Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 To further implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, carry out the Opinions of the State Council on Strengthening the Implementation of the Innovation-Driven Development Strategy and Further Facilitating the Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship Campaign (Guo Fa [2017] No. 37) and the Implementation Opinions of the General Office of the Beijing Municipal People's Government on Strengthening the Building the Capital City's Science and Technology Condition Platforms and Further Promoting the Opening-up of Major Scientific Research Infrastructure and Instruments to Society (Jing Zheng Ban Fa [2016] No. 34), further strengthen the core function positioning of Beijing as a national scientific and technological innovation center, facilitate mass entrepreneurship and innovation, promote the opening and sharing of scientific and technological resources, give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, improve the use of the capital city's superior scientific and technological resources, stimulate the vigor to innovate, and promote industry- university-research- application cooperation between small and micro enterprises ("SMEs"), higher education institutions, and scientific research institutes. Beijing Municipal Government decides to implement a technological innovation vouchers ("Innovation Vouchers" for short) system. The system will be implemented jointly by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Finance and Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission. For the purpose of practically strengthening the administration of the innovation vouchers and bringing into full play the role of them, we hereby formulate the Measures for the Administration of the Funding of the Technological Innovation Vouchers in the Capital City ("the Measures" for short).

Article 2 Innovation Vouchers, issued by the government, shall be mainly used to facilitate SMEs and startup teams in Beijing to make full use of the resources of national and Beijing municipal key labs, engineering technology research centers, design and innovation centers, and accredited public service institutions (collectively as the "Labs") to carry out R&D activities and technological innovations. Innovation Vouchers shall be used by SMEs and startup teams when purchasing scientific research activities from the Labs; the units that accept Innovation Vouchers shall take them to the designated department to redeem.

Article 3 Innovation vouchers are funded by Beijing municipal fiscal and science & technology funds. The use and regulation thereof shall comply with relevant laws, regulations and financial rules and regulations, as well as follow the principles of integrity application, fair treatment, selective support, proper management, openness and transparency, "a fixed sum is for a fixed purpose", and fact-based disbursement.

Funding for Innovation Vouchers shall be used to: (1) issue such vouchers to SMEs and startup teams; and (2) cover the cost of government services for the purchase of Innovation Vouchers process management.

Article 4 Service revenues from sharing scientific research facilities and instruments in the form of Innovation Vouchers shall be deemed as technical service incomes or research contract-based project revenues, which shall be arranged and used as a whole by the corresponding administrative entities. Service revenues of such kind can be used to cover the Labs' expenses on performance rewards and training for experimental personnel and auxiliary personnel, lab construction and operation, R&D of instruments and test methods, and research contract-based R&D activities.

Chapter II Organizational Structure and Responsibilities

Article 5 Beijing Municipal Bureau of Finance and the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission will jointly establish a leading group, headed by the chief officials of the two bodies. The leading group will be mainly responsible for the Innovation Voucher-related works, including policy-making, decision-making guidance, supervision and approval, performance assessment. It will also take the charge in studying and determining major issues in the implementation of Innovation Vouchers.

Article 6 An executive office under the leading group will be established. The office will be managed by Beijing Technology Exchange & Promotion Center (BTEC) and be mainly responsible for the day-to-day operation and administration, the preparation and reporting of annual budget, of Innovation Vouchers. Besides, it will also be responsible for dealing with the specific tasks such as the application, issuance, and redemption of such vouchers, as well as the performance assessment organizing, annual work report preparation and other tasks assigned by the leading group.

Article 7 Recommending agencies, are mainly responsible for providing professional services to SMEs and startup teams for the application for Innovation Vouchers. These agencies will be selected chiefly from science and technology service agencies, hi-tech business incubators or innovation business incubators, and published upon the review and approval of the leading group on a yearly basis. These agencies shall submit the letter of commitment, establish the working mechanism and supporting measures to ensure the smooth operation of the services.

