1. Time of Application

1.1 Applications shall be accepted throughout the year.

2. Key Areas of Support

2.1 The key areas of support include scientific research fields, namely, medical technology, big data and AI, robotics, new materials, microelectronics, and fintech, as well as other future-oriented cutting-edge science and technology fields.

3. Methods and Amounts of Support

3.1 The Eligibility criteria shall be research organizations or R&D enterprises duly registered with the Shenzhen Park and possessingbasic or applied basic research capabilities.

3.2 Projects with a score of 60 or above in overall review shall be eligible to be granted funding support capped at 50% of the total investment in the project or in the amount of up to RMB 50 million. The government supporting funds shall be disbursed on a phase-by-phase basis and those for next phases shall be contingent on the results of phased performance appraisal. Subject to the cap of the supporting funds, the amount of funding support may be adjusted depending on the results of performance appraisal.

3.3 The supporting funds of government shall be used as construction expenditure and R&D expenditure, among others. Of the supporting funds allocated for a project, no less than 50% shall be used as construction expenditure (or 20% in the case of a digital economy or high-level software development project); no more than 40% shall be used as human resources expenditure as part of the R&D expenditure; and no more than 10% shall be used as commissioned development expenditure. 

4. Conditions for Application

4.1 Basic research projects shall refer to research activities aimed at understanding natural phenomena, revealing the law of nature or acquiring new knowledge, rationales or methods. Applied basic research projects shall refer to original research aimed at acquiring new knowledge such as the rationales behind the application of theories in order to provide scientific bases for the resolution of practical issues and fulfill specific, practical purposes or objectives.  

4.2 The applicants shall be required to meet the following conditions: 

4.2.1 The applicants shall be research organizations or R&D enterprises with clear positioning, specific objectives, and forward-looking and characteristic research activities. They shall commit themselves to completing their registration in the Shenzhen Park, signing project contracts and initiating site renovation within three (3) months after finishing the project approval notification process.

4.2.2 The applicants shall be required to have mature management and operating models for research organizations, and possess advanced, standardized management systems for talent teams, research projects, funds, assets, equipment and facilities, etc., and relatively strong material basis.

4.2.3 The applicants shall be required to have the ability to integrate research strengths in relevant areas and the willingness to share resources with others, the ability to coordinate and organize researchers from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the international community and the Chinese mainland to conduct joint research, and hence the ability to boost healthy, coordinated development in the area of research concerned.  For the part of projects supported by fiscal funds, the applicants shall be required to establish a resource sharing mechanism and make science and technology resources available to particular organizations and researchers. 

4.2.4 In cases where the applicants or their legal representatives violate research integrity, such shall be entered on to the Shenzhen Park’s list of research integrity exceptions and subject to relevant restrictions in applying for fiscal support.

4.3 The sponsors shall be expected to meet the following conditions: 

4.3.1 They must be domestic or overseas universities/colleges, research institutes, enterprises, or social organizations with independent legal person status.

4.3.2 They must have strong foundation in particular areas of research, have conducted relevant research with high-level research outcomes, and hence be considerably influential or prestigious in relevant areas.  

4.3.2.1 In case where they are universities/colleges, they shall in principle be among the global top 100 universities/colleges or the top 20 universities/colleges in China (please refer to the ARWU, USNEWS, QS, THE and double first-class universities/colleges rankings for the past five (5) years). Alternatively, the subject concerned shall be among the global top 50 (please refer to the ARWU, USNEWS, QS, THE and double first-class discipline rankings for the past five (5) years). 

4.3.2.2 In case where they are research institutes or social organizations, they shall in principle be expected to have professional technology and management teams, considerably high-level R&D outcomes and technology strength, and relatively strong tech development and project implementation capabilities. They must also be in good condition in terms of operation and management and have sizeable financial strength.

4.3.2.3 Should they be enterprises, they shall in principle be expected to be among the global top 500 enterprises, China’s top 500 enterprises, China’s top 500 manufacturing enterprises, China’s top 500 private enterprises, or on the Ministry of Science and Technology’s list of unicorn enterprises in China during the past five (5) years. Alternatively, they shall be domestic or overseas well-known or renowned enterprises in their industries or technology enterprises possessing core R&D technologies and capable of creating considerably high-tech barriers against their competitors.

