The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ("MIIT") has recently issued the Guide to the Establishment of National Industrial Design Research Academies (the "Guide").
The Guide explicitly states that industrial design research academies will be instructed, featuring public services for the industrial design field as their core functions and focusing on key common technologies regarding industrial design, to develop open and shared research and development platforms, coordinated and efficient achievement transformation platforms, talent cultivation platforms oriented to connections among production, education and research, and public service platforms in support of innovative development of the manufacturing industry. In addition, the Guide notes that industrial design academies shall highlight their duties and missions in six respects, including making basic studies, offering technical support, transforming achievements, and delivering consulting services. In terms of achievement transformation, among others, the Guide calls for services concerning trial production of products, inspection and testing, quality certification, patent pre-warning, swift examination, rapid confirmation of rights, and prompt protection of rights. Also, the Guide distributes the Basic Criteria for the Upgrading of Provincial Industrial Design Research Academies into National Industrial Design Research Academies.