This year is the tenth year since the alliance was established, and its members have grown from 43 when it was launched to 453 now. This industry alliance, which has organized LED lighting demonstration projects such as the Water Cube LED landscape lighting and the Great Hall of the People's semiconductor lighting energy-saving renovation, promotes development through application and allows my country's semiconductor lighting industry to win a place in the world through model and technological innovation.
"At the beginning of the development of the LED industry, more than 90% of China's small and medium-sized enterprises were privately owned. Only by developing together and taking the lead in forming an industrial chain can we have the initiative and advantages."
"Ten years ago, not many people were really optimistic about the development of LED." Wu Ling, secretary-general of the alliance, said that when he was in charge of scientific and technological projects, some experts also warned that "LED is not like the energy-saving lamps of the past, which saved electricity but not money." It was difficult for the public to accept it. There were indeed many technical problems with LED lighting at that time.
"It cannot be said that LED development is orderly. But one thing is obvious. After several years of promotion, LED technology has gradually matured." She said.
"At the beginning of the development of the LED industry, more than 90% of China's small and medium-sized enterprises were privately owned. Only by developing together and taking the lead in forming an industrial chain can we have the initiative and advantages." Some domestic LED companies said that as far as the domestic LED industry is concerned, the only option is to form alliances and not "fight among themselves" to participate in international competition.
Under this understanding, 43 domestic key enterprises and scientific research institutes engaged in LED established CSA in October 2004. At present, the alliance member units have grown to include a total of 453 key enterprises and scientific research institutes from Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the cross-strait economic cooperation agreement signed in 2009, the LED industry was included as one of the five cooperation projects.
Based on the rapid development of the international LED industry at that time, LED industry associations from eight countries and regions including Europe, the United States and South Korea all believed that the time was ripe to establish the International Semiconductor Lighting Alliance. With the rise of China's LED industry and the improvement of service awareness, the National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering R&D and Industry Alliance accurately grasped the "time window". Wu Ling proposed the concept of "global industry" for semiconductor lighting. All parties need to jointly respond to the challenges of globalization and carry out a large amount of coordination work in the role of "liaison person", which has won unanimous recognition from all members. When the International Semiconductor Lighting Alliance was established, Wu Ling was unanimously elected as chairman.
Since it was not possible to register an international organization in mainland China, we chose to register the International Semiconductor Alliance (ISA) in Hong Kong and announced its establishment on October 17, 2010.
Since its establishment, ISA has developed rapidly. At present, members cover the entire semiconductor lighting industry chain, and international giants such as Philips, Osram, and Samsung have joined. The member production capacity accounts for 70% of the global semiconductor lighting industry production capacity.
However, Wu Ling and others also realized that the establishment of ISA does not mean success. "What can we do to attract members? Having a market does not necessarily mean having a say."
By organizing a large number of activities and writing relevant guidance documents and white papers, ISA has continuously increased its visibility and expanded its international influence. At the same time, it has gradually established its right to speak and formulate rules, and has integrated the demands of Chinese industries.
2 Development
Work together to make standards and create "confidence labels"
In response to market demand for technological innovation and application, starting in 2008, the alliance began to organize companies to formulate technical specifications. With the support of its own technology, we will accelerate the development of alliance standards and open up market channels.
"It turns out that the biggest problem in the development of LED is market application and difficulty in interchangeability. The specification interface we are talking about is a connector standard similar to that of a mobile phone charger." Ruan Jun, executive deputy secretary-general of the alliance, said that various product specifications are different, and traditional standards committees are unwilling to make interface standards.
Enterprises are also worried if the alliance wants to do so. Once they participate in the formulation of alliance standards and the technology is introduced, it will be very troublesome if the market cannot expand. The alliance has conducted many surveys in the past. Ruan Jun noticed that competition in the international market is becoming increasingly fierce. There are many domestic LED companies, but they are small and scattered. Industrial resources are not concentrated and there is a lack of leading brand companies. In addition, the industry's R&D strength is scattered, innovation capabilities are insufficient, and there is a lack of an internationally competitive public technology R&D platform. At the same time, the semiconductor lighting standard certification system is not yet complete, market competition is not standardized, and the industrial development environment is imperfect.
The alliance is not pessimistic because of this. "With the continuous advancement of technology and the continuous growth of industry scale, the functional lighting market penetration rate will reach 30% in 2015," Ruan Jun said.
