China releases list of top science, engineering challenges

China on Sunday released a list of what it has identified as the 30 most pressing scientific questions, engineering challenges and industrial technology bottlenecks facing the nation's development.

The China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) announced the list – the eighth of its kind since 2018 – during its 27th annual meeting.

A rigorous selection process was overseen by 80 national scientific societies. In the initial phase, 56 eminent strategic scientists nominated 90 issues spanning 10 major fields, including basic sciences and manufacturing technology, before the final list of 30 priorities was determined, according to CAST.

The carefully selected roster includes the country's top 10 frontier science problems, such as the topological and geometric classification of manifolds and the properties and origin of the mass of the Higgs boson.

The top 10 engineering technology challenges focus on breakthrough applications, with notable entries including integrated algorithms for the design-simulation-manufacturing of complex models and AI-driven network systems that integrate communication and intelligence.

CAST also announced China's top 10 industrial technology issues, calling for overcoming critical manufacturing and application barriers. Priority areas include autonomous mining technologies for deep-space resource utilization and brain function assessment paired with closed-loop, brain-computer intelligent intervention.