Advancing Industry-Education Collaboration from Integration to Co-Creation and Shared Prosperity! ICCI-DoBe Industry-Education Chain Creation Fund 5th Anniversary Co-Creation Conference & 2023 Project Initiation Meeting Successfully Held
In recent years, industry-education integration, as an innovative model of educational reform in the new era, has become an important engine for promoting the quality of higher education and socio-economic development. How to guide young students out of the classroom and into the frontlines of industry, fostering innovative ideas and entrepreneurial thinking while experiencing the pulse of the times and industry trends, has become a crucial issue for universities to address in talent cultivation.
On January 6, the "Creation Fund" 5th Anniversary Co-Creation Conference and 2023 Project Initiation Meeting (referred to as the "Conference"), jointly organized by the USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry (hereinafter referred to as "ICCI") and DoBe Group (hereinafter referred to as "DoBe"), was held at DoBe WE@ Shanghai Bookmall. A women-focused online community "Good Place" for female college students to communicate safely, a cross-border e-commerce platform for wearable nail art that spreads Chinese cultural aesthetics, "COFFEE IN SHANGHAI" teaching foreigners about Shanghai's coffee culture, a cultural and creative hub setting trends in cultural and creative industry human resources, the "Distant Mountains Reading" public welfare project fostering reading habits among children in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan... These vibrant student-led initiatives showcase the unique perspectives and sense of responsibility of Generation Z, delivering an "outstanding answer sheet" for university-industry collaboration in the new era of education.
A Decade of Dedicated Exploration, Pioneering Industry-education Co-creation
Since its establishment in 2015, ICCI has made "bridging cultural and creative industries and cultural and creative education" its core philosophy and key objective, committed to exploring innovative models and methods that stimulate students' creative thinking, design capabilities, and entrepreneurial spirit across multiple fields. Beyond actively recruiting international faculty to provide an English-immersive learning environment, ICCI has meticulously designed its curriculum with numerous AI, research, and practical courses, encouraging students to stay at the forefront and personally experience the industry's pulse. In 2019, with support from industry mentor Jia Bo, Chairman of Dobe Group, ICCI jointly established the "ICCI-Dobe Industry-Education Chain Creation Fund" (referred to as the "Creation Fund"), significantly advancing ICCI's practice-oriented education initiatives.
The "Creation Fund" has pioneered an engaging teaching approach—integrating "entrepreneurship" as a core component into students' daily coursework. By adopting a teaching model that combines "credits + funding", "campus + industrial park", and "cultural creativity + X", it encourages university students to focus on social hotspots and industry frontiers for innovative practices. Through entrepreneurial projects, students hone their skills while receiving guidance, advice, and feedback from industry executives, embodying the philosophy of "learning while entrepreneuring and growing while learning entrepreneurship". With the support of the "Creation Fund", students actively engage in cross-disciplinary practices that drive interdisciplinary education. They maintain close ties and insights into the cultural and creative industries, fostering innovative thinking, creative abilities, and entrepreneurial spirit through repeated entrepreneurial explorations, industry exchanges, and practical feedback. Simultaneously, they contribute innovative ideas and suggestions to the industry, creating a virtuous cycle for the "industry-education co-creation" model in cultural and creative education, which has yielded remarkable results. Over its five-year implementation, the "Creation Fund" has produced an average of 10 projects annually, with participants spanning the post-95s and post-00s generations. Each year, its innovative fields evolve alongside the times, earning high recognition from academia and industry alike.
在大会上，文创学院院长张伟民表示，“创基金”是文创学院十年育人理念的“代表作”之一，也是学院“国际化、学科交叉、产业导向”的育人理念的具象体现。“‘创基金’将产业界的实际需求与高等教育的教学内容、科研方向紧密融合，是交大在产教融合育人道路上的一次成功尝试，也为国内高校与文创产业的共融共创开了先河。2025年是文创学院成立的第十个年头，学院将继续积极联动行业资源，让高校在输出文创产业高端管理人才的同时，也输出高校治理和创新思维和创业项目的种子与火花，实现产教共创共荣。”
Five Years of Collaborative Partnership, Industry-Education Symbiosis Charts a New Chapter
From urban renewal to rural revitalization, from the development of red cultural and creative derivatives to AI-generated creations, from the loneliness economy to the pet economy, from self-media to offline salons, from focusing on women's growth to addressing an aging society... Over the past five years, the "Creation Fund" has supported a wide range of innovative projects covering various social hotspots. This has made "serving a better life and contributing to industrial innovation through the youthful perspective and energy" a shared vision among SJTU's cultural and creative students, while also offering fresh experiences and insights to industry professionals. Some industry judges were also amazed by the students' novel and creative ideas during evaluations, exclaiming, "There's nothing young people dare not try"—"I'm not here to judge projects but to learn what young people are thinking and playing with. Their creativity is the future".
