Chen Jin
Director of  Research Center for Technological Innovation, Tsinghua University
Professor, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University

Technological innovation enables the upgrading of national economic levels, reconstructs value highlands in high-value-added industries, and gives rise to ecological paradigms for sustainable enterprise development. Research Center for Technological Innovation,Tsinghua University(RCTI) is one of the earliest academic institutions in China to conduct research on technological innovation. The disciplinary program it relies on was approved as one of the first doctoral programs in Technology Economics in 1986, designated as the nation’s sole key discipline in this field in 1988, and has retained the title of National Key Discipline in 2002 and 2007. Approved by the Ministry of Education as a Key Research Base for Humanities and Social Sciences in November 2004, under the leadership of senior academic master Professor Fu Jiaji and the efforts of Founding Director Professor Wu Guisheng,RCTI has achieved remarkable progress in scientific research, talent cultivation, academic exchange, consulting services, platform construction, and institutional reform in the management and policy of technological innovation over more than 20 years of development. Notably, it has conducted in-depth research in core areas of innovation studies, including the science of technological innovation, independent innovation, service innovation, open innovation, collaborative innovation, integrated innovation, and meaningful innovation, yielding leading research outcomes.

RCTI has undertaken major bidding projects of the National Social Science Fund, key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation and National Social Science Fund, and actively assumed consulting projects commissioned by ministries and institutions such as the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, National Development and Reform Commission, Chinese Academy of Engineering, and China Association for Science and Technology. It has provided policy consulting services to local governments in Shanxi, Shandong, Zhejiang, Chongqing, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and other regions, represented China in Sino-US and Sino-European science and technology forums, and its research results have received endorsements from national and provincial leaders on multiple occasions. In recent years, it has published numerous high-quality papers in top international journals, important domestic academic journals, and mainstream national media outlets (referred to as "three newspapers and one journal"). Its research achievements have won first and second prizes of the Ministry of Education’s Outstanding Achievements in Humanities and Social Sciences, and pioneered the theory of enterprise innovation ecosystems based on core competencies, receiving honors such as the 6th China Management Science Award and the 8th Outstanding Achievements Award in Scientific Research by Higher Education Institutions, with some results surpassing international counterparts.

RCTI attaches great importance to domestic and international collaborations, maintaining close academic exchanges with world-renowned institutions such as the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW), the Asian Association for Collaborative Innovation Research, the Global Research in Research and Development Management (GLORAD), the MIT Sloan School of Management, and the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. It has established research partnerships with leading enterprises including CRRC Group, CIMC Group, CNPC, China Electronics, Haier Group, and Midea Group. RCTI has founded academic platforms such as the China Innovation Research Network (CICALICS), the International Conference on Innovation Studies (ICIS), and the International Conference on Innovation and Knowledge Management (iKM), inviting numerous overseas scholars for exchanges. It sponsors influential academic journals at home and abroad, including Innovation and Entrepreneurship Management (CSSCI ), Review of Evolutionary and Innovation Economics (CSSCI ), and the International Journal of Innovation Studies (IJIS) (English, indexed in SCOPUS and ESCI), and actively develops databases and case repositories in technological innovation to become an important public academic platform in this disciplinary field globally.

We sincerely hope to maintain close collaboration with scholars and entrepreneurs worldwide to jointly explore the laws of technological innovation and related policy and management research, striving to contribute to implementing the innovation-driven development strategy, building a world-leading science and technology power, and cultivating world-class innovative enterprises.

Chen Jin