Innovation is development; planning for innovation is planning for the future. Amid the nation’s vigorous advancement of integrated development in education, science and technology, and talent cultivation, a group of pioneering innovators—deeply rooted on the front lines and devoted to rigorous research—are anchoring themselves in the core industrial arenas, taking pragmatic action and assuming responsibility, continuously breaking through critical bottlenecks in core technologies, and emerging as dynamic drivers of scientific and technological achievement transformation and social value creation.

      To honor their outstanding contributions, the 17th China Industry-University-Research (IUR) Cooperation Innovation Conference was held in Beijing on March 14–15, 2026. At the conference, Dr. Jinming Cai, Founder and Chairman of Morion Nanotech, was awarded the “2025 China IUR Cooperation Innovation Personality Award” in recognition of his exceptional innovative practice in driving the full-value-chain advancement of graphene-based new materials—from scientific discovery to industrial application. Other awardees this year include distinguished entrepreneurs such as Yunjie Zhou, CEO of Haier Group; Xingxing Wang, Founder of Unitree Robotics; and Minghui Wu, Founder of Minglue Technology—as well as top-tier scholars including academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Changjiang Scholars, and national-level leading talents under the “Ten Thousand Talents Program,” collectively showcasing China’s world-class level of science and technology innovation and industry-academia-research integration.

【From Scientific Discovery to Industrial Contribution: Closing the Graphene Commercialization Loop】

      Since embarking on cutting-edge graphene research in 2005, Dr. Jinming Cai—Chairman of Morion Nanotech—published a groundbreaking study as first author in *Nature* in 2010, reporting the atomic-precision fabrication of graphene nanoribbons. In 2015, he returned to China to found Morion Nanotech, steadfastly committed to transforming world-class scientific discoveries into new-quality productive forces that drive industrial advancement. Under his leadership, Morion Nanotech has established a fully integrated industrialization loop spanning fundamental research, technological innovation, engineering development, and large-scale manufacturing. The company has successfully bridged the entire value chain—from graphene raw material synthesis and product development to material manufacturing and end-use applications—making it the quintessential embodiment and tangible realization of the “Innovative Individual” philosophy.

▲Cai Jinming of Morion Nanotech receiving the award at the conference venue

【Breaking Monopolies Through Innovation, Defining Value Through Tangible Achievements】

      Confronted with the “bottleneck” challenges China faces in critical strategic materials, Morion Nanotech tackles these head-on through innovation. The company’s self-developed core products—including high-performance graphene thermal interface materials (TIMs) and graphene heat-dissipation films—achieve internationally leading performance metrics, effectively breaking the long-standing foreign monopoly over high-end thermal management materials and enabling import substitution. These products are now widely deployed across consumer electronics, high-power chips, 5G communications, intelligent vehicles, and other sectors, delivering mission-critical thermal management solutions to numerous industry-leading clients and demonstrating the formidable competitiveness of domestically developed advanced materials.

      In terms of industrial layout, the company has established an integrated industrial matrix featuring the Dongguan R&D Center and the Yunnan manufacturing base—enabling “east-west collaboration and innovation synergy”—and has built advanced production capacity capable of manufacturing over one million square meters of graphene films annually. This exemplifies the dynamic transformation of national “bottleneck” technology lists into actionable R&D roadmaps, directly supporting both national strategic objectives and regional economic development.

      To date, Morion Nanotech has established a robust intellectual property portfolio comprising over 100 patents centered on core graphene applications. The company has led or participated in the formulation of numerous international, national, and industry standards, and has undertaken multiple major national scientific research projects. This award is not only a personal honor for Dr. Jinming Cai but also a shared distinction for the entire Morion Nanotech team. It signifies the highest recognition from academia, research institutions, and industry for the company’s development philosophy—“born from science, realized through manufacturing.”

      Looking ahead, Morion Nanotech will leverage this achievement as a new catalyst to further deepen collaborative innovation across academia, research, and industry—and accelerate the transition of strategic advanced materials technologies, such as graphene, from the “bookshelf” to the “shelf.” In doing so, Morion Nanotech will contribute more “Morion wisdom” and “Morion solutions” to strengthening China’s national strategic science and technology capabilities and fostering new-quality productive forces.