I am devoted to scientific research, but you want to trick me into having a love relationship?

Chapter 788 can be summarized in three words: Seeking cooperation.
"Currently, 90% of our profits still come from battery patent packages, generating around 75 billion in revenue annually."

In the living room, Song Yao adjusted herself into a comfortable position and leaned back on the sofa.

Xu Qingzhou turned on the TV and looked for a replay of the match.

He wasn't surprised that his income mainly came from batteries.

Batteries are something that people use in every aspect of life. Cell phones, computers, cars, energy storage systems—all of these rely on batteries.

Any company that buys their patents has to pay them for every battery they produce.

Of course, the reason they are making so much money now is because the battery industry is booming. Once the battery market becomes saturated, their income will gradually decrease.

The next time we'll make a fortune will probably be when controlled nuclear fusion is achieved.

With electricity prices plummeting, demand will naturally surge, and the demand for batteries, as the carrier of electricity, will also be substantial.

"I hope the Institute for Advanced Studies will not follow in the footsteps of other institutes for advanced studies in China."

Although it is a copy, the operating model of the Kyoto Institute for Advanced Study differs from that of Princeton due to the different times.

For example, in terms of funding, IAS was founded in 1930 with a donation of $500 million from billionaire siblings Bamberg, which is equivalent to more than $1 million today, and its operation relies entirely on the endowment fund.

All their funding was provided by Zero Point Technology.

"The IAS model of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton is essentially about the financial sustainability of public academic institutions, using capital gains to support academic freedom rather than profiting through scholar patents."

When it comes to economic issues, Song Yao is quite adept. She playfully pinched Xu Qingzhou's clothes with her toes and analyzed things for him bit by bit, saying, "The biggest contradiction we face is how to achieve a virtuous cycle."

Their current plan is for Zero Point Technology to provide everything the Advanced Research Institute needs, including funding, equipment, and so on.

However, no return is required from the Institute for Advanced Study.

The patents developed by the scholars within the institute are owned by the researchers themselves and have nothing to do with the Institute for Advanced Study.

We'll provide the funding and equipment, and you can focus on your research. Even if you achieve results, they'll be yours.

Doesn't that sound like doing charity?

The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton operates on this model.

This relates to the virtuous cycle that Song Yao mentioned.

Zero Point Technology can afford the expenses of its research institute. It does not aim to make a profit and bears all the costs. If it cannot achieve a virtuous cycle, this fund will eventually run out.

According to Song Yao's idea, after the establishment of the Advanced Research Institute, it will carry out professional investment to increase value. The first batch of funds will be invested in the capital market as principal and managed by a professional team. The returns will be generated through long-term investment, and the annual returns will be able to cover the operating costs of the institute, such as scholars' salaries, equipment maintenance, and administrative expenses.

This is one of the sources of income.

Generally speaking, the larger the endowment fund, the more the investment returns can cover long-term operations. For example, Harvard University, Song Yao's alma mater, has an endowment fund of $530 billion and annual returns of several billion dollars.

Secondly, it relies on social donations. The research institute has achieved results and gained a reputation, which can attract donations from people in society.

Beyond achieving their financial goals, wealthy tycoons may also crave spiritual success, making donations to universities, research institutions, and charities commonplace. The revenue streams of research institutes for advanced studies are somewhat similar to those of software like WeChat. While WeChat itself is a chat application and doesn't charge for content, it leverages this chat function to generate income from other sources.

On January 17, Ji Yunshi submitted his proposal for building an advanced research institute.

Xu Qingzhou serves as the dean, primarily responsible for academic and international cooperation, while Ji Yunshi is the executive vice dean, in charge of daily operations.

In addition, establish another academic committee.

The plan to establish an advanced research institute will be announced before the Lunar New Year. After the Lunar New Year, Ji Yunshi will personally lead the formal commencement of the preparatory work.

Xu Qingzhou had no objection to the plan, so he put aside the plan given by Ji Yunshi and decided to first look at the email sent by his old friend Klinger from Germany.

Dear Professor Xu:
On January 12th, we conducted our first ignition experiment of 2022, and it did not disappoint. It has now achieved net energy gain and has been operating in a steady state for 12 minutes. Below are some data from the device's operation, which I believe you will find interesting. In this experiment, through the "quasi-isometric dynamics" (QI) structural design, the fast particle loss rate was reduced to 0.7%.

"12 minutes is indeed an achievement worth celebrating."

Xu Qingzhou nodded. Klinger highlighted some new technologies in the email. "I can't just send an email to introduce my own technology, can I?"

He continued reading, and sure enough, he soon saw a turning point.

[Okay, actually, compared to Qiankun-1, this isn't anything to be too excited about. Your breakthrough has already ignited a new dawn for the path of fusion energy.]

The spherical tokamak, with its compact toroidal cavity structure and negative triangular cross-section configuration, has created a new operating paradigm. Meanwhile, our stellarator, based on a "twisted magnetic cage" design, has accumulated unique data in boundary turbulence suppression and high-density operating windows due to its inherent steady-state characteristics without circumferential current. What I mean is, perhaps we can engage in deeper cooperation.

A very long and detailed article.

In summary, it boils down to three words: Seeking cooperation.

Qiankun-1 is a device that everyone is envious of. It can run in an extreme environment for one hour, which can help test a lot of things.

Regarding stellarators, specifically the divertor, the island-type divertor design lacks long-pulse thermal load verification. The long-term operation of Qiankun-1 can optimize the cooling scheme of the tungsten divertor tiles in stellarators and shorten the engineering trial and error cycle.

Of course, the most important thing is to verify the effect of boundary turbulence suppression. Stellarators rely on three-dimensional magnetic fields to suppress boundary turbulence, but lack long-term experimental data under high specific pressure.

If we can use Qiankun-1 for verification, it will definitely shorten the iteration cycle significantly.

[Dear Mr. Klinger, it is delightful to hear of your new developments. To this day, I still firmly believe that science progresses through communication.]

At this time, he was happy to exchange technology with the Max Planck Institute.

It must be said that in the field of stellarators, Germany's W7-X still stands out, far surpassing the performance of devices from other countries.

Given that the Chinese New Year is still some time away, Xu Qingzhou scheduled the exchange visit for February 24.

Klinger will bring a delegation to conduct a 7-day exchange to finalize future cooperation projects, and afterwards, they will also send people to visit.

Europe, in fact, still maintains a united front with the United States and adopts a containment strategy against Xia in the field of fusion.

As for how Germany can circumvent its policies and engage in dialogue with them, that's not something Xu Qingzhou needs to worry about.

(End of this chapter)