The National Science and Technology Award Conference was held in Beijing on the morning of January 10th. A total of 27 scientific and technological achievements in our province have won the 2019 National Science and Technology Award, including 11 award-winning projects led and completed by our province, and 16 projects participated in. The award-winning projects presided over and completed include two second prizes of the the State Technological Innovation Award and nine second prizes of the National Award for Science and Technology Progress.
Our province has achieved a large number of awards this time, covering a wide range of key core technologies that respond to national strategic needs, as well as new breakthroughs in the field of livelihood closely related to the sense of gain, security, and happiness of the people. From the perspective of the units that presided over and completed the award-winning projects, Zhejiang University, the Second Institute of Oceanography of the Ministry of Natural Resources and other technological innovation “leaders” and “national teams” continue to occupy a place, and provincial-level research institutes such as the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhejiang University of Business and Technology, and Hangzhou Normal University also have outstanding performance. The level of technological innovation in Zhejiang continues to steadily improve, and the source of innovation power is increasingly growing, becoming an important support for building a modern economic system and achieving high-quality development in our province.
Continuously strengthening innovation momentum
To lead high-quality development through technological innovation, it is necessary to strengthen the original innovation capability. The project of “Micro germanium doped Czochralski silicon single crystal technology and its application” presided over by Academician Yang Deren of Zhejiang University and the project of “Super resolution optical micro/nano micro imaging technology” presided over by Professor Liu Xu’s team won the second prize of the the State Technological Innovation Award respectively. They are representatives of Chinese scientific and technological workers who have broken through “no man’s land”, gnawed at “hard bones” and improved their original innovation ability.
Our province is focusing on building a world science and technology innovation highland for life and health, and the award-winning situation in this field is commendable. Professor Yao Ke’s team from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University Medical College adheres to independent innovation and has applied femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgery to hard nucleus cataract surgery for the first time in the world, making patients not only “visible” but also “clear” after surgery. The series of achievements have become the development direction of femtosecond laser cataract surgery technology, transforming China from a “follower” to a “leader”.
Professor Fang Xiangming’s team from Zhejiang University School of Medicine has explored the pathogenesis of sepsis and established key technologies for perioperative treatment, providing a Chinese solution for the international treatment of perioperative sepsis. Currently, it has benefited tens of thousands of patients. The team has independently developed 3D printing antibacterial drug potency evaluation technology, which is applied to the potency evaluation of new antimicrobial peptides and is praised by international peers as a “revolutionary drug design concept”.
Strengthening original innovation capabilities and breaking through key core technologies cannot be separated from the full gathering of innovation resources. The relevant person in charge of the Provincial Department of Science and Technology stated that in recent years, Zhejiang has carried out targeted project recommendations and follow-up research, using steel on the cutting edge, truly utilizing project funds, fully stimulating the vitality of scientific and technological innovation, and striving to achieve breakthroughs in more cutting-edge innovation fields.
Technological achievements fly into the homes of ordinary people
Technology benefits people’s livelihoods, and innovation achievements are shared. Nearly half of the award-winning achievements in our province are directly related to the field of people’s livelihood, and technological achievements have flown into the homes of ordinary people, making them tangible beneficiaries.
Many award-winning achievements focus on the sense of gain and security on the dining table of the people. The research team led by Lu Lizhi from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences has comprehensively utilized traditional breeding techniques and molecular breeding techniques to breed a new egg duck variety “Guoshao I” with excellent quality. This type of duck lays over 320 eggs annually and can lay almost one egg every day. These eggs are basically all green shell eggs, which are not fragile and suitable for subsequent processing. The team has also successfully “pushed ducks onto the shelves”, invented and promoted cage and net raising techniques for egg ducks, achieving a leapfrog improvement in the egg duck industry’s environmental friendliness, biosafety, and product quality.
Professor Wang Yizhen’s team from the School of Zoology at Zhejiang University has focused on the intestinal health of live pigs, focusing on the three major challenges of immune regulation, microecological balance, and intestinal mucosal repair. Over the past 20 years, they have created a nutritional technology system for replacing antibiotics in healthy pig breeding and feeding, promoting China’s feed industry to take a crucial step from “reducing resistance” and “replacing resistance” to “no resistance”. The team’s project results prevented nearly ten thousand tons of antibiotics from being discharged into the environment.
Chen Zongmao, an academician from the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has long been concerned about the problem of pesticide and pollutant residues in tea. Through theoretical, technical and product innovation, the team has made important breakthroughs in the formulation of Maximum Residue Limit standards for tea risk substances and guidelines for the use of pesticide preparations to prevent and control major diseases and pests in tea gardens, as well as the research and development of national standards for high-throughput detection technology for chemicals.
On the journey of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, technological innovation has always played an important supporting role. The award-winning achievement “Creation of a New Rare Enzyme Resource Research and Development System and Its Application in the Medical Field” led by Professor Xie Tian’s team from Hangzhou Normal University has achieved a green and low-cost method of extracting enzymes from traditional Chinese medicine such as marigold, driving the development of more than 300000 acres of marigold planting bases in the central and western regions, and more than 100000 rural households to lift themselves out of poverty and increase their income.
Industry-university-research cooperation stimulates innovation vitality
Looking at the award-winning achievements in our province, the majority of industry university research cooperation projects have been achieved, and the innovation ability of enterprises has been continuously improved, highlighting the role of innovation as the main body.
The award-winning project “Key Technologies for Targeted Screening and Industrialization Application of Functional Lactic Acid Bacteria” led by Professor Gu Qing from Zhejiang University of Technology and Technology is the result of more than ten years of cooperation between relevant universities and enterprises such as Hangzhou Wahaha Group, Zhejiang Yiming Food, and Hangzhou New Hope. “Food science is a subject with strong application. We have worked closely with enterprises in the early scientific research process, and targeted to establish research direction according to market demand. It can be said that industry university research cooperation leads the development of our discipline, so that it can better serve the people’s livelihood.” Gu Qing said. For example, in response to the problem of Chinese people’s preference for cooked vegetables and insufficient intake of folic acid from their food, the project team has developed yogurt containing reducing folic acid, which has a better effect as a supplement than synthetic chemicals.
The project team has created a new method for efficiently and accurately screening functional lactic acid bacteria, elucidated the specific functions of various lactic acid bacteria, and developed a series of popular new lactic acid bacteria products based on this. After conducting pilot tests of related technologies in various enterprises, scientific researchers have persisted in close cooperation with enterprises on the production line, solving the technical bottlenecks in large-scale production. Gu Qing stated that the cooperation between industry, academia, and research has broken through the key technology of bacterial preparation, changing the long-term dependence of bacterial agents on imports.
The relevant person in charge of the Provincial Department of Science and Technology stated that our province is continuously increasing policy innovation efforts in creating a good innovation environment for enterprises, stimulating the enthusiasm of innovation entities such as enterprises, universities, research institutes, and social forces to invest in innovation. Zhejiang has proposed a total expenditure plan of over 247.9 billion yuan for research and experimental development (R&D) in the whole society by 2022.
(Source: Zhejiang Online)