In response to market demands for technological innovation and application, the Alliance has organized companies to formulate technical specifications since 2008. With the support of its own technology, we will accelerate the development of alliance standards and open up market channels.
The alliance standard takes enterprises as the main body and extensively solicits their opinions, which increases the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in the standard. Through joint application and promotion of alliance standards through product quality certification and other joint enterprises, it jointly creates a "confidence label" for government procurement and consumer market choice.
At present, the Alliance Standards Committee has organized and released 26 alliance standards, of which 5 national standards have been completed and formulated based on the alliance standards. In 2013, another 3 national standards were completed and are being formulated. In November 2013, two standards were released in the form of cross-strait common technical specifications.
However, the legal status of the current alliance standards has not yet been recognized, and the professional service fields such as third-party standards and certification explored by the alliance need to be further opened up by the country. "Our thoughts must be like parachutes. Only by being open can we achieve great results." Ruan Jun said.
3 Innovation
The laboratory started out firmly on the path of innovation
As the first national key laboratory established relying on industry alliances, it has blazed its own path of innovation in the management and operation model of private scientific research institutions.
The National Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Lighting Joint Innovation is the only national key laboratory so far built on the basis of the Industrial Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance. The laboratory, which was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology in January 2012, was registered as a private non-enterprise legal entity in 2014 after many discussions and studies by the sponsoring unit. This laboratory, which has grown stronger in two years, has embarked on its own path of innovation in the management and operation model of private scientific research institutions.
“The registration of a laboratory is an intriguing matter, and it also means that we must innovate in our operating model.” said Wu Ling, secretary-general of the alliance.
Wu Ling, who is eager to obtain technology sources on a global scale, initially viewed the positioning of the laboratory from an international perspective. She chose to register a private non-corporate legal entity in Zhongguancun because this non-profit, open, and international innovation platform is more in line with the international open innovation model, so the laboratory can now even train PhDs for key foreign universities.
In terms of funding investment, the laboratory mainly adopts the joint participation method of "bringing your own dry food" from the industry. "What we want to solve are common technical issues in the industry, including standard issues that support market application," Wu Ling said.
Today, the laboratory has provided technical services to nearly 30 companies, and has successfully incubated 3 companies in Beijing, Changzhou, and Zhuhai. Technology transfer and service revenue has exceeded 30 million yuan. Whether it is an LED street light intelligent management system or a new smart wearable product that is being commercially promoted, it is relying on this technology platform to quickly bear fruit.
“Our key laboratories are neither laboratories in universities or scientific research institutes, nor are they completely equivalent to enterprise laboratories.” Wu Ling said frankly that what they do is a platform for common industry technologies.
>>Policy Background
The Capital Innovation Alliance forms an industrial "alliance circle"
As the chairman unit of the Capital Innovation Alliance promoted by the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, to this day, the growth story of the National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering R&D and Industrial Alliance has become the epitome of industrial alliances supporting economic and social development.
With the continuous development of technological innovations and business model innovations such as the Internet and cloud computing, alliances limited to a single field are facing new challenges. Industrial integration and cross-border development are inherent needs and general trends, and have become one of the important ways to develop emerging industries and cultivate new economic growth points.
Director Tang Jian of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission introduced that under this background, further integration of resources and realization of cross-alliance and cross-field cooperation have become intrinsic needs for technological innovation and industrial development.
In this regard, the Innovation Alliance actively organized seven alliances to apply for the national science and technology service industry innovation development pilot. The alliance will take the lead in integrating resources such as research and development, achievement transformation and incubation, intellectual property and standards, science and technology finance, and improve the science and technology service chain around the industrial chain and innovation chain, promote the transformation of technological innovation results into actual productivity, promote and drive the development of related industries, and serve the national and capital innovation strategies.
The seven pilot projects involve technology supporting the upgrading and transformation of traditional industries such as education, tourism, and health, as well as the development of emerging industries such as cloud computing and big data based on information technology. They will create a new technology service format with the alliance as the carrier.
The Innovation Alliance organizes member alliances and enterprises to connect with the relevant technological needs of Guizhou, Hebei and other regions. TD Industry Alliance, Changfeng Alliance, Semiconductor Lighting Alliance, IGRS and other alliances have signed strategic cooperation framework agreements with Guizhou Province.
ANNA