Wang Haoqing, the course's chief instructor, is also a seasoned cultural and creative professional who returned to academia from the industry. She stated that beyond creativity, young people are also direct consumers and drivers of the cultural and creative industries. Any interest or preference could potentially become the next trend. Therefore, the "Creation Fund" timely elevated the concept of industry-education collaboration from "integration" to "co-creation", enabling students to directly address real challenges in industrial development. Through genuine innovation projects, active participation, they achieve tangible results and meaningful change. Based on this, each "Creation Fund" project is paired with corresponding industry co-creation mentors, who join student projects either individually or through their enterprises, "running alongside" the entire process to co-create outcomes.
At the conference, a new cohort of 10 co-creation mentors took the stage to meet with the students. These mentors, who will "co-innovate" with cultural and creative students in the future, come from diverse backgrounds. They include bold coffee industry innovators, a rural elementary school principal from Xide County in Liangshan, executives from major internet companies, founders of startup exhibition firms, leaders of social organizations, and experts from industry associations—all brimming with passion for cultural creativity and unwavering drive. Additionally, alumni from the cultural and creative industries have returned to the classroom as part of the "Senior Mentorship Program", enthusiastically supporting their juniors, creating a positive cycle in the cultural and creative courses.
Graduates present at the event shared that only after entering the workforce did they truly appreciate the foresight of the Creation Fund — "Major projects require major classrooms. How to transition from a student mindset to a professional mindset, how to shift from passive work to active innovation—these are topics that should be previewed and addressed in the classroom, enabling students to lead the way once they enter the workplace.
The Future Drives the Present: How Industry-Education Collaboration "Foresees Tomorrow"
As one of the earliest companies in China engaged in the operation of cultural and creative industrial parks, DoBe Group is a pioneer in serving cultural and creative enterprises nationwide. Jia Bo, the current chairman of DoBe Group and an industry mentor at ICCI, is both a witness and active participant in the rapid development of China's cultural and creative industries. He has consistently paid close attention to the cultivation of top-tier talents in the country's cultural and creative sector and holds deep affection for the education field. Therefore, after being invited by ICCI to serve as an industry mentor, how to actively connect industrial resources and industry forces to provide professional assistance and innovative support for students on campus, while also identifying the intersection between DoBe Group and higher education in talent cultivation, has become a significant "subject" that Jia Bo has been contemplating. Jia Bo expressed strong agreement with ICCI's "industry-oriented" educational philosophy. He emphasized that education should not only focus on students' holistic growth but also prioritize character development and quality cultivation, preparing students to contribute to societal progress. This is how the concept of the "Creation Fund" came into being. In 2019, at the graduation ceremony of ICCI's second cohort of master's students, DoBe Group and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) jointly established the "Creation Fund". Its purpose is to guide innovative solutions to real-world practical problems, bridge the gap between the cultural and creative industry and education, and cultivate students' comprehensive competencies.
At the conference, Jia Bo stated that the Creation Fund has provided strong support for ICCI in cultivating new talents in cultural innovation. DoBe plans to engage in broader and deeper cooperation with the institute in the future, jointly exploring new models and pathways for the integration of industry, academia, and research to further enhance the conversion rate and practical outcomes of the Creation Fund. In the future, DoBe will launch the "TOP 51 Global Top University Super Incubator" program. This program will collaborate with 51 top global universities, outstanding VC investment institutions, industry associations, listed companies, and entrepreneurial mentors to create a comprehensive entrepreneurial ecosystem that integrates free office space support, startup diagnosis and guidance, industry resource empowerment, and financing services. It will provide full-chain support, from incubation to follow-up investment, for tech startup teams within the university alliance, helping them achieve rapid development.
For a long time, DoBe has believed that helping promising cultural and creative enterprises grow rapidly is the greatest contribution to society. Assisting young students in their growth and development, and passing on the torch of the cultural and creative industry, is also an important achievement of DoBe Group in fulfilling its corporate responsibilities and realizing social value. In the future, DoBe Group also hopes to deepen cooperation with SJTU in the field of joint talent cultivation. Grounded in the future while focusing on the present, both parties aim to jointly cultivate talents in the cultural and creative sectors, innovate boldly, and contribute to the great development and prosperity of China's cultural industry.
