On February 28, 2023, the finals of the 1st Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Doctoral and Postdoctoral Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was successfully concluded at the Zhuhai International Convention Center. The competition, which was launched in September 2022, was held under the guidance of the National Postdoctoral Management Committee and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. It was co-hosted by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security and the Zhuhai Municipal People's Government, and organized by the Office of the Zhuhai Municipal Talent Work Leading Group and other departments. Themed around "Attracting Global Talents to Create a Talent Bay Area," the competition encouraged doctoral and postdoctoral researchers from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao region to actively participate and share their outstanding scientific research achievements. With extensive and continuous promotion through the competition's official website, mainstream media, and new media platforms, over 1,000 doctoral and postdoctoral teams registered to compete.
Under the leadership and organization of the competition's organizing committee and executive committee, the final round included on-site scoring by expert judges, full-process notarization by notary personnel, and supervision by representatives from the organizing committee. The RECORNA competition team stood out among the 113 projects in the finals with their project on "Disease Treatment Based on RNA Editing Technology," achieved a commendable 14th place in the entrepreneurship competition, and received the Excellence Award.
According to the organizing committee's announcement, the competition adopted a three-round elimination format consisting of preliminary rounds, semi-finals, and finals. It was divided into two categories: innovation and entrepreneurship. The competition was further sub-categorized into eight professional fields: next-generation information technology, semiconductors and integrated circuits, biomedicine and health, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials, new energy (including new energy vehicles), energy conservation and environmental protection, and other industrial fields. The preliminary rounds and semi-finals were conducted based on the fields of the participating projects, while the final was open to all qualified projects without field distinction. The competition evaluated both innovation and entrepreneurship projects based on several aspects, including "project technology, project team, project application" for the innovation category and "product or service, project team, business model, project risk" for the entrepreneurship category. The entrepreneurship and innovation categories each have two gold awards, four silver awards, five bronze awards, and 21 excellence awards.
RECORNAs participation in this competition is a positive response to the Guangdong provincial government's efforts to thoroughly implement the spirit of the central and provincial talent work conferences, firmly establishing the strategic position of talent-led development, and actively promoting the building of a high-level talent hub in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It also aims to promote the innovation capabilities of high-level talents including doctoral and postdoctoral researchers within the company, and to facilitate the integration of industry, academia, and research, as well as to advance the transformation and implementation of technological achievements.
