China has made a significant breakthrough in deep-sea engineering equipment, with its domestically developed chain trenching robot completing sea trials in the Yellow Sea and setting a new record for the deepest trenching operation in Asia.

The 30-tonne deep-sea operating robot manufactured by Shandong Future Robot,capable of working at a depth of 3,500 meters,has filled a domestic gap,while a 20-plus-ton cable-laying robot for 1,500-meter depths has achieved full,independent control over the entire industry chain.

Jiang Libin, director of the Project Department of Shandong Future Robot, said government support during critical phases of the startup and technical R&D has been the cornerstone of its success in mastering core deep-sea equipment technologies.

The rapid growth of the company is a vivid microcosm of Shandong's efforts to build a world-class sci-tech innovation ecosystem.

In recent years, Shandong has optimized its innovation environment across eight dimensions, including government administration, talent, industry, and enterprise development, enhancing the overall innovation atmosphere.

The focus of Shandong's strategy is strengthening the central role of enterprises in sci-tech innovation. In the advanced steel industry chain, Tianrun Industry Technology Co., Ltd. targeted foreign technological monopolies.

In the third-generation semiconductor sector, Shandong Crystal GaN Semiconductor Co., Ltd. partnered with Shandong University to overcome the challenge of developing gallium nitride (GaN) single crystals.

To support enterprise innovation, Shandong has rolled out a tiered, post-investment  policy for corporate R&D. Companies with R&D expenses accounting for over five percent of their revenue will receive priority support in land allocation and energy consumption.

Additionally, Shandong is creating 30 distinctive demonstration scenarios in fields like autonomous driving and the low-altitude economy, and promoting first trial and application of 200 new technologies and products.

To address the persistent disconnect between scientific research and industrial application, Shandong has put in place a system where "industry poses the questions, science provides the answers, and the market evaluates the results," to bridge the last mile from the laboratory to the production line.

For instance, the deep-sea aquaculture technology breakthroughs of the Marine Instrumentation Institute of Shandong Academy of Sciences were shared with Qingdao enterprises through the online marine technology market. The results were applied to major national projects such as "Deep Blue No. 1," China's first large-scale, fully submersible deep-sea fish farming rig.

The Shandong Science and Technology Market, led by the Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Department, currently houses 765 technology service institutions, 49,000 enterprises, and 55,000 sci-tech achievements. It has facilitated over 2,200 transactions and provides "one-stop" full-process services for both buyers and sellers.

Shandong has introduced 16 measures for sci-tech achievement commercialization and established a due-diligence exemption mechanism to relieve researchers of unnecessary burdens.

From policy relief to platform bridging, the coastal province is reshaping its systems and innovating models to integrate organized research and organized transformation, injecting strong impetus into the cultivation of new quality productive forces.