4.3.3 In case the sponsors or their legal representatives violate research integrity, such shall be entered on to the Shenzhen Park’s list of research integrity exceptions and subject to relevant restrictions in applying for fiscal support.

4.4 The applicants’ partners shall be required to meet the following conditions: 

4.4.1 The number of the partners shall be limited to one (1) only.

4.4.2 The project feasibility study report shall fill out the name of the partner and be affixed with the official seal of the partner. The project cooperation agreement shall also be presented. The agreement must clearly specify the division of research work, the distribution of fiscal and self-owned funds, and the attribution of intellectual property between the two parties. Importantly, the first affiliation of the first author of all papers or monographs published as a result of the project shall be the applicant. 

4.4.3 The applicant shall undertake the majority of the R&D work and therefore be allocated a higher proportion of the fiscal funds than the partner. 

4.4.4 The applicant shall be responsible to provide more than three (3) of the top five (5) members of the project team. 

4.5 The project heads and teams of the applicants shall meet the following conditions: 

4.5.1 The project teams must have a workforce of no less than thirty (30) people, including one (1) head, no less than ten (10) core members, and no less than twenty (20) full-time researchers and/or technology service personnel. The project heads shall undertake to dedicate no less than six (6) months of their full work time to the project in the Shenzhen Park and must be physically present at the project site for no less than three (3) months on a yearly basis. The core members shall pledge to spend no less than six (6) person-years working in the Cooperation Zone.

4.5.2 The project heads shall be the applicants’ researchers or management personnel with advanced technical titles (or positions) or doctoral degrees, or if not, have the recommendation of two scientific and technology personnel with advanced technical titles (positions) in the same area of research. Moreover, they shall have fruitful academic or R&D outcomes and considerably great influence and prestige in relevant areas, be supported by talent teams based on well-known or renowned universities/colleges, research organizations, enterprises or social organizations they are affiliated with, and satisfy one of the following conditions at the minimum: 

(a) That they once served famous universities/colleges/research organizations at home or abroad and presided over major research projects of developed countries/regions; 

(b) That they once served leading enterprises in the industry concerned at home or abroad, presided over the R&D activities of several important core products and owned the intellectual property rights of the core technologies; 

(c) That they once presided over national, provincial, or ministerial projects of great importance in relevant areas or served as directors of key national, provincial, or ministerial laboratories or engineering laboratories; or

(d) That they once won the second or above national natural science awards, national technological invention awards or national science and technology progress awards and were among the top three (3) authors of the award-winning projects. 

4.5.3 The projects’ core members shall be senior R&D personnel with advanced technical titles (or positions), doctoral degrees or fruitful academic or R&D outcomes in relevant research areas, and have the willingness to do research in the Shenzhen Park in a long-term and stable manner.

4.5.4 In case where the project heads or team members violate research integrity, they shall be entered on to the Shenzhen Park’s list of research integrity exceptions and subject to relevant restrictions in applying for fiscal support.

4.6 The basic research or applied basic research projects shall satisfy the following conditions: 

4.6.1 The projects shall be required to have feasible plans or implementation plans. They shall put forward quantifiable overall objectives and key phased performance appraisal indicators, as well as clear, reasonable, and measurable expected benefits or performance goals. Moreover, the technology outcomes (including self-developed intellectual properties, technologies digested, absorbed, or innovated, or those jointly developed with foreign parties) they adopted shall be advanced in nature and of high value in application and promotion.  

4.6.2 The projects shall be required to involve the key areas of development of the Shenzhen Park. Their key processes, including financial accounting, R&D, and services, shall all be implemented in the Shenzhen Park. Once they are moved out of the park, the government supporting funds shall be returned in their entirety. 

4.6.3 The projects’ implementation periods shall generally be no longer than three (3) years. They shall be required to have incremental construction investment, which shall be no less than 40% of their total investment. For the digital economy or high-level software development projects, the incremental construction investment shall be no less than 20% of the total investment. 

