Analysis of science and technology general contracting model from the perspective of innovation ecosystem: a case study of tail reach project of the Ganjiang River

To promote engineering science and technology innovation, break through the “bottleneck” key technologies, and accelerate the transformation of scientific research achievements into practical applications, China urgently needs to strengthen the collaborative cooperation among innovative entities such as the government, enterprises, universities, and research institutions, and carry out the reform of engineering project organization models. The science and technology general contracting model proposed by the team led by Academician Tang Hongwu provides a new organizational approach to accelerate engineering science and technology innovation. From the perspective of an innovation ecosystem, this paper analyzes and applies this model. It first summarizes the three major characteristics: subject diversity, interest integration, and innovation efficiency, and then reveals the evolutionary logic from school-enterprise cooperation to industry-university-research collaborative innovation and further to an innovation ecosystem, and elaborates on the roles of various innovation entities and the operational mechanisms within the science and technology general contracting innovation ecosystem. The results of the case study on tail reach project of the Ganjiang River show that the science and technology general contracting model can effectively integrate multiple resources, improve innovation efficiency, promote engineering excellence, and achieve a virtuous cycle of engineering technology, scientific research, and talent cultivation, providing a reference for the construction of China’s innovation ecosystem and the transformation of the organizational model for major engineering technological innovation.