Shanghai's Yunfan Future research team had just finalized their technical blueprint when they received targeted guidance on the application pathway for Class II innovative products. Meanwhile, Jinqi Smart Health clarified the filing direction for its two urological innovation products after dedicated liaisons connected them with the city's medical device review center. Yuanxi Intelligent also launched its classification definition application for an AI-powered EEG depression intervention product with professional support. These scenes of precise, enterprise-direct services play out daily in the Shanghai Brain-Computer Interface Future Industry Cluster.

Leveraging the exceptional clinical resources of the New Hongqiao International Medical Center, Minhang District now hosts over 60 brain-computer interface innovation enterprises, representing nearly 30% of China's sector and more than 60% of Shanghai's total. Rather than settling for the conventional approach of building infrastructure and attracting enterprises, Minhang has broken new ground through institutional innovation, forging a distinctive "medicine-production-research-enterprise" collaborative cultivation model. This paradigm shifts innovation resources from simple aggregation to deep integration, allowing the nation's first brain-computer interface future industry cluster to sustain its growth momentum.

Institutional Leadership: Crafting a Tailored "Policy Toolkit" for a Frontier Track

The defining characteristic of future industries lies in rapid technology iteration and unpredictable growth patterns, making traditional industrial policies often ill-suited. Minhang has consistently aligned institutional innovation with industrial cultivation, constructing a multi-tiered policy framework based on the full lifecycle needs of the brain-computer interface sector. In 2025, the nation's first dedicated brain-computer interface policy was implemented in Minhang, precisely targeting core areas such as R&D, platform construction, clinical translation, and talent development. To date, cumulative funding support exceeding 100 million yuan has been allocated to brain-computer interface platforms, medical institutions, and enterprises.

For high-potential companies, Minhang has established a "one enterprise, one policy" dedicated service mechanism, matching personalized support plans within a compliance framework. This approach mobilizes municipal-level resources to comprehensively address core development needs, including spatial carrier adaptation, talent housing security, investment and financing connections, applications for national and municipal major research projects, and fast-track approval channels. Lingxiyun, a resident EEG data platform company, exemplifies the benefits of this system. Through cross-departmental coordination, the enterprise rapidly connected with multiple medical resources including Huashan Hospital, the Shanghai Mental Health Center, Minhang District Central Hospital, and the Fifth People's Hospital. Together, they are building a brain-computer interface industrial application demonstration zone, dramatically compressing the timeline for technical clinical validation and scenario deployment.

Medicine-Production Linkage: Transforming Clinical Resources into a "Source of Innovation"

For the brain-computer interface industry, clinical resources serve both as a "testing ground" for technical validation and a "source" for emerging demands. This constitutes Minhang's most core differentiating advantage. By dismantling institutional barriers between healthcare and industry, Minhang enables clinical needs to directly guide technological innovation while accelerating the translation of research outcomes into clinical scenarios.

Leveraging leading medical institutions such as Huashan Hospital and the Shanghai Mental Health Center, Minhang has simultaneously deployed a dual-track clinical translation system for invasive and non-invasive approaches. This includes establishing research-oriented co-built wards for brain-computer interface studies and specialized psychiatric rehabilitation application scenarios, while introducing two municipal-level key laboratories from Huashan Hospital. These resources open up the full spectrum of clinical research opportunities for enterprises, from preoperative evaluation to postoperative rehabilitation.

Addressing the industry pain point of lengthy registration and review cycles for innovative medical devices, Minhang has driven the district's pharmaceutical review center to sign a special cooperation agreement with the cluster. This establishes a regular consultation, policy training, and rapid liaison mechanism, providing phased on-site pre-guidance and precise registration support services. Comprehensive compliance guidance covers the entire process from R&D, clinical trials, and registration to production and market launch. Additionally, dedicated liaisons routinely collect enterprise compliance demands, resolving review bottlenecks in advance to help innovative products navigate a smoother, faster path to market.

Element Sharing: Building a "Lightweight" Innovation Foundation for Tech Enterprises

Brain-computer interface R&D demands high thresholds and substantial equipment investment, making it challenging for any single enterprise to support a complete public platform. Adhering to the principle of "government guidance, multi-party co-construction, enterprise benefit," Minhang concentrates efforts on developing a three-dimensional public support system encompassing "funds, data, and platforms." This enables startups to avoid starting from scratch, allowing them to focus on core technology breakthroughs with reduced burden.

On the capital front, Minhang has partnered with industrial capital to establish a dedicated brain-computer interface industry fund totaling 500 million yuan. This injects financial vitality into early-stage cutting-edge technology projects, completing the full capital chain from "laboratory outcomes to startups to scaled development." On the data and computing front, local computing infrastructure is being steadily advanced, with the iBrain EEG database undergoing continuous expansion and upgrades. The "Shujutong" brain-computer interface zone has already aggregated 24 multimodal datasets, establishing a robust digital innovation foundation for enterprise algorithm development and model training. On the incubation front, a full-cycle incubation chain has been constructed, spanning "concept validation platforms, professional incubators, and sci-tech innovation transformation centers." Over ten cutting-edge technology projects have completed project initiation and incubation, while dozens of startup teams have taken root and grown, progressively advancing laboratory concepts toward industrial application.

Ecosystem Co-cultivation: Fostering a Two-Way Commitment Between Talent and Industry

Ultimately, industrial competition is talent competition. As an interdisciplinary field, brain-computer interfaces demand a particularly urgent need for composite talents who understand technology, clinical practice, and industry dynamics. Minhang adheres to the principle of "simultaneous recruitment and cultivation, ecosystem-based retention," enabling talent and industry to grow and develop together. In collaboration with Fudan University, a graduate training base for brain-computer interfaces has been established, channeling university research strength toward the industrial frontline and directing composite young sci-tech innovation talents into the sector.

Around enterprise talent needs, Minhang precisely aligns supporting policies for household registration, housing, and children's education, resolving concerns for high-end talent. Regular industry forums, sci-tech innovation competitions, and financial salons are organized, building bridges for technical exchange, supply-demand matching, and investment financing while continuously stimulating industry thinking and generating new innovation sparks.

From responding to individual enterprise needs to supporting the entire industry chain ecosystem, every step forward in Minhang's brain-computer interface industry embodies the power of "collaboration." Moving forward, Minhang District will continue deepening the "medicine-production-research-enterprise" collaborative cultivation paradigm, further unblocking innovation chain bottlenecks, optimizing the industrial development ecosystem, and striving toward becoming a national-level brain-computer interface industry hub, contributing more Minhang practices to Shanghai's future industry development.