In the first nine months, Qingdao registered 2,745 technology contracts, worth a total of 5.33 billion yuan, up 3.2 percent from last year. 

Asset-heavy entities, including higher education institutions, enterprises, incubators and industrial parks, are the major players in the technology trading market in the city. By acquiring stock shares, offering incubating services, and establishing co-operatives, these technology transfer institutions are able to improve the values of research findings. 

The city has been a pioneer in technology transfer, having formed its own standards in the evaluation, the listing and trading, and the auction of research findings, as well as in technology contract registration. 

Qingdao has established indexes for assessing research findings in petrochemical, agriculture, construction, polymer materials, marine corrosion and protection, and inorganic nonmetal materials. As of Nov. 7, the city registered 398 results of research finding assessment, up 35 percent from last year. 

An overseas technology transfer base was unveiled in Laoshan district in September, with the aim to tap the broader markets to improve technology transfer services. 

One of the technology brokers introduced into the base was Aston Corporate, which has been in the business for three years. Headquartered in the UK, the company offers tailor made services based on thorough market study and facilitates the integration of overseas technologies and domestic enterprises. 

As of Nov. 7, Qingdao has fostered 512 technology agents and 129 technology assessment experts. 

Now the city aims to establish industry-specific technology trading markets by integrating innovative resources in different districts to consolidate the “last mile” of technology transfer services. 

National research institutions and powerful enterprises are viewed as the leading forces in the process. The Qingdao Academy for Opto-Electronics Engineering under the Chinese Academy of Sciences has made headway on this regard. It built a facility for showcasing and brokering research findings, which currently exhibits the academy’s technological achievements including the ones used in the Beidou navigation system. 

It is estimated that by 2020 the turnover of marine technology contracts will reach 2 billion yuan, as the marine technology transfer has been developing rapidly. 

A national marine technology transfer center and eight sub-centers have been established in the city. In the first nine months, 307 transactions of marine technology were registered in Qingdao, up 30.5 percent from last year.