Features
In technology development contracts, common technology development risks are usually manifested in the following three aspects:
First, technical risks. Although the developed technology conforms to scientific principles, it is still difficult to complete at this stage due to the high technical difficulty. Or encountered technical difficulties, such as insufficient equipment, intelligence materials, and collaboration, which led to the failure of the research work. It is also possible that the parties’ prior assumptions turned out to be wrong and unfeasible, leading to development failure.
Second, the risk of competition. Technology development is still in the research process, and other people have successfully developed the same technology.
Third, the risk of the objective environment. Due to changes in the objective social, economic and technological environment, the original technological development is out of time or is no longer necessary.
Determining the requirements
The requirements for determining the risk of technology development are:
(1) The development topic is sufficiently difficult in terms of the current technical level;
(2) The research and development party has done its best subjectively;
(3) Experts in this field believe that the failure of research and development is a reasonable failure.
Principle of Assimilation
The principle of assuming responsibility for technology development risks is: if there is an agreement in the contract, it shall be borne according to the agreement; if there is no agreement in the contract, the parties shall reasonably share the responsibility. When one party discovers a situation that may lead to development failure, it shall promptly notify the other party and take appropriate measures to reduce the loss; if one party fails to notify the other party in time and take appropriate measures, causing the loss to increase, it shall be liable for the expanded loss.
Causes of risk
1 The immaturity of scientific and technological achievements is an important reason for technology development risks. Establishing an on-campus development base and strengthening the pilot test are important links in reducing risks.
The scientific and technological achievements enterprises need are mainly new technologies and products with advanced technology, risk-free, quick results, low investment, and high returns. At present, enterprises are eager for technological achievements, but are afraid of unsuccessful development. This is mainly because the technological achievements of universities are scientific research achievements of laboratories, and most of them lack a certain degree of applicability, feasibility and reliability. The scientific research results are the principle experiments carried out in the laboratory. Draw scientific questions from experiments and accept them in the form of papers, which are basic or applied basic research. However, little consideration is given to the technical routes, processes, equipment, and production costs that the results will be used for new product development, so the practicality is poor. After the technology is used in the production of products, the cost, price and market prospects of the products must be considered by the operators. Many scientific researchers only roughly estimate the cost and price of the product before signing the technical contract, and the feasibility analysis is also lacking. After being put into production, the stability and reliability of the equipment process is also estimated to be insufficient. Therefore, the scientific research results from the laboratory need to be re-developed before the technical development of a certain new product or new material can be carried out.
How to make scientific research results mature? The construction of technology development bases is very important. The pilot test at the base is an important link to reduce the risk of technology development. Technology development base equipment is more powerful than scientific research equipment and occupies a larger area. It is also called a pilot test base. As a major of materials and its enlargement, relying on a certain scientific research result, it has repeatedly tested a variety of materials and processes to get a variety of product process methods. These relatively mature development results can meet the short, flat, and fast requirements of the company, and the company can see benefits as soon as possible, indicating that the technology development has also declared success.
For technological development of large-scale factories with high mechanization and automation, the campus base is particularly important, because such enterprises cannot stop production and conduct experiments. In the school development base, the scientific research results are carried out for small and medium-scale tests, and then for trial production and test sales, absorbing feedback from users, and continuously improving technical schemes. This cycle is repeated, and the scientific and technological achievements are gradually mature. In the past 10 years, all disciplines of the School of Materials Science have established pilot production lines accordingly. For all projects that have undergone trial production, the technology development has basically succeeded. The scientific research achievements of our institute have also been praised by people in the business community. There are many ways to raise funds for the construction cost of the development base. The first is national special grants, such as the 211 Project, World Bank grants, key laboratory and engineering center construction fees; the second is government-established "science and technology" projects, appropriations and loans; the third is venture capital; the fourth is co-construction with enterprises Joint Laboratory Engineering Center.
2 The lack of technical development talents is a key factor in technology development risks. Vigorously training technical talents is a necessary measure to reduce risks
The success of technology development depends on talents. In the past 10 years, most young and middle-aged scientific and technological workers, especially state-owned large and medium-sized Less, can only deal with daily technical work, no time to learn, a little bit of aging knowledge, and slower acceptance of high-tech. Young technicians only pay attention to the basics in school, and engineers have very short skill training time and poor hands-on ability. University teachers have strong teaching and scientific research abilities, and some of them have yet to improve their technical development capabilities. Since the school emphasizes scientific research from concept to policy, few people are willing to work hard on technology development. It is very difficult to develop technology.
