Han Ximin

    ximhan@126.com

    TWENTY-FIVE projects, which were selected after five preliminaries in Sydney in Australia, Munich in Germany, Tel Aviv in Israel, Tokyo in Japan and Silicon Valley in the United States, will compete for US$880,000 in awards at the China (Shenzhen) Innovation Competition of International Talents to be held in Longgang District on April 15.

    At the preliminary contest at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, which ended Tuesday, Philip Goebel, a doctorate degree holder from the University of Melbourne, won the championship with his project Footprints Walking Frame by Quanticare. Nine contestants explained their products during a three-hour conference.

    Two regional contests in Tokyo and Silicon Valley on March 26 and 27 attracted 280 teams.

    Ten projects, five from each contest, were shortlisted for the Shenzhen final. The projects cover biology and bioscience, advanced manufacturing, electronics, and new energy.

    The March 16 Tel Aviv contest attracted 90 local teams.

    During the 14th Conference on the International Exchange of Professionals (CIEP), which falls on April 16 and 17, the winning projects will get investment from a pool of US$100 million, which was put forward by 56 venture capital companies in Shenzhen. The project recognized at the final contest will receive up to US$3.8 million in financial support from the government.

    The event is organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Government and co-organized by the Longgang District Government, Shenzhen Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and Shenzhen Municipal Science and Technology Innovation Commission.

    Shenzhen’s number of international patent applications reached 11,600 in 2014, tripling the number in 2010 and accounting for 48.5 percent of China’s total, according to official data.

    So far, 18 foreign experts in Shenzhen have won Friendship Awards, the top prize for foreigners working in China. A total of 154 professionals in Shenzhen have been selected for the National 1,000 Professional Program and 1,219 have been selected for the Peacock Plan, which aims to bring high-tech talent to Shenzhen.

    Shenzhen has helped 81 science and research teams from overseas settle in the city, along with 60,000 overseas professionals. The city has more than 3,000 enterprises owned by returned overseas students, and more than 30 of them have an annual output value of more than 100 million yuan (US$15.87 million).