4.6.4 The project funds have been secured. 

4.6.4.1 In case the projects’ sponsors are enterprises or social organizations, the total amount of funds to be raised by the applicants themselves shall be no more than the sum of self-owned funds (including bank deposits and wealth management products), the loans banks promise to grant, bank loans, credit lines offered by banks, and the funds already paid for the acquisition of new equipment, etc. In particular, the sum of the self-owned funds and the funds already paid for the acquisition of new equipment shall not be lower than 30% of the total investment in a project. A piece of equipment of which the order is placed no longer than three (3) months ahead of the date of finalization of the project applications and which is used for the projects can be recognized as newly acquired equipment. Furthermore, the applicants shall undertake to place such equipment in the Shenzhen Park.

4.6.4.2 In case where the projects’ sponsors are universities/colleges or research organizations, the total amount of funds to be raised by the applicants themselves shall be no more than the sum of self-owned funds (including bank deposits and wealth management products), the loans banks promise to grant, bank loans, credit lines offered by banks,  the funds already paid for the acquisition of new equipment, the residual value of pre-existing equipment, and the salary of team members (to be calculated as per their full-time salary given by  their original employers and the length of working time in the Shenzhen Park on a yearly basis). In particular, the sum of the self-owned funds and the funds already paid for the acquisition of new equipment shall not be lower than 50% of the total supporting funds granted by government. A piece of equipment of which the order is placed no longer than three (3) months ahead of the date of finalization of the project applications and which is used for the projects can be recognized as newly acquired equipment. Pre-existing equipment may be priced on market conditions and contribute to the projects. Furthermore, the applicants shall undertake to place such equipment in the Shenzhen Park.

4.6.5 For the part of projects supported by fiscal funds, the applicants shall be required to establish a resource sharing mechanism and make science and technology resources available to particular organizations and researchers. 

4.6.6 The projects shall comply with the industrial policy, energy consumption, environmental protection, and safety requirements of the the Shenzhen Park. 

4.6.7 The applicants shall apply for the same projects only once on a yearly basis and shall not engage in concurrent or repeated applications for the same project. Should an applicant be found to engage in concurrent or repeated applications with respect to the same project, it shall be deprived of the eligibility to apply for all supported projects for a period of five (5) years. 

4.6.8 The applicants shall satisfy other conditions prescribed in laws, regulations, bylaws, or the normative documents issued by higher-level administrative departments.

5. Application Materials (the following materials excluding originals shall be affixed with official seals)

5.1 Feasibility Study Reports

5.1.1 Outline of the Feasibility Study Report (include the table of contents and page numbers)

5.1.1 Organization Profile (no more than 4,000 words): It shall include the name, legal person status, basis for preparation, contents/time/plans/place of building, total investment, and total government subsidy already sought, and main conditions for building. 

5.1.2 Project Background and Significance: They shall include the current situation of existing technologies and equipment used at home and abroad, the advancedness of the technologies employed in the current project, and the demand of national science and technology progress and social and economic development, etc. 

5.1.3 Contents and Expected Goals of Research: They shall encompass the scientific issues and key technologies to be focally addressed, overall objectives, performance parameters, key milestones, phased performance appraisal indicators, completion acceptance criteria, and the schedule of research, etc.

5.1.4 Research Plans: They shall encompass the process routes, technology plans and their feasibility analyses, various validations, and analytical tests to be conducted for various research tasks.

5.1.5 Information on the Applicant and Team: It shall consist of an overview of the applicant, and the basic information of project heads, core members and other researchers.

5.1.6 Preparatory Work: It shall consist of the contents and results of previously conducted research, existing conditions for the proposed research (basic data, experimental conditions, domestic or international cooperation, etc.), analyses on the key technologies involved, the conditions found lacking for the research to be done and the means of resolving such inadequacies, etc. 

5.1.7 Budgets: They shall include the total investment estimate, the yearly investment plans, the situation of project fundraising, etc. (the total investment generally consists of the construction investment, R&D expenditure, and initial working capital).

5.1.7.1 The construction investment shall mainly consist of expenses in construction, installation, site renovation, equipment and tool acquisition (including the expenditure for acquisition of necessary technologies and software and for the customization of specialized instruments/devices), etc.

5.1.7.2 The R&D expenditure shall consist of the expenditure for in-house development and the expenditure for commissioned development. The former consists primarily of the research materials and clerical expenses (costs of materials, tests, assessments and processing, as well as expenses in publishing, literature, information, and intellectual property affairs), the human resources expenses (including R&D personnel remuneration, service fees, and consulting fees paid to experts), and other expenses (including the costs of travels, conferences, international cooperation and exchange, performance bonus, and management fees). The latter shall mainly refer to the expenses incurred in purchasing outsourced R&D services.

