAS Professor Wang Haiyan, who is also the Dean of the Sino-Danish Center (SDC), President Welzl had the opportunity of getting an impression and collect facts at the Huairou national innovation hot-spot. Professor Wang and her team provided a guided campus tour and introduced the CDA President to the historical development of this UCAS campus site in Huairou. To deepen the insights Professor Wang personally guided President Welzl through the building of the Sino-Danish Center and he talked with students and SDC staff members. Finally Dean Wang invited the CDA President to a working lunch in the main administrative building of Yanqui Lake campus to exchange views about building national and regional innovation systems by comparing European and Chinese experiences. A special focus of the discourse was on start-up and venture management combining UCAS facilities and talent with the resources and financing of regional authorities.