1. Time of Application 

1.1Applications shall be accepted throughout the year. 

2. Key Areas of Research 

2.1Thekey areas of support shall include six (6)scientific research fields, namely,medicaltechnology,bigdata and AI,robotics,newmaterials,microelectronics, andfintech, as well as other future-oriented cutting-edge science and technology fields.

3. Methods and Amounts of Support

3.1The R&D enterprise incubators shall be post funded, which means that they have to be developed and operated before they are funded by government. If a R&D enterprise incubator certified by the Management Authority gets a score of60 orabove in the project review by a third party, the operator of the R&D enterprise incubator can apply to the Management Authority for funding support. Upon the third-party audit commissioned by the Management Authority, the incubator shall be given support up to50% of the total investment in the incubator development, or in an amount capped at RMB10 million. 

4. Conditions for Application 

4.1The R&D enterprise incubators shall be developed and funded by renowned universities/colleges or research organizations at home or abroad. 

4.2The R&D enterprise incubators’ operators shall be independent legal persons duly registered with the Shenzhen Park. Their operational entities shall be located in the Shenzhen Park, with such keyprocesses as tax payment, financial accounting and service provision taking place in the Shenzhen Park. Moreover, they have to be certified by and filed with the Management Authority.

4.3The R&D enterprise incubators shall be industry-specific, fall into the key areas of development designated by the Shenzhen Park and primarily serve the R&D enterprises by providing them with office space and incubation services. They shall commit themselves to the development of startups and have the ability to provide integrated services and technology transfer, tech finance and entrepreneurship mentoring services in particular.  

4.4The incubators shall have operated for at least two (2) years, with clear orientation of development, sound operation and management systems and incubation service mechanisms. 

4.5The incubators shallcover an area of no less than3,000 square meters, with that used by the enterprises incubated (including the space used for public services) accounting for more than75%, and have no less than30 enterprises currently incubated. Of the currently incubated enterprises, those that have applied for patents shall account for no less than50% of the total enterprises incubated, or those owning effective intellectual property shall account for no less than30%. Moreover, more than eight (8) enterprises shall have graduated from and resided in the Shenzhen Park.  

4.6The incubators shall own professional teams providing incubation services, with no less than five (5) full-time personnel. They shall have signed contracts with more than six (6) institutional scientific and technological service providers and more than three (3) entrepreneurship mentors.  Furthermore, the incubators’ funds, including self-owned seed money and partner-provided incubation funds, shall be equal to or more than RMB3 million. At least two (2) enterprises currently incubated shall have succeeded in obtaining investment or financing. 

4.7Should the applicants or their legal representatives 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.

5. Application Materials 

(the following materials excluding originals shall be affixed with official seals)

5.1Application Form for the R&D Enterprise Incubator Development Support Program

5.2Copies of the ID cards of the applicants’ legal representatives

5.3Property lease contracts and the certificates of filing the contracts with the property lease administration office (to be provided by the applicants that have leased properties)

5.4Certificates of property ownership and land use rights (to be provided by the applicants that own properties)

5.5Introduction to the dedicated service teams (such evidentiary materials for the dedicated personnel as the certificates of social security contributions for the past three (3) months and professional qualifications certificates, etc. shall be produced)

5.6Operation summary reports (including introduction to the operation and management model, list of services, information of activities conducted and relevant evidentiary materials. In particular, the list of services shall provide copies of the cooperation agreements signed by and between the space/platform and the partnership intermediary agencies, including legal firms, accounting firms, consultancies, venture capital institutions, etc., to provide services for enterprises; the information of activities conducted, which can be photos, plans, notices for conferences, news reports, approval documents, will be spot-checked.)

5.7Evidentiary materials for the incubators’ outcomes as well as other materials evidencing the incubators’ strength

6. Application and Approval Procedures

6.1Application: All applicants engaging in thekey areas of research designated by the Shenzhen Park and willing to build R&D enterprise incubatorsshall be eligible to apply to the Management Authority by submitting the required application materials.

6.2Acceptance: The acceptance personnelshall 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 will be returned for corrections and may be filed later after they are corrected. Those ineligible shall be rejected.

6.3Examination and Review: The Management Authorityshall 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 Authorityshall commission the third-party organizations to review the applications and issue expert opinions and review reports accordingly.  

6.4Approval: The Management Authority shall be responsible to draft a proposed support plan and then refer the draft plan to the Working Meeting of theShenzhen Steering Group Office for Development of Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone for deliberation and approval.

6.5Finalization: Projects approved shall be notified to the publicin 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 them a Notice of Project Approval; for those disapproved, it shall issue them a Notice of Project Rejection.

7. Others

7.1These guidelines shall be effective as of December11,2021, for a period of one (1) year.