Abstract:Strengthening the collaborative innovation of various innovation actors is an effective way to implement the national strategy of achieving a high level of scientific and technological self-reliance. China needs to learn from the mature countries when in the important period of promoting and developing the collaborative innovation among actors. Based on reviewing the concepts and organizational modes of collaborative innovation in the literature, this work carries out a case study of Germany’s four major public research institutes and finds five collaborative innovation organizational modes: project-type, integrated-type, alliance-type, platformtype and network-type. Then, the study analyzes and summarizes the characteristics, the advantages, and the suitable application situation of the different modes from the perspectives of the innovation objectives, the collaborative actors, the organizational mechanisms, the investment way, the government’s role, the collaborative effectiveness, etc. Policy enlightenment is proposed in the conclusion.