杭州市科学技术协会

Looking back on 2021, at the historical convergence of the Two Centenary Goals, China has set out on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in all respects and is striding toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) has made continuous efforts in guiding Chinese sci-tech professionals to serve the nation with their expertise and promote integrating science, technology with economy, communicating science to benefit the public, providing consulting services for evidence-based decision-making and conducting international exchanges & cooperation to boost the deepening reform of the association and take all undertakings to a new level.

After public voting and expert review sessions, 2021 CAST Top 10 events were announced as follows, the ranking is in no particular order.

1. President Xi Jinping attended the 10th National Congress of CAST and delivered an important speech on May 28, 2021. President Xi Jinping put forward clear requirements to CAST to fulfill its mission and tasks. CAST revised its Constitution and formulated the 14th Five-year Development Plan (2021-2025) accordingly, and launched Self-reliance and self-strengthening to be vanguard in innovation actions among the broad masses of Chinese sci-tech professionals.

2. President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the 32nd Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS 2021) on September 6, 2021, urging to carry out global cooperation in aeronautical science and technology and bring more benefits to people around the world. ICAS 2021 was held again in China after a lapse of 29 years and was taken as the Olympiad in the field of aeronautical science and technology.

3. CAST launched serial programs including interviewing elite members of national societies, inviting scientists to study and deliver lectures on Party history, constructing themed education base and holding seminars and speech contests to strengthen the effect of the activity of study the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC), calling on the members of national societies and young sci-tech professionals to make contributions to achieving sci-tech self-reliance and self-strengthening at higher levels under the guidance of the Party.

4. CAST accomplished more than 3,900 tasks to benefit Chinese sci-tech professionals’ professional development and daily life of the general public, including: CAST promoted pilot reform of the evaluation index system of professional titles of the medical professionals. CAST put forward the extensive application of its popular science resources to respond to the Chinese authorities’ guidelines to ease the burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring for students undergoing compulsory education in late July, 2021. CAST also developed targeted programs to deliver sci-tech resources and services to the grass-roots level and contributed wisdom to help the seniors cross the digital divide and the people in Henan Province in rapid response to extreme weather conditions.

5. CAST launched serial programs of exhibitions and theatre performances, established education bases for teenagers, and awarded “2021 most beautiful sci-tech workers” to highlight “the Spirit of the Chinese Scientists” with being patriotic, innovative, truth-seeking, dedicative, cooperative and cultivating young scientists as the core, which aroused widespread concerns and received warm responses in the whole society. “The Spirit of the Chinese Scientists” became a buzzword and received a total of 24.5 billion hits in cyberspace.

6. The State Council released the Outline of the National Scheme for Scientific Literacy (2021-2035) in June, 2021, promoting the institutional construction to put science popularization at the same important position as sci-tech innovation. Thereupon issued CAST serial policy documents including the Development Plan for Science Popularization of CAST (2021-2025), the 14th Five-year Plan for the Development of Modern Science and Technology Museum System (2021-2025), the Opinions of CAST on Strengthening Science Popularization Work of National Societies in the New Era, and the Notice of the General Office of CAST on Strengthening the Standardization of Science Popularization to clarify the major priorities and practical measures to implement science popularization work of CAST in the future. What’s more, CAST made endeavors to include the revision of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Popularization of Science and Technology into the law revision plan of the National People's Congress, and include the scientific literacy indicators into the 2021 national civilized city evaluation system, and joined hands with the Ministry of Education to issue the Notice on Using Scientific Resources to Ease the Burden of Excessive Homework and Off-campus Tutoring for Students Undergoing Compulsory Education.

7. CAST developed Opinions on supporting the construction of new development pattern and deepen its strategic cooperation with central enterprises such as Sinopec and the China Three Gorges Corporation. As an open, pivotal, and platform oriented organization, CAST integrated its brand platforms of “Innovation China” and “Wisdom China” into national innovation strategy and high-quality development pattern. What’s more, CAST’s newly launched “China Hall of Science and Technology Forum” program established an exchange platform between top scientists and leading cadres of the Party and government in capital city Beijing. CAST’s suggestion on hitting carbon peak and neutrality targets was included in the deployment of the Central Economic Work Conference. CAST established a comprehensive platform “China Science Communication” (https://www.kepuchina.cn/) to provide sci-tech professional-centered products and services in the digital era and was awarded by relevant central organs.

8. CAST made remarkable achievements in the construction of world-class STM journals in the past three years. Since 2018, CAST has worked closely with the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and other relevant departments to further promote the construction of world-class STM journals. 3 year continuous efforts witnessed 7 Chinese STM journals entering first rank of respective disciplines, and 3 entering world-class top 100 STM journals. In addition, 96 Chinese STM journals stepped into the first quarter of respective disciplines, with an increase of 41 over 2018; 25 Chinese STM journals ranked among top 5% of respective disciplines, with an increase of 17 over 2018; 20 Chinese STM journals ranked among top 3 of respective disciplines, with an increase of 11 over 2018. Furthermore, the number of international citation agencies of Chinese STM journals increased from 864 to 9,608, and the number of citation countries and regions of Chinese STM journals increased from 42 to 124.

9. Joining hands with the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), CAST launched the “Tiangong Classroom” program with its China Science and Technology Museum (CSTM) as the main venue and linked sub-venues in Guangxi, Sichuan, Hong Kong and Macao to carry out hands-on activities and ignite teenagers’ scientific dreams to explore outer space. The program mobilized nearly 200 science and technology museums, 193 mobile science and technology museums, 124 science popularization caravans and 850 rural middle school science and technology museums in 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government to take part, receiving more than 2.1 billion online hits within 24 hours, demonstrating a successful practice with the most coverage and largest participation in a day in China’s science education history.

10. CAST established a steering committee and a normalized mechanism to promote the capacity building of the national societies through the Party organization construction. CAST coordinated the Party committees of more than 70 national societies to head their societies to support the economic and social development of 78 red revolutionary areas in history in 23 provinces, pushing integration of the Party organization construction into societies’ activities.

Tag: Department of Publicity and Culture of CAST, 2021 CAST Top 10 events