In today's rapidly changing era of technological innovation, technology awards, as an important means of stimulating innovation, are shifting their selection criteria from a single technical indicator to a comprehensive value evaluation, showing a diversified development trend and placing more emphasis on the comprehensive value and social contribution of achievements.

Traditional science and technology awards often focus on the technological progressiveness and academic innovation of achievements. Now, economic value, social value, ecological value and other multiple indicators are included in the core evaluation system. In the 2024 evaluation of the National Science and Technology Award, the weight of the "achievement transformation and application benefits" indicator will be increased to 30% for the first time, with a focus on examining the economic benefits and employment driving effects of achievements in practical applications. The high-yield and disease resistant rice variety developed by a certain agricultural technology team not only achieved a breakthrough of 15% increase in yield per mu in technology, but also covered more than 10 provinces in China in promotion and application, driving an increase in income for 500000 farmers. Its significant economic and social value has become a key factor in winning the National Science and Technology Progress Award. The reviewing experts said, "We hope to guide researchers to not only look up to the stars for research and development, but also to promote transformation down-to-earth through standard adjustments

The achievements of interdisciplinary integration have received more attention in the selection of science and technology awards. With the increasing demand for interdisciplinary collaboration in solving complex problems, the evaluation of science and technology awards is paying more attention to cross disciplinary integration of innovative achievements. In the 2024 selection of the China Patent Award, a precise tumor diagnosis and treatment technology that integrates artificial intelligence and clinical medicine stood out. This technology integrates knowledge from multiple disciplines such as computer science, biomedical engineering, and pathology, achieving a 20% increase in tumor diagnosis accuracy. It was highly praised by the evaluation committee for its distinctive interdisciplinary innovation features. In local science and technology awards, the proportion of awards for interdisciplinary achievements has also been increasing year by year. The number of awards for interdisciplinary projects in a certain province's science and technology award has increased by 65% compared to five years ago, reflecting the positive guidance of awards for interdisciplinary innovation.

The evaluation orientation of emphasizing both long-term contributions and short-term breakthroughs is gradually established. Some technology awards have started to establish sub awards such as "Lifetime Achievement Award" and "Youth Innovation Award", taking into account the contributions of researchers at different stages. At the same time, in the evaluation of achievements, attention should be paid to both recent technological breakthroughs and systematic achievements formed by long-term scientific research accumulation. An academician team in the field of material science, relying on more than 30 years of continuous research in the field of new superconducting materials, has formed a complete innovation chain from basic theoretical breakthrough to application technology development, and its systematic achievements have won the first prize of the the State Natural Science Award. This evaluation orientation avoids the pursuit of quick success in scientific research and encourages researchers to focus on long-term research.

The diversification of selection criteria for technology awards is guiding technological innovation towards a more comprehensive and sustainable direction, allowing truly valuable innovative achievements to be recognized and incentivized.