China’s BCI industry highlights new efforts in innovation, funding; ready for clinical validation: expert

BCI devices are on display at the 2nd China Brain-Computer Interfaces Conference held in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province on November 16, 2024. Photo: Zhang Weilan/GT

China’s brain-computer interface (BCI) industry has reported significant developments in both research and development (R&D) and financing. Latest developments show that this advanced technology is moving toward clinical applications in China, amid intensified efforts for innovation and policy support, experts said.

Shanghai StairMed Technology Co secured 350 million yuan ($47.9 million) in its latest fundraising round, the largest single investment in the Chinese implantable BCI industry, the Shanghai-based start-up told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The investment will be used to accelerate clinical trials of StairMed’s products, develop next-generation technologies, and build a production facility for medical-grade micro-electromechanical systems to support the commercialization of BCI technologies, according to a statement the company sent to the Global Times.

Established in 2021, StairMed has developed minimally invasive implanted BCI products to help paralyzed patients with complex brain-controlled tasks. It has developed China’s first high-throughput implanted BCI system that meets medical device standards, and it is also the country’s first registered invasive BRI product, the company said. 

As a new quality productive force and beacon of the future, BCI is rapidly becoming a global innovation hotspot.

China is expected to expand its clinical trials of BCI technology, and two to three products are expected to gain conditional market approval by 2030. The year 2025 year will be a pivotal one for clinical validation, presenting a strong investment opportunity in this field, said Liu Dan, managing partner at Pivotal Bioventure, according to Chinese media outlet nbd.com.cn.

Companies that are closely aligned with the artificial intelligence sector are more likely to spearhead technological advancements, Zhao Zhengtuo, founder of StairMed, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

“We aim to collaborate with industry leaders in the field of large language models and embodied intelligent robots to explore innovative pathways for intelligent collaboration,” Zhao said.

A research team from Tongji Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province said that its multimodal BCI rehabilitation research project based on motor imagery has been approved by and registered with relevant authorities. The team is now recruiting eligible stroke patients from the public, the research team told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

This project aims to explore the application effects of non-invasive BCI technology in the upper limb function rehabilitation of hemorrhagic stroke patients, helping them with motor dysfunction to regain basic life functions and improve their quality of life, according to Tang Zhouping, the team leader and professor of neurology at Tongji Hospital.

The latest efforts follow recent ambitious BCI development moves by major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing. 

At the beginning of this year, Beijing unveiled an action plan for accelerating BCI innovation (2025-30). It aims to cultivate three to five globally influential BCI tech leaders and more than 100 specialized small and medium-sized enterprises by 2030. Shanghai responded later with its BCI future industry development plan (2025-30), which aims to achieve high-quality BCI performance by 2030, with BCI products fully implemented in clinical applications, the Xinhua News Agency reported on February 6.