GDAS Profile
Guangdong Academy of Sciences (GDAS) was established in 1978 with the launch of China's reform and opening-up programme.
After more than forty-year's marching on, GDAS has gradually grown into a strategic technology force of great significance devoting to Guangdong's innovation driven development, performing an irreplaceable role in boosting regional high-quality development by meeting economic and social needs likewise following technology trends.
1. The Establishment (1978-1998 )
GDAS was established on January 5, 1978, in Guangzhou, where it is headquartered. It was formed from Guangdong Institute of Microbiology, Guangdong Entomological Institute, Guangdong Institute of Analysis, Guangdong Science and Technology Library, Guangdong Science and Technology College, GDAS Experiment Factory, Guangzhou Institute of Geography and Guangdong Institute of Eco-environmental and Soil Sciences.
Collaborated with Guangzhou Branch, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in administration, GDAS served local development by cultivating research talents and coordinating local resources to make the most of its strengths, and became a vital research base of nature sciences in South China.
2. The Reform (1999-2014)
In 1999, Guangdong conducted a new reform scheme of S&T development under the new trend of the time. GDAS correspondingly reconstructed the market-driven development aim and center-focused on the benefits of economy and society, through the re-coordination of S&T resources and advantages, the rethinking of patterns for maintenance and development, and also the stimulation of creative talents' passions and efficiency on work.
Leaded by Guangdong's development needs and practical situations, GDAS strengthened domestic cooperation, reinforced its foundations on S&T and industrialization, and realized an annual increase rate of 29.3% in technology-industry-trade at the first three years of the reform. With the initiative of “serving for the current and local development”, GDAS survived and thrived in this reform, and explored a track for making long-term contributions on S&T innovations and industrial services to regional development of economy and society.
3. The Reconstruction (2015)
For the purpose of comprehensively implementing the innovation driven development strategy, GDAS as required reconstructed the organizational structure in June 2015. With aims of building the highland of high-level talents, the carriers of industry-university-research and technology commercialization, and the high-end platforms of creations and innovations, the new GDAS separated its administrations from Guangzhou Branch, CAS, and readjusted subordinated institutes from Guangdong General Research Institute of Industrial Technology (Guangzhou Research Institute of Non-ferrous Metals), China National Analytical Center, Guangzhou, and Guangdong Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology.
4. The Progress (2016-2021)
The new GDAS comprises 17 scientific research institutes covering 6 creative domains: biology and health, equipment and manufacturing, materials and chemicals, electronics and information, intelligence and services, having accomplished and contributed to abundant national leading outcomes in the safety and health of microbiology, modern materials surface engineering, unmanned aerial vehicle and space intelligence, farmland heavy metal pollution control, photo-electronic materials and products, joining and advanced manufacturing, biology engineering and seed industry, zoology and animal protections etc.
By 2021, GDAS established a talent team with over 4000 talents, including 1 Academician of CAS, 4 Academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 Academician of Russian Academy of Engineering, 1 Academician of International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, hundreds of national and regional S&T leading talents and research professors, and thousands of young scholars with the Master's or Doctor's degree.
GDAS now has 5 postdoctoral workstations and over 200 national and provincial research laboratories and S&T research platforms. During the 5 years, GDAS accomplished almost 2000 national and provincial research projects, acquired 8 national awards, 85 provincial awards and 150 awards regarding society contributions, published over 6000 papers and journals, and obtained over 1800 patents.
On technology commercialization, GDAS focused on Guangdong's 20 strategic industry clusters and developed a typical ecosystem on technology innovation. By creating the featured mode of “mechanism + carrier + talent”, GDAS combined the market, the company, and the technology talents to gain and share profits together. The GDAS mode of technology commercialization has been widely applied in the Pearl River Delta likewise in the East, West, and North Guangdong through GDAS's subordinate institutes of industrial technology.
According to Guangzhou government's report in 2019, GDAS ranked the 1st on 5 perspectives' contributions to Guangzhou: the overall S&T support, the industry-university-research combinations, the knowledge transfer and technology commercialization, the industrial support, and the talent support. Moreover, The China Technology Commercialization Annual Report 2020 evaluated over 2000 research institutes' 4 tech incomes and ranked GDAS in the 4th in China and the 1st in Guangdong. GDAS has been recognized and credited to be a national leading provincial Academy of Sciences, and has been commented by the official third party as an irreplaceable strategic S&T force in contributing Guangdong's technology innovation and regional creative development.
5. The New Journey
Confronting the future, GDAS has settled the development strategy as “one academy, two systems, three schemes, and four combinations” for building an extraordinary comprehensive industry-technique innovation center. By solidifying the cohesion and unity of the academy, GDAS implements two systems to carry out the scheme of knowledge creation and transfer, the scheme of technology cultivation and commercialization, and the scheme of industrial technology service through the integration with “four chains” of innovations, industries, capitals, and policies. Holding the initiatives of S&T creation and breakthrough, GDAS is consistently and continuously on the way of contributing to regional and national high-quality development of economy and society.
(Last updated in July 2021)