The Shanghai Global Talents Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition ended its finals on Jan 17 at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.

Hu Wenrong, director of the city's talent office, gave a speech during the opening ceremony and said that Shanghai is striving to become a high-caliber talent hub. The city will form a system to gather more talents and help them stand out as well as facilitate the transformation of science and technological achievements, implement more open policies for talents and create a higher-quality ecosystem for talent development.

Twenty out of 45 finalists won prizes for their promising projects. The winners will be awarded prize money, receive a permanent household registration in Shanghai, and have the option of living in a talent apartment. On top of that, they are expected to receive support from related policies and businesses that will provide investments and financing in their projects. The big prizes were designed to encourage more young talents to settle in Shanghai.

The competition attracted projects from a variety of fields including robot research and development, unmanned driving, new-generation artificial intelligence chips and innovative anti-tumor drugs. The projects were from industries including integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence, electronic information, automobiles, high-end equipment, advanced materials, life and health, and fashion consumer goods as well as financial technology and the online new economy.

Ten chief judges and 50 professional judges evaluated the finalists in terms of innovation, social values, team work, development status and prospects to select the most competitive ones.

The event was held by Shanghai's talent, science and technology-related government departments as well as social organizations and corporations in an effort to help attract more high-level talents and new projects from across the world to Shanghai.

Leading representatives of the organizers launched the event. They included Hu Wenrong, director of the city's talent office, Cao Yuanfeng, deputy director of the city's talent office, Xu Feng, Party secretary of the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, Rui Wenbiao, director of the Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration, Peng Song, executive deputy director of the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Promotion Office and member of the District Standing Committee of Pudong New Area, Dong Qin, deputy Party secretary of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Shanghai Municipality, Wang Lianhua, Party secretary of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, Ren Ruanli, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, Ye Linlin, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Ding Bo, deputy secretary of the Shanghai Committee of Chinese Communist Youth League, Yang Weiren, deputy inspector of the Shanghai Municipal Education and Health Work Party Committee, Peng Qionglin, member of the District Standing Committee of Pudong New Area, and Fu Hongyan, general manager of Shanghai STVC Group .

During interviews, contestants and judges spoke highly of the competition, which was considered to be a platform to help promote high-quality projects and incubate them.

Yin Hao, a contestant from Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, expressed his gratitude for being able to display his innovative projects on such a good platform, and to establish contact with more investment institutions. He also hopes that the Shanghai government will pay more attention to the diabetes stem cell project and the launch of various diabetes drugs to help more diabetes patients.

"We have been paying attention to the competition for many years. Shanghai's technological innovation environment ranks among the top in the country. The competition provides us with a display platform. With this opportunity, we can also learn and exchange with investment institutions, government units, and experts, which serves as a good guide for start-ups," said Cao Kaiqiang, a contestant from East China Normal University. 

"I am very grateful for being able to compete on such a big stage for start-ups to show themselves. Participating in such competitions has improved the popularity of our company, and our confidence is getting stronger and stronger, which has laid a very good foundation for the next round of financing, injecting new momentum into the future development of our enterprise," said Wang Fan, a contestant from Shanghai YuweiTek.

"We hope that top international talents will stand out, and that the technology in the laboratory can be industrialized and put into the market, not just in the laboratory, but also, that there will be more industrial investment. We will give entrepreneurial guidance on how to find funds and resources and connect with investors so that they can develop themselves better in the market," said Zhu Yun, one of the judges for the competition and the general manager of Shanghai Pudong Kechuang Group Co Ltd, or SPINNOTEC.

"The quality and level of the competition is very high, and it can be said that it has reflected the highest level in the country and even the top level in the world. It is hoped that the competition will continue each year to cultivate an internationally competitive scientific and technological force for our country in the next 10 years," said Qin Xi, one of the judges for the competition and the president of SIMIC Holdings.

"Shanghai's entrepreneurial environment and the government's supportive policies for the lifetime guarantee of entrepreneurial teams and the operation of start-ups are becoming more and more mature and up to date. If we continue to advance in this direction, we will definitely be able to incubate enterprises with global competitiveness," said Zhang Pengfei, one of the judges for the competition and the president of Beken Corporation.