Logic and pathways of higher education in supporting science and technology innovation in big science era

The new wave of technological and industrial transformation is propelling scientific and technological innovation from isolated breakthroughs toward ecosystem-based collaboration. Deepening interdisciplinary integration and accelerated data-driven and AI-powered processes present fresh challenges to talent cultivation in higher education, demanding a systemic shift in higher education to align with the demands of scientific and technological innovation. This study analyzes the co-evolutionary relationship between higher education and scientific and technological innovation from a historical perspective; examines the defining features of scientific and technological innovation in the era of big science and the new requirements it places on higher education; elucidates the practical logic through which higher education supports scientific and technological innovation; and, on this basis, proposes key pathways for higher education reform, including strengthening the orientation toward national strategic needs, deepening systematic talent cultivation through industry-academia-research collaboration, and advancing reform of the talent evaluation system.