The 2025 National Science Popularization Month main event in Guizhou Province featured the Qixingguan Science and Technology Courtyard in Bijie City, where professors provided guidance on hybrid pollination techniques for roxburghii roses. By 2025, the proportion of Guizhou citizens possessing scientific literacy reached 12.9%, an increase of 5.68 percentage points from 7.22% in 2020, surpassing the 12% target set in the 14th Five-Year Plan. The first provincial-named popular science book series "Hundred Thousand Whys: Guizhou" was published and distributed. A participant from Guizhou won the highest honor, the "CAST President Award," at the 39th National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition. One individual was successfully elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, while 128 national-level talents, including flexibly introduced academicians, were recruited. Thirty-seven doctoral candidates were selected for the 2025 China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) Young Scientific Talent Cultivation Program's doctoral special project, and 115 "Guizhou Provincial Doctoral Innovation Stations" solved over 310 technical challenges. A national pioneering initiative was launched to expand Science and Technology Courtyards from solely agricultural sciences to multiple fields including engineering, agriculture, and medicine.

Over the past year, the provincial science and technology associations adopted a holistic and systematic approach to vigorously promote high-quality development in their undertakings. Throughout the year, these associations focused on their primary responsibilities, deepened reforms and innovation, and pioneered new working landscapes. This period also saw innovation breakthroughs serving as key drivers, laying a solid foundation for the successful conclusion of the 14th Five-Year Plan and a strong start to the 15th Five-Year Plan.

**Pooling Wisdom and Resources: New Achievements in Serving Scientific and Technological Professionals**

"The Young Talent Support Project provides regular guidance from training institutions and experts, assisting in the application and undertaking of high-level research projects." "The project also offers referral opportunities for assuming important roles in national and provincial academic organizations." Known as the "first stepping stone" for young scientific talent in Guizhou, the Young Talent Support Project supported 40 individuals in 2025. During a training session organized by the provincial association in October last year, many young talents expressed that the project's cultivation model helps them achieve more during their prime research years.

Concurrently, Guizhou continued to implement personalized "one person, one policy" support services, offering precise assistance from project applications to platform development for top-tier talents and their teams. Huang Weina, Chief Technical Expert at AECC Guiyang Institute and dedicated model chief designer at Aero Engine Corporation of China, is one beneficiary; she was elected as a Chinese Academy of Engineering academician in 2025. "Persisting in Guizhou for over 30 years until receiving the nation's highest academic honor was made possible by the care and emphasis placed on scientific talent by relevant Guizhou departments," Huang stated.

The provincial association's "High School Student Talent Program" aims to have secondary students conduct research under the guidance of university and society mentors, helping them discover their academic strengths and innovative potential. This initiative assisted students from schools like Guiyang No. 1 High School and Zunyi No. 4 High School in winning one gold medal, eight silver medals, and 41 bronze medals at the 2025 National Five-Subject Competition for Secondary Students, marking the province's first gold medal in the competition in nearly a decade and setting a new record for medal counts. In 2025, the provincial association prioritized cultivating a large, well-structured, and high-quality talent梯队 covering adolescents, youth, and top-tier experts, continuously refining mechanisms for talent discovery, selection, cultivation, and recommendation to support the growth and emergence of various talents, from innovative reserves to outstanding and leading figures.

**Scientific Innovation Assistance: New Results in Serving Innovation-Driven Development**

In September 2025, academicians and experts organized by the provincial association visited Liupanshui, promoting the use of efficient new processes and energy-saving equipment to coal enterprises, further aiding the city in fully utilizing coal resources and extending industrial chains. Similarly, a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Guizhou experts are jointly applying to establish a National Industrial Technology Engineering Center for Manganese Resource Development and Utilization, a collaboration stemming from the September 2025 "Academicians and Experts Visit Tongren" event. To promote industrial development, the provincial association organized 12 such activities last year. It invited 28 academician visits and over 700 top industry experts to conduct academic exchanges, technical guidance, and policy consultations focused on themes like the "Six Major Industrial Clusters" and "Refined Development of Rich Minerals," organizing 259 report sessions, producing 14 expert recommendations, and facilitating the signing of 13 cooperation agreements.

To channel high-level scientific talent and innovation resources to the industrial frontline, the provincial association innovatively launched the first batch of "Guizhou Provincial Doctoral Innovation Stations," primarily established in specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and innovative enterprises and those with intellectual property advantages to serve business development. In 2025, stations in sectors like electronic information, new energy materials, and equipment manufacturing secured 215 project collaborations, initiated 55 pilot projects for "use before transfer" of scientific achievements, leveraged 120 million yuan in research funding, produced 448 scientific outcomes, generated 530 million yuan in economic benefits, trained over 800 applied technical骨干, and drove breakthroughs in key common technologies, enabling rapid transformation of scientific achievements and aligning technological innovation with industrial development on the ground.

**Science Popularization for the People: New Breakthroughs in Serving the Improvement of Public Scientific Literacy**

Bringing the universe to your eyes, traversing a "Fantasy Metaverse," assembling Ferris wheel models—last year, the Guizhou Science and Technology Museum's permanent exhibition hall hosted over 490 themed popular science activities, attracting large audiences and receiving more than 470,000 visits. Science venues served as key bases, with mobile science museums reaching over 100 schools and serving 430,000 people, and science caravans visiting campuses and communities, engaging more than 60,000 individuals and sparking public enthusiasm for scientific exploration. Conducting popular science activities is fundamental work for enhancing public scientific literacy and achieving high-level national self-reliance in science and technology. The provincial association strengthened science popularization bases, expanded channels, diversified formats, and increased the supply of high-quality popular science resources to meet growing public demand for scientific knowledge.

Opening laboratories, performing science plays, offering discounted sci-fi movie viewings—in September 2025, the inaugural "National Science Popularization Month," jointly launched by the provincial association and multiple partners, featured 439 key activities organized by associations at provincial, city, and county levels, enabling full-domain action, all-region coverage, omnimedia communication, and public participation, sparking a high-quality popular science wave across society. Additionally, the "2025 Guizhou Science and Technology Activity Week & Guizhou Science Festival" was equally impressive, featuring innovation teams sharing technology breakthrough stories and exhibitions integrating cutting-edge technologies like AI and virtual reality. Nearly 100 activities attracted over 30 million online and offline interactions, stimulating public interest in science. Through continuously hosting diverse and engaging popular science events, the provincial association extended quality resources to broader audiences, fostering a strong atmosphere of learning, discussing, loving, and applying science.

**Intelligence Informing Governance: New Contributions to Serving Scientific Decision-Making by the Party and Government**

Optimizing planting layouts, demonstrating and promoting improved varieties like Qianyu No. 9, enhancing the adoption rate of key technologies—the draft "Guizhou Province Potato Industry High-Quality Development Work Plan (2026–2030)" proposes implementing a yield enhancement project across the province to increase total potato output. Think tanks play a crucial supporting role in advancing modern governance capabilities. Over the past year, the provincial association leveraged its role as a national scientific think tank, organizing experts to conduct research on topics from "refined development of rich minerals" and Guizhou's computing power to efficient agriculture and low-altitude economy, with each subject closely aligned to serve national strategies and provincial development goals.

Phosphorus chemical industry is a key sector for Guizhou's deepened "refined development of rich minerals." Think tank experts provided recommendations on mining, mineral processing, technical routes, and associated resource utilization to enhance raw material and product value-added, aiding the industry in extending, supplementing, and strengthening its chains. A series of forward-looking and highly targeted research outcomes propelled social development: supporting the demonstration of the significant value of Guizhou's Triassic fossil groups, aiding their designation as China's sole 2027 World Heritage Conference nomination; proposing suggestions like constructing tourism scenic byways to assist tourism industry upgrades; and producing high-quality policy advisory reports that contributed wisdom to scientifically formulating development plans and making major decisions.

**Upholding Tradition and Fostering Innovation: New Vitality in Reforming and Developing Science Associations**

Traditional Chinese medicine academia should integrate modern technology while inheriting classics, explore TCM views on life from the perspective of Chinese classical culture, and contemplate the microscopic structure of the five viscera based on fundamental views of biology—at the Guizhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Association's seventh member representative congress and TCM development forum held this January, master TCM practitioners like Liu Shangyi and He Chengyao shared insights, providing cutting-edge exploration directions for TCM innovation. Since last year, under the provincial association's guidance, the TCM association enhanced its innovation capacity through reforms, focusing on improving the quality of academic exchanges and elevating Guizhou TCM's influence via high-end academic conferences.

Scientific societies are vital components of the national innovation system. To boost their organizational vitality, the provincial association used standardized development as a reform lever, implementing "five batches" of measures to newly establish or standardly rebuild 103 Party branches, achieving full coverage of Party organizations under its supervision. Notably, the association also rationally designed and arranged institutional structures, clarifying distinct functional focuses for organs at various levels, internal departments, and directly affiliated institutions, detailing 112 work measures to effectively enhance service levels and ensure efficient performance of duties.

"We will leverage enterprise science associations to better serve scientific and technological professionals in their endeavors," stated Feng Yuan, Party Secretary, Chairman, and Association President of China Construction Fourth Engineering Division Bureau Guizhou Investment and Construction Co., Ltd., at the company's science association establishment and first member representative conference in August 2025, emphasizing uniting technical talent around major strategic needs to serve high-quality development. By stimulating vitality through reform, the provincial association established a comprehensive and effective organizational network system, ensuring the smooth execution of its various tasks, aiding the construction of a new pattern for association work, and better serving the building of a technologically powerful nation.