The Beijing Outstanding Youth Project was established in 2018 by the Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (BMNSF). 

It aims to guide Beijing's most creative young scholars under the age of 40, who have achieved certain basic research achievements, to focus on the construction of a science and technology innovation center and carry out substantive international cooperation and original basic research.

A group photo of persons in charge of the Beijing Outstanding Youth Projects in 2020. [Photo/zgcgw.beijing.gov.cn]

So far, BMNSF has funded 106 Outstanding Youth Projects from 33 institutions, with a total funding amount of more than 100 million yuan ($15.44 million).

Outstanding youths produce outstanding results

Professor Guo in the laboratory. [Photo/zgcgw.beijing.gov.cn]

The project "Metal Energy Electrocatalysis" of Professor Guo Shaojun in Peking University's School of Materials Science and Engineering was selected for the first Beijing Outstanding Youth Project. 

Professor Guo then led his research group to develop a new type of electrocatalyst material, related results of which were published in the top international journal Nature.

Also funded by the Beijing Outstanding Youth Project, the team of Professor Yang Chao from Peking University proposed an efficient many-core parallel optimization algorithm for the geometric multigrid for the Sunway TaihuLight Supercomputer. It was the first ultra-large-scale computing operation in the world to solve one trillion unknowns per second. 

As of this February, 106 leaders chosen by the Beijing Outstanding Youth Project have published 805 international high-level SCI papers, 29 of which were published in top international journals such as Science and Nature. Also, a total of 360 patents have been applied for, 77 of which have been authorized.

Accelerated transformation of scientific results

The 3D large-scale cell "intelligent manufacturing" process platform. [Photo/zgcgw.beijing.gov.cn]

Professor Du Yanan in the laboratory. [Photo/zgcgw.beijing.gov.cn]

With funding from the project, Professor Du Yanan, a tenured professor and doctoral supervisor of Tsinghua University School of Medicine, led a team to successfully develop the "Construction of 3D Biomaterials for Cell Microenvironment with Customizable Physical Properties," and established Cytoniche Biotechnology Co, Ltd in the form of technology shares.

Like Du Yanan's team, the team overseen by Li Suping, a researcher at the National Nanoscience Center, also used its research results on "intelligent nano-robots for tumor treatment" to set up Beijing Junquan Zhiyao Biotechnology Co, Ltd in the form of technology shares.

According to incomplete statistics, 15 of 77 authorized patents that resulted from research of the Beijing Outstanding Youth Project have been transferred, of which 12 were applied for in Beijing, accounting for 80 percent of the total.

Build an international cooperation network

Last November, 19 leaders of the Outstanding Youth Project went to Guizhou to investigate and visit the Guizhou Big Data Center and the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST) in Guizhou. 

They also conducted exchanges and communication activities on the transformation of project results.

The first "Beijing Outstanding Youth Academic Journey." [Photo/zgcgw.beijing.gov.cn]

Currently, the project has conducted cooperation activities with 147 foreign (overseas) scientific researchers from 15 countries and regions. 

Among them, five project leaders have been honored as "Innovators Under 35 in China" by MIT Technology Review.