Zhejiang recently released an action plan for 2026-28 to strengthen higher education's role in building a modern industrial system with distinctive local features.

By 2028, the province plans to add or upgrade more than 500 academic disciplines and majors, train more than 300,000 professionals urgently needed by key industries, raise the total value of commercialized sci-tech achievements to more than 20 billion yuan ($2.97 billion), and provide services to enterprises on more than 100,000 occasions.

The plan covers five areas: upgrading traditional industries, expanding emerging industries, developing future industries, improving modern services, and increasing the efficiency of modern agriculture.

For traditional industries, Zhejiang will carry out more than 200 technological research projects in fields including textiles, petrochemicals, and home appliances.

For emerging industries, the province will establish 100 provincially supported modern industry colleges focusing on fields including artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, and biomedicine. For future industries, it will establish five interdisciplinary centers in areas including embodied intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, and quantum technology, to achieve breakthroughs in more than 50 frontier interdisciplinary technologies.