The Sixth ICCI - DoBe Cultural and Creative Industry-Education Chain Creation Fund Final Defense and Roadshow Successfully Held, Incubating Nearly 60 Youth Innovation Projects Over Six Years

On September 25th, the Sixth ICCI - DoBe Cultural and Creative Industry-Education Chain Creation Fund Final Defense and Roadshow, along with the thematic research report presentation on "The Path of Industry-Education Co-creation for Cultural Originality", was held at DoBe WE@ Shanghai Bookmall in Huangpu District, Shanghai.

Since 2019, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry (ICCI) and the DoBe Group have jointly launched the "Cultural and Creative Industry-Education Chain Creation Fund", integrating it into the credit-bearing courses for professional master's students. This industry-education co-creation teaching model features "credits + funding", "cultural creativity + X", and "students + co-creation mentors". Course projects are guided by real societal needs, with students as the main innovators proposing original solutions. They transform campus innovations and ideas into drivers for industrial development from 0 to 1 with the collaboration of industry mentors. To date, the fund has incubated nearly 60 projects, active across various fields including social & cultural life and cultural & creative industry innovation.

This event showcased a batch of youth innovation achievements with international perspectives and cutting-edge thinking. These included an international student podcast project, a bilingual video series on Shanghai coffee culture, an AI-driven strategy for the global launch of oriental nail art wearables, XR user research, and a digital cultural exchange platform for Chinese and British youth. These projects reflect the effectiveness of young students' transition from cultural consumers to innovators. Zhang Weimin, Dean of ICCI, stated that Creation Fund course is a representative work embodying the school's teaching philosophy of "internationalization, interdisciplinary integration, and industry orientation". Over the past decade, the school's development has consistently resonated and progressed in tandem with the national cultural and creative industry strategy. Moving forward, the school will further respond to the national cultural development strategy and demands of the new era, continuously encouraging young students to keep pace with the times, serve the people's needs for a better life, and contribute youthful strength to building a culturally strong nation.

As a co-initiator of Creation Fund, DoBe Group stated that six years ago, joining hands with ICCI to integrate the fund with teaching courses aimed to pioneer new paths for cultivating cultural and creative talents and innovative projects within the existing education system. What began as a concept has now grown into an influential cultural and creative incubation platform with positive social effects. The Group expressed hope that cultural and creative students would always maintain curiosity, critical thinking ability, the determination to persevere, and the courage to start over. 

During the defense and roadshow, the thematic research report "The Path of Industry-Education Co-creation for Cultural Originality" was presented for the first time. The project leader and course instructor, Wang Haoqing (Pearl), explained that this research is part of the Shanghai Higher Education Society's annual planning research topic. Based on the teaching practices of six course cycles and the collaborative experience of 375 students and nearly one hundred industry mentors, the study summarizes the composition and teaching cultivation goals of youth cultural originality from four dimensions: "Belief", "Source", "Energy", and "Capability". The research indicates that industry-education co-creation courses are reshaping teaching relationships within universities: teachers are transforming from "knowledge transmitters" to "innovation companions", industry mentors are upgrading from "guest lecturers" to "cognitive reconstructors", and peer relationships among students are evolving from "classmates" to "contractual collaborative partners", forming a tripartite synergistic and "de-hierarchized" teaching relationship. As industry-education integration deepens, university classrooms are becoming an important source of social innovation. The practice of ICCI and DoBe Group proves that when education breaks down walls and deeply integrates with industry, student creativity can be transformed into cultural products serving a better life, and universities can become living water nourishing urban cultural innovation. 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.