Article 8 Professional service institutions. In the process of providing services to enterprises, accepting and redeeming Innovation Vouchers, the Lab will entrust a specific professional service institution to be the only external working institution for Innovation Voucher-related work. Such institutions will be mainly responsible for organizing the Labs to carry out S&T- resources -based services, verifying the authenticity of the business, the compliance of the business with the issuance of Innovation Vouchers, the smooth operation of the business, and the compliance in proportion of the supporting funds for the business. They will also be responsible for  acceptance and redemption of Innovation Vouchers.

Article 9 Professional service institutions will be mainly selected from the colleges and universities, research institutes and enterprises to which the Labs eligible for accepting Innovation Vouchers are affiliated. They will be made public upon the review and approval of the leading group based on the principle of voluntary application and competitiveness-based selection. These institutions shall submit the letter of commitment, and the implementation rules to ensure the smooth operation of the work. The implementation rules shall mainly include the list of the Labs that are eligible for accepting Innovation Vouchers, the provisions concerning the signing of the contract, the entities accepting Innovation Vouchers, the methods for fund advance payment and Innovation Vouchers redemption.

Chapter III Ways and Scope of Innovation Vouchers Support

Article 10 Innovation Vouchers will adopt the mode of network authentication. Each Innovation Voucher shall be used within the validity period. The Innovation Voucher that fails to enroll any of the scientific research activities within the validity period will be automatically invalidated upon expiry. Innovation Vouchers that have been used in the current year but failed to be redeemed due to the annual total amount of funds or redemption time limit will be rolled over to the next year for support.

Article 11 Innovation Vouchers are designed to support SMEs and startup teams and shall be focused on one or two key fields for support. They shall be used to support the scientific research activities such as test detection, cooperative R&D, commissioned development, R&D design, technology solution or purchase of new technology and new products(services), which are carried out by such SMEs and startup teams with designated Labs around technological innovation and entrepreneurship. Innovation Vouchers shall only be used to support research activities related to technological innovation and entrepreneurship. Innovation Vouchers shall not be used to support the compulsory or statutory testing and other commercial activities which are required to be conducted according to laws, regulations or mandatory standards.

Article 12 Projects that apply for Innovation Vouchers shall not have obtained any financial support except the special fund of Innovation Vouchers.

Article 13 SMEs that apply for Innovation Vouchers shall meet the following conditions simultaneously:

(I) Registered in Beijing, with independent legal person capacity, with no more than 100 full-time employees, operating income less than RMB10 million, with a registered capital of no more than RMB20 million, with a sound financial structure, regulated management, and no bad faith record;

(II) With no affiliation, co-construction, property bond and other related relations with the cooperative units.

Startup teams that apply for Innovation Vouchers shall meet the following conditions simultaneously:

(1) without legal person capacity, not registered yet;

(2) team members shall be college students;

(3) projects that apply for Innovation Vouchers shall be available in the testing or R&D preparations (excluding the projects which are limited to text planning) required for product R&D and commercialization. The intellectual property rights (IPRs) generated upon the completion of the project shall be owned by the startup teams or be jointly owned by the unit to which the Lab is affiliated, through negotiation.

Recommending agencies shall give priority to the top three startup teams that meet the conditions for issuing Innovation Vouchers and have won the entrepreneurship competition at or above the provincial or ministerial level in the past two years, or the top two startup teams that have won the entrepreneurship competition at higher education institutions in Beijing. 

Chapter IV Ways of Support

Article 14 Innovation Vouchers adopt the mode of network authentication. In each application cycle, the maximum funding the Innovation Vouchers that SMEs and startup teams apply for shall be no more than RMB500,000.

The amount of funding of Innovation Vouchers applied for shall be determined by adopting the hierarchical excess regressive ratio method, and the results shall be rounded to the whole. The specific ratio shall be verified according to the followings:

The eligible business contract with an amount no more than RMB100,000 each year, the ratio shall be no more than 90%;

The eligible business contract with an amount more than RMB100,000 and less than RMB500,000, the ratio shall be no more than the 60%;

The eligible business contract with an amount more than RMB500,000 and less than RMB1,000,000, the ratio shall be no more than the 30%;

The eligible business contract with an amount more than RMB1,000,000, no funding shall be granted.

