Abstract: Sino-US trade war prompts us to rethink the social value of university. From the history of university development worldwide, social service function promote higher education to massification, popularization and diversification. In this process, both research-oriented universities in the US and application-oriented universities in Europe show strong vitality because they focus the scientific research on serving national strategy and regional development. With a new paradigm emerged knowledge production is no longer confined to university. The interaction and integration logic of "scientific research function" and "social service function" of university proves the social value of scientific research in practice and theory, scientific research in universities not only needs to explore freely but also solve practical problems of social development. Therefore, we should make efforts in the following three aspects:to start the "engine" of diversified funding sources, to activate the "catalyst" of cross-disciplinary research, and to use the "baton" of the scientific evaluation system.