The Information Office of the People's Government of Shandong Province recently convened a news conference to outline the province's initiatives aimed at accelerating the progress to build itself into a strong province in education and underpinning high-quality development. To foster a virtuous cycle among education, technology, and talent, Shandong will concentrate on the following three key areas:

I. Enhancing the talent chain and expediting organized talent cultivation. The province plans to optimize the structure of higher education by establishing diverse categories of research-oriented, application-focused, and skill-based universities and colleges. There will be a sustained commitment to advancing education for exceptional engineers and on-site engineers, alongside intensified efforts to cultivate outstanding innovative talent, urgently needed specialists, and high-caliber technical personnel, thereby providing intellectual support for economic and social development.

II. Focusing on supporting the innovation chain and accelerating organized scientific research. Adhering to the instruction that "scientific and technological development must target the global science frontiers, serve the main economic battlefield, strive to fulfill the significant needs of the country, and benefit people's lives and health", Shandong Province aims to refine the technological innovation mechanisms within higher education institutions, launch concentrated research to tackle significant scientific and technological challenges, and achieve breakthroughs in key and core technologies.

III. Focusing on empowering the industrial chain and accelerating the development of organized services. The province will leverage a collaborative mechanism of meetings and consultations for education and technological talent to precisely align with its modern industrial system. This includes bolstering the development of foundational disciplines, emerging fields, and interdisciplinary studies while making non-conventional planning for urgently needed sectors such as artificial intelligence and integrated circuits.