BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) — On November 11, it was reported that the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently issued a notice aiming to further promote the systematic layout of pilot testing platforms in the manufacturing sector and strengthen the development of high-level pilot testing platforms.
Pilot testing serves as a critical link bridging the innovation chain, technology chain, and industrial chain, and pilot testing platforms play a vital role in transforming scientific and technological achievements into real-world productivity. The newly released document, "Notice on Further Accelerating the Systematic Layout and High-Quality Development of Manufacturing Pilot Testing Platforms," sets a target: by the end of 2027, the capacity of high-level pilot testing platforms will be significantly enhanced, a modern pilot testing platform system will be largely established, and a nationwide pilot testing service network for manufacturing—characterized by multi-stakeholder participation, multi-sector coverage, and multi-tiered services—will take initial shape.
The notice clarifies that, under the guiding principle of “strengthening some, revitalizing others, and filling gaps where needed,” pilot testing platforms should follow a developmental pathway progressing from “reserve pilot testing platforms” to “MIIT key cultivation pilot testing platforms,” and ultimately to “national-level manufacturing pilot testing platforms.” It emphasizes focusing on key sectors crucial for future development, national industrial security, and currently undersupplied in pilot testing capabilities—such as artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics. Local MIIT authorities are encouraged to identify priority gap-filling areas based on their regional strengths and establish pilot testing platforms through collaboration among industry, academia, research institutions, and end-users.
As a key link connecting the technology chain, innovation chain, and industrial chain, these platforms facilitate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and enhance industrial competitiveness. Its specific manifestations are as follows:
1. Accelerating the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements Pilot-scale testing is a process conducted before the official mass production of products to verify the maturity of processes and technical routes, as well as the reliability of product quality. A pilot-scale test platform connects innovative achievements in laboratories on one end and large-scale industrial manufacturing on the other, serving as a crucial bridge to cross the "valley of death" in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. For scientific and technological achievements that have undergone pilot-scale testing, the success rate of industrialization can reach over 80%, while the success rate of industrialization for those without such testing is only about 30%.
2. Optimizing Production Processes and Procedures Pilot-scale test platforms can conduct scale-up tests on processes developed in laboratories to verify their feasibility and stability in actual production, thereby identifying potential issues and optimizing them. Through pilot-scale testing, more reasonable production parameters, equipment selection, and production management procedures can be determined, which improves production efficiency, reduces production costs, and lays a foundation for large-scale industrial production.
3. Enhancing Product Quality and Reliability During the pilot-scale testing phase, comprehensive testing and verification can be carried out on product structure, performance, and functions. This enables the timely identification of quality defects and reliability issues in products, followed by targeted improvements. This not only helps improve product quality and enhance the market competitiveness of products but also reduces the risk of quality problems occurring after large-scale production.
4. Fostering Emerging Industries and New-quality Productive Forces By focusing on the construction of pilot-scale test platforms in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology, and biomedicine, the engineering application and industrialization of cutting-edge technologies can be accelerated, and new industrial growth drivers can be fostered. For example, through process scale-up and performance verification by pilot-scale test platforms, key issues in translating cutting-edge technologies (such as controlled nuclear fusion and quantum computing) from laboratory principles to industrial-grade applications can be resolved. This promotes the development of emerging industries and injects new-quality productive forces into the manufacturing industry. ## 5. Improving the Overall Competitiveness of the Manufacturing Industry Pilot-scale test platforms can provide public services for manufacturing enterprises. Particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), they can leverage the resource and technological advantages of these platforms to conduct technological innovation and product research and development, thereby enhancing their own competitiveness. At the same time, pilot-scale test platforms help promote collaborative innovation among upstream and downstream enterprises in the manufacturing industry chain, drive the development of industrial clusters, and improve the overall innovation capability and market competitiveness of the manufacturing industry.
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