(May 18, 2026) According to news from the domestic silica industry-university-research innovation cooperation summit, since 2026, China's silica industry has continued to deepen the integration of industry, education and research, and the tripartite linkage of enterprises, universities, and scientific research institutions has focused on core needs such as industry technology bottlenecks, product iteration, and scenario expansion, and built an integrated innovation system of "R&D-testing-transformation", effectively promoting the technological progress and product upgrading of the industry, and injecting new vitality into the high-quality development of the silica industry.

Industry, academia and research work together to break through the bottleneck of the industry's core technology. At present, there are still technical shortcomings in the silica industry in the fields of high-end product research and development, low-carbon process optimization, waste resource utilization, etc., for this reason, domestic leading silica companies have established long-term cooperative relations with universities and scientific research institutions to jointly build R&D platforms and jointly tackle key problems. It is reported that more than 20 enterprises have reached strategic cooperation with universities and set up special R&D teams, focusing on key technologies such as vapor phase silica modification, large-scale production of biomass silica, and low-energy process optimization, and have made 8 major technological breakthroughs, of which 3 technologies have been industrialized and applied, effectively filling the technical gaps in related fields in China.

Accelerate the transformation of innovative achievements and promote product iterative upgrading. The core value of the integration of industry, education and research is to realize the efficient transformation of technological achievements from the laboratory to the production line, and solve the industry pain point of "R&D and production disconnected". Relying on the scientific research advantages of universities and the production advantages of enterprises, the two sides jointly developed new products such as high-end functionalized silica and low-carbon environmentally friendly silica have quickly achieved large-scale production and have been widely recognized by downstream enterprises after being put on the market. According to the data, from January to April 2026, the output value of new products developed through industry-university-research cooperation accounted for 29% of the total output value of the silica industry, an increase of 8 percentage points over the same period last year, promoting the transformation of the industry's product structure to high-end and diversification.

Talent co-education empowers the long-term development of the industry and consolidates the foundation for innovation. The integration of industry, education and research not only promotes technology transformation, but also helps the cultivation of industry talents. Enterprises and universities jointly carry out targeted training, internship training and other cooperation, deeply combine the production needs of enterprises with the talent training program of colleges and universities, cultivate professionals with both theoretical knowledge and practical ability, and alleviate the dilemma of shortage of high-end technical talents in the industry. At the same time, scientific research institutions provide technical guidance and talent support for enterprises, and enterprises provide practical platforms and financial guarantees for scientific research institutions, forming a virtuous circle of "talent co-education, technical co-research, and achievement sharing".

Industry experts said that the deep integration of industry, education and research is an important path to promote the innovation and development of the silica industry, and the current industry innovation system has been gradually improved. In the future, with the continuous deepening of industry-university-research cooperation, it will further integrate industry resources, break through technical bottlenecks, accelerate the transformation of achievements, promote the silica industry to achieve greater breakthroughs in the fields of high-end, green and functional, and help the innovation and upgrading of the new material industry.