The technological breakthroughs made in the laboratory are destined to be applied to the production lines to create value. In 2025, Tong Mingquan, Head of Technology Management Department at Huayang Group, has prioritized the commercialization of technological breakthroughs as a crucial facet of his duty performance. He is a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC).
To address challenges in pilot-scale testing, Tong surveyed enterprises, research institutes and universities to find systematic solutions and help clear away the obstacles to the commercialization of technological breakthroughs.
Tong Mingquan surveys a front-line workshop. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
The pilot-scale testing bridges lab-scale research and production-scale commercialization, often used to validate technology, mitigate risks, and refine operating parameters. This process is essential for ensuring the feasibility of innovative outcome commercialization. The lack of standard pilot-scale testing will lead to increased equipment damage, labor and time cost and unstable production. Therefore, well-developed pilot testing is essential to ensuring the successful commercialization of technologies.
Tong Mingquan surveys a laboratory. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
To precisely resolve the bottlenecks in pilot-scale testing, Tong conducted field research, talking with engineers and researchers. He identified several issues that obstruct such testing, including the multiple-link, lengthy approval procedures, the mismatch between universities’ R&D resources and industrial needs and the limited capacities of public pilot-testing platforms.
Based on his long-time surveys and analysis, Tong believed that the bottlenecks are not only technological, but also systemic, involving approval mechanism, investment, platform building, talent cultivation and policy support. He summarized his opinions and incorporated them into suggestions on multiple facets of pilot-scale testing for the fourth session of the 14th NPC. His suggestions focus on innovating the system, upgrading the public platform and offering more comprehensive policy support, in the hope of building an effective commercialization mechanism for scientific and technological outcomes.
“Enabling more technological breakthroughs to be used on production lines is my duty as an NPC deputy,” Tong said. He noted that efficient pilot-scale testing is a key link in sci-tech innovation. In the future, he will continue to work on the front line and focus on pilot testing to produce more pragmatic suggestions for the integration of sci-tech innovation and industrial development.
(Executive editor: Yuan Ting)