Chapter V Application and Issuance

Article 15 The application of SMEs and startup teams for Innovation Vouchers shall be organized by recommending agencies. For the key fields selected each year for support, eligible professional service institutions can also serve as recommending agencies and organize enterprises in these fields to apply for the Innovation Vouchers. Innovation Vouchers shall be issued to the eligible SMEs and startup teams by recommending agencies.

Article 16 Recommending agencies shall review the application materials filled in online by SMEs and startup teams and submit them to the executive office upon examination.

Article 17 After passing the examination of the executive office, Innovation Vouchers will be issued to SMEs and startup teams via recommending agencies. SMEs and startup teams can obtain the quota of Innovation Vouchers through system inquiry.

Chapter VI Appropriation and Redemption

Article 18 Professional service institutions shall review the application materials of SMEs and startup teams, and organize the Labs to provide research services to eligible ones. Upon completion of research activities, the Labs shall register the content and amount corresponding to the contract in time. The unique ID verification codes automatically generated by the application system will be bound to the contract content through the information system to complete the acceptance of Innovation Vouchers.

Article 19 According to the binding situation of Innovation Vouchers of each professional service institution, the executive office will sign a Letter of Assignment for Innovation Vouchers with Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission in a uniform way, and the Commission will appropriate the funding of Innovation Vouchers to the entities to which the Labs are affiliated or professional service institutions. 

Article 20 Professional service institutions shall submit Innovation Vouchers and the related supporting documents to the executive office within the prescribed time limit, and the executive office shall organize experts to review and verify voucher redemption materials. Each entity to which the Lab is affiliated or professional service institution shall redeem the previously appropriated Innovation Voucher fund to the Lab based on the examination results. For the Innovation Voucher project that fails to pass the examination, the Innovation Voucher fund will be returned by professional service institutions.

Before the implementation of the Innovation Voucher system is terminated, the redemption deadline will be specified, and the issuance of Innovation Vouchers stopped, and no more applications related to Innovation Vouchers will be accepted and Innovation Vouchers will be redeemed according to its actual face value.

Chapter VII Supervision and Regulation

Article 21 Innovation Vouchers shall not be transferred, donated, phased or sold. Enterprises, recommending agencies and professional service institutions shall not provide false information in the application for special fund of Innovation Voucher; Professional service institutions and open Labs shall not obtain innovation voucher funds with SMEs or startup teams by concealing beneficial ownership, making up innovation voucher contracts or increasing the contract amount. Entities in violation of the above regulations shall be subjected to the appropriation suspension and/or recovery of financial fund as well as a bad faith record; Entities in violation of the relevant laws and regulations, they shall be dealt with according to the Regulations on the Punishments and Disciplinary Actions for Financial Violations and other relevant laws and regulations.

Article 22 Beijing Municipal Bureau of Finance and Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission shall be responsible for the supervision and regulation of the specific work of Innovation Vouchers, and the supervision and implementation of the Measures.

Chapter VIII Supplementary Provisions

Article 23 The Innovation Voucher regulations in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei which are interconnected with those in other regions, the acceptance organizations, and the process of appropriation and redemption shall be formulated separately.

Article 24 In order to protect the trade secrets and legitimate rights and interests of SMEs and startup teams, recommending agencies and professional service institutions are required to keep confidential the registration materials and the information about research activities of SMEs and startup teams submitted by them.

Article 25 The Measures shall come into force 30 days after the date of issuance. The Administrative Measures for the Implementation of Technological Innovation Vouchers in the Capital City (for Trial Implementation) (Jing Cai Ke Wen [2014] No. 2515) shall be repealed at the same time. The Measures shall be subject to the interpretation of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Finance and Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission.