With the deepening implementation of the innovation driven development strategy, science and technology awards are increasingly emphasizing the incentive and support for young scientific and technological talents. Through measures such as establishing youth special awards, lowering application thresholds, and optimizing evaluation mechanisms, a comprehensive system for cultivating innovative reserve forces has been constructed, injecting a continuous stream of youthful vitality into science and technology innovation.

The number of youth special technology awards continues to increase, accurately covering the critical period of youth growth. Both the the State Natural Science Award and the Technological Invention Award have set up sub awards of the "Youth Science Award". The age limit is relaxed to 40 years old. In 2024, the number of young special awards winners will account for 28% of the total number of winners, an increase of 17 percentage points compared with ten years ago. Youth science and technology awards have also been established in various regions, with the prize amount of the "Youth Science and Technology Award" in a certain province increasing from 50000 yuan to 200000 yuan, and supporting scientific research project funding provided. Among the young technology talents who won awards in 2024, 85% hold doctoral degrees, with an average age of 36, covering cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and new materials, demonstrating the role of young talents as a driving force in innovation. A 35 year old young scientist was awarded the National Youth Science Award for his breakthrough achievements in the field of quantum communication, and subsequently received support from the National Key R&D Program Youth Project to further expand his research achievements.

Optimizing the application threshold reduces the difficulty of young talent participation and stimulates innovation enthusiasm. In response to the relatively limited scientific research accumulation of young talents, the conditions for applying for science and technology awards have been appropriately relaxed, allowing core patents and phased achievements as the first inventor to participate in the application. The China Patent Award Youth Project has cancelled the requirement of "industrialization proof" and focused on examining the innovation and potential of patents. The new energy storage material patent developed by a young engineering team has not yet been widely applied, but it has won the China Patent Award Youth Award for outstanding technological innovation, and subsequently attracted venture capital support, accelerating the transformation of achievements. Some technology awards also provide guidance for young talents to apply, organize previous winners to share their experiences, and increase the success rate of youth project applications from 12% in 2019 to 25% in 2024.

The innovation of the evaluation mechanism focuses on potential evaluation and avoids the tendency of "qualification only". The evaluation of youth science and technology awards introduces the "potential assessment" indicator, which focuses on examining the innovation, development prospects, and scientific research potential of talents of the results, rather than simply looking at the quantity and application scale of the results. When evaluating the brain computer interface technology of a young team, the reviewing experts not only focused on the current technological breakthroughs, but also valued the team's long-term planning and innovative ideas in basic research, and ultimately gave high scores. Some awards adopt a "double-blind evaluation" mechanism, which hides information such as the applicant's age and professional title to ensure fairness in the evaluation. A young researcher said, "The tilt of technology awards towards young people allows us to focus on innovation itself, without missing opportunities due to shallow qualifications

The continuous empowerment of young talents by science and technology awards not only enables outstanding young science and technology talents to stand out, but also forms a virtuous cycle of "award incentive re innovation", cultivating a high-quality reserve force for China's science and technology innovation and ensuring that innovation vitality is passed down from generation to generation.