It was learned that the district’s first “Legal Affairs Steward” appointment ceremony was recently held at the Beijing Yanqi Lake Applied Mathematics Research Institute. A public service lawyer was appointed as the institute’s “Legal Affairs Steward.” On the very first day, the steward coordinated a professional lawyer team to deliver a fully English-language, customized legal lecture on “Intellectual Property Protection for Scientific Research Achievements” for the institute’s domestic and international researchers. This marks the official launch of the “Legal Affairs Steward” service brand directly at the research front line.
Starting from mid-April, six key personnel have been successively assigned to serve as “Legal Affairs Stewards” for six key research institutes and technology enterprises, including the Beijing Yanqi Lake Applied Mathematics Research Institute. Following a “one-to-one” fixed-point service model, this shifts legal services from a past model of “passive response” to one of “active integration” into the entire chain of technological innovation. The “Legal Affairs Steward” performs six core functions: collecting legal needs, providing daily legal consultations, conducting risk prevention and control in key areas, performing legal health checks and thematic legal education, and linking legal resources. The service content covers four dimensions: “academic research support, achievement transformation escort, enterprise incubation compliance, and humanistic care.” Whether researchers encounter “life troubles” related to marriage, family, healthcare, taxation, or innovation entities face “growth challenges” in areas like intellectual property protection, data compliance, contract review, and achievement transformation, they can call their “Legal Affairs Steward” at any time.
The Beijing Yanqi Lake Applied Mathematics Research Institute has a foreign research staff proportion of nearly 40%, hailing from 24 countries. With the continuous increase in researchers, the ongoing emergence of scientific achievements, and the deepening of international cooperation, foreign-related laws and regulations and intellectual property protection have increasingly become urgent needs for high-quality development. “A ‘Legal Affairs Steward’ was specially assigned for us, delivering precise legal services to the research front line, enabling us to focus on our work, innovation, and transformation.”
To ensure service effectiveness, four mechanisms were simultaneously established: public display of appointments, regular visits, professional support, and training exchanges. The “Legal Affairs Steward” contacts the service unit at least once a month and responds immediately to urgent needs, adhering to the principle of “available upon call, unobtrusive otherwise.” Furthermore, a “Legal Affairs Steward” advisory group has been formed, consisting of heads of various internal departments and key public service lawyers, to provide professional backup support for the stewards.
During the appointment ceremony, the institute was presented with the “Huairou Science City Foreign-Related Legal Service Handbook.” This handbook contains over one hundred practical Q&As, providing bilingual (Chinese-English) guidance on high-frequency matters for foreign personnel’s work and life. The cover features a QR code; scanning it allows users to search for questions and jump to the answer page, achieving “ready to use upon pickup, searchable with a scan.”
The deployment of this first batch of “Legal Affairs Stewards” is an important practice in implementing measures for legal protection and creating a legal service brand for scientific and technological innovation. It was stated that the “Legal Affairs Steward” will operate under the model of “steward coordination, professional support,” aiming to both solve the development challenges of innovation entities and address the everyday concerns of domestic and international researchers, thereby helping to create a rule-of-law business environment that matches the construction of Huairou Science City.
Huairou District Justice Bureau
Beijing Yanqi Lake Applied Mathematics Research Institute
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