Gov’t hands awards to 47 scientific projects

Chui Sai On (center) inaugurated two State Key Laboratories

The government has presented a total of 47 awards in recognition of projects in the fields of Science and Technology.

The ceremony was held yesterday at the Grand Auditorium of the Macao Cultural Center. Many highlighted figures from the local government, including the Chief Executive (CE) Chui Sai On, as well as with several representatives from People’s Republic of China central government, and the government (through the Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT)), were in attendance at the ceremony, which awarded 16 excellent projects as well as 30 prizes for scientific investigation and technology development for post-graduates. FDCT also awarded one special award to the project that had already won China’s National Science and Technology Progress Award back in 2016.

In his speech, the Chairman of FDCT, Frederico Ma, highlighted that several initiatives that the central government has launched through the Ministry of Science and Technology and other departments are “very favorable to Macau, promoting the development of Science and Technology in Macau and allowing a better integration of this area on the national system of scientific and technological innovation.”

In the name of the awardees, the laureate with the Special Award, Wang Yitao, expressed thanks for the support provided by the central government, and the local government as well as people from different sectors of society, addressing a special thanks to all the workers from the technology and science sectors “for their great effort in the development of Macau’s science and technology from square one.”

The ceremony also served as the official inauguration of the two State Key Laboratories (SKL) attributed to Macau by the central government back in July this year.

The two new units are dedicated to the “Internet of Things for Smart City” and “Lunar and Planetary Sciences” and will operate at the University of Macau and University of Science and Technology respectively. The laboratories add to two SKLs already in existence and in operation since 2010, dedicated to “Quality Research in Chinese Medicines” and “Analog and Mixed-Signal of Very Large-Scale Integration,” also operating in the same institutions.