5.1.7.3 The initial working capital shall mainly include the fuel and power cost, the raw materials cost, the site rental, the basic reserve funds, the interest accrued during the implementation of the project, etc.  

5.1.7.4 The government supporting funds plan shall encompass a list of the key equipment, software, etc. to be acquired for the project (the types, quantities, reference unit prices of the equipment, whether or not it has been acquired, whether or not the fiscal subsidies have been used to acquire the equipment, etc.), the human resources expenses, the working capital, etc.

5.1.8 Implementation Progress and Management: They shall include the building period, implementation schedule, the in-progress management, etc.

5.1.9 Economic and Social Benefits Analyses: They shall include the income to be generated, the jobs to be added and the industry development to be driven by the organization.

5.1.10 Risk Analyses: They shall include the risks for the project, as well as the risk control plans and measures.

5.1.11 Other Matters Requiring Explanations

5.2 Financial audit reports of the applicant or the sponsor for the past three (3) years (if the applicant has been in existence for less than three (3) years, then the reports for the period up to the present are required)

5.3 Certificates of self-owned funds (including the certificates of deposit and wealth management products held, etc.), certificates of loans, loan commitments, certificates of credit lines issued by banks within three (3) months (originals).

5.4 Certificates of the advancedness of the technologies to be researched and reward documents, including the originality check report, the list of relevant patents and papers (including such information as the number of patents granted and the journals where the papers were published), the product testing report, etc.

5.5 Certificates of land use rights or venue lease (if any) for the project.

5.6 Information on the project.

5.7 Lists of existing instruments and devices owned by the project, and a letter of commitment to move all the equipment on the list into the Shenzhen Park.

5.8 Lists of newly acquired equipment and software.

5.9 Certificates of expenditure for newly acquired equipment, including orders, invoices, bank transfer records, etc.

5.10 Certificates of qualifications for members of the applicant’s research team, including the degree/graduation certificates, certificates of incumbency, and other credentials for one (1) head, at least five (5) core members and at least ten (10) full-time researchers or technology service personnel.

5.11 Letters of commitment to base at least one (1) head, ten (10) core members and twenty (20) full-time researchers or technology service personnel in the Shenzhen Park prior to the commencement of the project as well as letters of commitment on the hours of work in the Shenzhen Park for the head and all the core team members, researchers and technology service personnel.

5.12 Records and certificates of applications for major project, such as replies, contracts, and notification web addresses.

5.13 Cooperation agreements signed by and between the applicant and the sponsor (if any).

5.14 Letters of commitment to incorporate independent legal entities in the Shenzhen Park.

5.15 Other materials.

6. Application and Approval Procedures 

6.1 Application: All applicants engaging in the priority areas of research designated by the Shenzhen Park and willing to undertake basic or applied basic research projects shall be eligible to apply to the Management Authority by submitting the required application materials.

6.2 Acceptance: The acceptance personnel shall be responsible to verify the application materials submitted and file those that are complete, standardized and in line with statutory forms. Applications that do not comply with requirements shall be returned for corrections and may be filed later after they are corrected. Those ineligible shall be rejected.

6.3 Examination and Review: The Management Authority shall preliminarily examine the applications through internal meeting. Should an application be found incomplete or incorrect, the applicant shall be required to make additions or corrections. Afterwards, the Management Authority shall organize project review organizations to review the applications and issue expert opinions and review reports accordingly. 

6.4 Approval: The Management Authority shall be responsible to draft a proposed support program based on the results of review by the project review organizations and approve the plan according to due procedures. Thereafter, the plan will be referred to the Working Meeting of the Shenzhen Steering Group Office for Development of Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone for deliberation and approval.

6.5 Finalization: Projects approved shall be notified to the public in accordance with existing provisions. Regarding those without objections or with objections that have been resolved during the period of notification, the Management Authority shall issue the corresponding applicants a Notice of Project Approval; for those disapproved, it shall issue the corresponding applicants a Notice of Project Rejection.

7. Others

These guidelines shall be effective as of December 11, 2020, for a period of one (1) year.