(Yicai Global) Sept. 15 -- The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has established a fund of funds (FOF) comprising 20 to 30 sub-funds in addition to government and private financing to develop the commercialization of technology research findings, Chinese newspaper The Economic Observer reported on Sept. 14.

The initial size of the FOF is between USD458 million and USD763 million, which will increase to around USD3.05 billion. Participants in the initiative include local government funding institutions in Tianjin, Suzhou and Kunming, hi-tech commercialization platform Zhongguancun Development Group Co. and investment institutions such as the US-China Green Fund.

The FOF will mainly invest in commercialization projects related to frontier technologies like quantum measurement applications, large proton therapy instruments, high-performance lithium batteries, laser televisions and advanced chipsets.

China's Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Finance previously set up a national guidance fund to commercialize research and development findings in 2011. The fund had eight sub-funds as of the end of the first half of this year.

CAS, the fund of funds' main sponsor, is the most prominent scientific and technological research institute in China, made up of more than 100 institutes and employing some 60,000 researchers and over 700 academicians nationwide.