16 prizes proposed for recipients of Science and Technology Awards

The preliminary results of the Macau Science and Technology Awards 2018 were announced at the Macau Science Center this week. A total of 16 prizes proposed by the awards’ evaluation committee will be distributed amongst the winners.

The 16 winning projects were the top seven projects in the list of the Natural Sciences Awards category, the top six projects in the list of the Technology Invention Awards category and the top three projects in the list of the Science and Technology Progress Awards category.

This year, a total of 45 projects applied for the prizes, with 44 entering the first evaluation phase after a formal evaluation.

The first evaluation was conducted by experts recommended by the Office for National Science and Technology Awards of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.

Forty-two projects eventually entered the second evaluation, which was conducted by the evaluation committee.

The Science and Technology Development Fund decided upon the final 16 winning projects. This year, there were no first-class prizes awarded.

The evaluation committee proposed five prizes for the University of Macau (UM) in the National Science Award category. The grant of another two to the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) has been recommended.

In the Technological Invention Award category, the award to UM of four prizes and the award of two prizes to MUST have been recommended.

The proposed recipients of the Science and Technology Progress Award are Synopsys Macau Limited, Air Macau and UM.

When commenting on this year’s awards, Member of the Macau Science and Technology Commission Tsui Lap-Chee said that “the prize standards have not been lowered, and the level [of the projects] has been increasing.”

Another member, Yeung Tsun Man Eric, when talking about this year’s Science and Technology Progress Award winner Synopsys, said “with regard to Synopsys Macau Limited, it was a small team formed by Macau people, and was then bought by Synopsys.”

“It consists 100 percent of Macau young people, which is the highlight,” said Yeung, adding “many other applicants [of the prizes] are new Macau residents or mainland residents.”

In addition, Yeung called on the government to expend effort in applying its human resources policies.

“We really need talented human resources, particularly in terms of software and Chinese medicine. [Macau] must import more talented human resources,” said Yeung. Another member, Zhong Nanshan, said he would talk with the Guangdong provincial government to provide special policies to foster the Greater Bay Area’s Chinese medicine research and other technological research.

“I believe the Greater Bay Area will quickly flourish [in terms of technological development],” said Zhong.

The results will be forwarded to the Chief Executive for approval. The awards ceremony will be held in October.