Seize the opportunity of "expansion" and Tianjin plans for new development tracks.
According to the Tianjin Government Affairs Network, the "Tianjin Action Plan for Promoting the Innovative Development of Brain-Computer Interface (2026 - 2030)" was recently issued. According to the "Action Plan", by 2030, Tianjin will form a cluster of national strategic scientific and technological forces in the field of brain-computer interface, promote the large-scale clinical application of more than 10 non-invasive brain-computer interface products, and have invasive brain-computer interface products approved for marketing. A number of major original achievements will be produced, and medical rehabilitation products, mass consumer applications, and industrial special equipment will be promoted on a large scale.
One to two listed companies, three to five industry leading enterprises, and a number of innovative enterprises will be introduced and nurtured. The full-chain service platform will be improved, and an integrated brain-computer interface standard and testing system at home and abroad will be established. A brain-computer interface industrial fund group with a total scale of over 10 billion yuan will be formed, a group of leading talents with outstanding innovation capabilities will be cultivated, and a brain-computer interface industrial system with a solid foundation, active innovation, open cooperation, and a complete industrial chain will be constructed.
In the current urban competition, there is an increasing tendency to use cutting-edge technologies as a fulcrum to leverage the agglomeration of all factors such as talents, capital, platforms, and standards, and then build an industrial ecological moat that is difficult to replicate. As pointed out in the "15th Five-Year Plan" outline of Tianjin, Tianjin's scientific and technological innovation ability is not strong enough, and the pace of industrial structure transformation and upgrading is not fast enough, and the level is not high enough. Now is the opportunity period for Tianjin to break through.
The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of last year made a strategic deployment to expand the "Beijing International Science and Technology Innovation Center" to the "Beijing (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) International Science and Technology Innovation Center". Tianjin stated that the formulation of this "Action Plan" is to seize the opportunity of the "expansion", promote the coordinated development of brain-computer interface scientific and technological innovation and industry, and accelerate the cultivation of future industries.
This year, "brain-computer interface" was written into the government work report for the first time. It is listed alongside future energy, quantum technology, embodied intelligence, and 6G, and is clearly identified as one of the future industries to be cultivated and developed. According to the calculation of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the scale of China's brain-computer interface industry is expected to reach several billion yuan in 2026, and the Chinese market is expected to reach 10 - 14 billion yuan in 2030. Local governments have started to make arrangements in this industrial field -
Focusing on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Beijing will build a number of new research and innovation platforms in the fields of brain-computer interface and high-temperature superconductivity, and support enterprises to undertake more scientific and technological research tasks; Tianjin will rely on scientific research institutions to actively strive to establish a national technological innovation center in the field of brain-computer interface and accelerate R & D and achievement transformation; Hebei will introduce sub - segments of industries such as quantum technology and brain-computer interface to Hebei, attract upstream and downstream supporting industries, and form new industrial growth points.
From the perspective of industrial development, as a disruptive cutting-edge technology in the highest form of human-computer interaction, brain-computer interface integrates advanced theories and cutting-edge technologies from multiple disciplines such as clinical medicine, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, electronic information, and integrated circuits. Its technology chain is long and it involves many interdisciplinary fields. Currently, there is a huge gap in relevant professional talents.
Tianjin, rich in scientific and educational resources, seizes this opportunity. Last month, the undergraduate major of "Brain-Computer Science and Technology" at Tianjin University was officially approved by the Ministry of Education and included in the category of interdisciplinary disciplines. This is the first undergraduate major in brain-computer interface in the country. Previously, the school also added the first first-level interdisciplinary doctoral program in "Brain-Computer Interface" in the country.
This "Action Plan" proposes to strengthen the introduction and cultivation of scientific and technological talents. Give full play to the advantages of the city's disciplinary resources and the first-mover advantage of the brain-computer interface major, promote the construction of the brain-computer interface experimental teaching platform, support some universities to set up bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs in brain-computer interface, develop cutting-edge interdisciplinary disciplines in brain-computer interface, and expand the scale of talent cultivation. Guide the cooperation among universities, enterprises, scientific research institutions, and medical institutions, establish a collaborative education mechanism for industry-university-research cooperation, and cultivate compound and applied talents.
From the perspective of capital supply, for the brain-computer interface to move from the laboratory prototype to pilot production, it needs to cross a "deep water area" of capital investment. At the end of March this year, a "Brain-Computer Interface" industrial group with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan, jointly held by the Haihe Laboratory and Tianjin State-owned Assets Platform, was established. Some media interpreted that its role is to transform Tianjin's scientific research advantages in the field of brain-computer interface into industrial advantages through capital ties and platform integration, attract the agglomeration of upstream and downstream enterprises, and build a complete industrial chain ecosystem.
Tianjin also stated this time that it will implement the action to improve the industrial ecological level and strengthen the support of science and technology finance. It is necessary to give full play to the guiding role of government investment funds, focus on industrial fields such as brain-computer interface, leverage social capital to set up more science and technology innovation funds, gradually form a brain-computer interface industrial fund group, accelerate industrial agglomeration, and expand the industrial scale. According to Tianjin's plan, by 2030, a brain-computer interface industrial fund group with a total scale of over 10 billion yuan will be formed.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Urban Evolution Theory", author: Yang Huan, published by 36Kr with authorization.