This photo, taken on March 6, 2025, shows an automated production site at the final assembly workshop of Changan Auto's Digital Intelligence Factory in Yubei District, southwest China's Chongqing. (Photo/Xinhua)
Chongqing - On August 28, Chongqing unveiled the winners of its 2024 Science and Technology Awards at the city's Science and Technology Innovation Conference. The awards recognized 149 projects and enterprises for outstanding achievements in research, invention, industrial application, and innovation.
Among the honorees, 34 projects received the Natural Science Award. Six projects won the Technological Invention Award, including a new high-precision angle measurement system. Ninety-nine projects earned the Scientific Progress Award, including the ultra-large, high-modulus fiberglass wind turbine blades. In addition, 10 companies, including automaker Seres, were honored with the Enterprise Technology Innovation Award.
According to the Chongqing Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, the 2024 awards attracted 743 nominations, up 13.9% from the previous year, reflecting growing public and academic interest. The "three major awards" — Natural Science, Technological Invention, and scientific progress — accounted for 139 winning projects, 41 more than in 2023. First prizes also rose significantly, reaching 34 projects, an increase of 41.6%.
Based on the research project's results, Chongqing Institute of East China Normal University developed mass-produced dicing equipment for flexible OLED displays, which are now used in smartphones and wearables. Chongqing People's Hospital led a project on elderly hearing loss, creating multi-gene testing chips and AI-based prevention systems that have already benefited over one million patients.
The awards also highlighted the strategic alignment of winning projects with Chongqing's development priorities. Of all the projects, 102 were linked to the city's "416" technological innovation layout, which aims to restructure the regional science and technology innovation system and accelerate building a nationally influential innovation hub. Meanwhile, 92 projects supported the "33618" modern manufacturing cluster system, promoting high-quality development of the manufacturing sector.
Enterprises strengthened their role as key innovators. In 2024, 264 companies participated as project contributors — 95 more than the previous year — while firms led 27 award-winning projects, an increase of eight from 2023. In total, Chongqing-based companies led or participated in 102 winning projects, up 15.4% from the previous year.
These efforts translated into strong economic results: Over the past three years, first-prize winners of the Scientific Progress Award generated 176.05 billion yuan ($24.68 billion) in new sales and technology transactions and 6.21 billion yuan in additional tax revenue.
Young researchers also emerged as a driving force. A total of 899 researchers under 45 received awards, up 225 from the previous year, accounting for 67.7% of all recipients. Among them, 69 served as the first authors, an increase of 12 from last year, representing 46.9% of first-author positions. This demonstrates that Chongqing has essentially built a research workforce led by young and mid-career scientists, with the innovation talent pipeline increasingly skewed toward younger generations.
"The winning projects reflect the vibrant momentum of science and technology innovation in Chongqing," said a Chongqing Municipal Science and Technology Bureau representative.
Looking ahead, the representative added that Chongqing will continue to optimize the awards system, strengthen enterprises' roles, and promote deeper integration of scientific and industrial innovation to accelerate the building of a nationally influential innovation hub.