In recent years, developed countries have generally paid attention to talent innovation and changed traditional talent concepts. The United States has developed technology talents to own projects, and there has been an upsurge of "employees charge and bosses pay". Companies such as Ford and Motorola each year Expenditures for talent training are as high as $1 billion or more. Foreign-funded enterprises in my country's coastal areas also attach great importance to the training of technical personnel. Vigorously cultivating technology development talents is a necessary measure to reduce technology development risks.
As we all know, talents are academic and skilled, and technical development requires skilled talents. To push technology to the enterprise, people who understand the technology need to contact the production environment of the enterprise, visit the site to organize tackling key problems, and direct the debugging of equipment and processes. It requires hard work and special skills in high-tech. To solve this problem, we should first start with the manpower of colleges and universities. First, when selecting teachers, colleges and universities should not only focus on teaching and research capabilities, but also consider technology development capabilities. Second, for students, it is necessary to cultivate not only research-oriented talents, but also skill-oriented talents. This requires strengthening the practice links and cultivating students' technological innovation capabilities. In the course of major adjustments and teaching reforms, in addition to increasing computer application knowledge, our school pays special attention to strengthening experimental teaching and graduation design. For example, when funds are in short supply, the school allocates 1.2 million yuan to build a "multimedia laboratory for material organization and performance analysis", which aims to cultivate students' innovative and practical skills. For example, during the graduation thesis period, the school attaches great importance to the teaching method of "graduation design leaving the school and bringing the project into the factory". Third, to undertake training tasks for enterprise technology development projects. The content of technical training and its expenses must be included in the technical development contract. If conditions permit, they can also jointly organize training courses, and employees can use their spare time to "charge" and accept new knowledge to ensure the stability of the factory's technical personnel.
In order to stabilize technology development talents, an incentive mechanism should also be established.
3 Insufficient investment in technology development funds is the main problem that generates risks. The establishment of a risk investment system is a financial guarantee to reduce risks
Current technology development funds basically rely on corporate investment. As a client (or partner), companies generally do not have stable technology development funds. When companies realize the need for technology development, they squeeze out a small amount of funds to start. There was no more funding, and many projects died midway due to funding problems. To solve the funding problem, we can raise funds from several aspects, such as establishing a risk investment system; establishing an on-campus development fund; and extensively developing scientific and technological insurance business.
Solution
3.1 Establishing a risk investment system
Venture investment is one of making full use of the role of the market and focusing on the benefits and prospects of high-tech enterprises. A form of investment. In recent years, the United States has focused on establishing a risk investment mechanism from two aspects. The US government has established a venture fund for high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises, which has supported nearly 500 high-tech enterprises. On the other hand, large companies set up venture capital companies to directly support the development of technology-based companies. More than 100 large companies in the United States have established their own venture capital companies to support the development of their products with venture capital. The Chinese government has also established an innovation fund for small and medium-sized enterprises, and some investment companies have slowly emerged to make venture capital for high-tech. Although risk investment is not strong, we should fully grasp the policies. For example, the nanomaterials developed by our institute were used as venture capital by Shenzhen Zunye Investment Company. The first phase invested 10 million yuan, focusing on the purchase of equipment for technology development. This scientific research result has been developed for more than two years. The product prospects are optimistic by many companies, but the risk is too great and daunting. Most of Zunye’s shareholders are securities merchants with strong risk awareness and heavy investment. This kind of venture investment Make the technology go to the market quickly.
3.2 Establish an intra-school technology development risk fund
The school’s annual technology development funds account for more than half, and a part of these development funds can be used as a technology development risk fund. For those technology development projects with good market prospects, loans should be made first, and the loan funds can be recovered after the project is successfully developed.
3.3 Extensively develop technology insurance business.
Insurance companies that support technology developers to insure a lot have already opened technology insurance. Some have achieved better results. Especially for some high-risk technical projects, insuring in advance can make technicians lay down their burdens and explore boldly. For example, satellites and airplanes are all insured. For my country's technology insurance business is not widely developed, the main reason is that the cost is too high. As long as the publicity is increased, all sectors of the society can participate in this work, so that more people can reduce the cost of insurance. This is important for insurance companies and technology development. Both are advantageous.
In short, only with proper measures and methods, the higher the technology development rate, the lower the risk.