China issues reports on 2024 research hotspots and emerging frontiers

China on Wednesday released reports on research hotspots and emerging frontiers in 2024 and selected 125 research frontiers that have performed actively or developed rapidly within this year.

The two reports, jointly issued by the Institutes of Science and Development, the National Science Library, both under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Clarivate, seek to understand global sci-tech trends, predict future key scientific breakthroughs and support national innovation.

The 2024 Research Fronts report is based on 13,318 research frontiers from the Essential Science Indicators database.

It highlights 110 active or rapidly developing hot frontiers and 15 emerging frontiers in 11 highly integrated disciplines: agricultural sciences, botany and zoology; ecology and environmental science; Earth science; clinical medicine; biological sciences; chemistry and materials science; physics; astronomy and astrophysics; mathematics; information science; and economics and psychology.

The other report, titled 2024 Research Fronts: Active Fields, Leading Countries/Regions, evaluates the performance of countries and regions such as China, the U.S., the UK, Germany, France and Japan.

Among the 110 hot frontiers and 15 emerging frontiers in the 11 major disciplines, the U.S. leads with 71 frontiers ranked first, accounting for 56.8 percent of the total 125 frontiers. China ranks first in 39 frontiers, or 31.2 percent of the total. The UK has four frontiers ranked first, while Germany and France each has one frontier ranked first.

"The reports show that AI-enabled scientific research, next-generation high-performance communications, future energy, addressing climate change, and improving human health and well-being have become key areas of scientific exploration," said Pan Jiaofeng, president of the Institutes of Science and Development.

(With input from Xinhua; cover via CFP)