On November 3, the State Science and Technology Awards Conference of 2020 was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. President Xi Jinping and other CPC leaders and state officials attended the conference and conferred awards to representatives of the winning teams. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) continued to sweep up the majority of prizes in this year’s State Science and Technology Awards. In addition, eight foreign experts and one international organization were granted the International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award.

The top science prize was awarded to Gu Songfen of Aviation Industry Corporation of China and Wang Dazhong of Tsinghua University.

212 winning projects (or 80.3% of the total) were completed with HEIs as major contributors, of which 165 or 62.5% were led by HEIs.

More specifically, of the total 46 projects winning the State Natural Science Award, 67.4% (one 1st prize and 30 2nd prizes) were led by HEIs; of the total 61 projects winning the State Technological Inventions Award, 80.3% (two 1st prize and 47 2nd prizes) were led by HEIs; and of the total 157 projects winning the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award, 54.1% (one team innovation prize and 75 2nd prizes) were led by HEIs.

These results demonstrated HEIs’ unique strengths in basic research and major original innovations as well as their prominent contribution to scientific and technological progress and economic and social advancement in China.