Donghu Forum 2025 Opens, Gathering Scientific Wisdom to Jointly Build a Strategic Pivot

The Donghu Forum 2025 opened on the 14th in Wuhan at the China Optics Valley Technology Convention & Exhibition Center, under the theme “Cultivating a Fertile Ground for Science Popularization and Unleashing Scientific Dreams—Gathering Scientific Wisdom to Jointly Build a Strategic Pivot.”

At the opening ceremony and main forum, relevant leaders and distinguished guests delivered inspiring addresses. The forum’s ceremony segment featured three parts: “Donghu Release,” “Donghu Witness,” and “Donghu Practice.”

During the “Donghu Release” segment, four heavyweight reports were unveiled: the Global Digital Economy Development Index Report 2025, the Wuhan Science and Technology Innovation Center Index Report 2025, the China Basic Research Competitiveness Report 2025, and the Global Enterprise Innovation Index 2025, establishing a premier platform for releasing significant research findings and innovative insights.

The Global Digital Economy Development Index 2025, released by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, indicates that the scale of Hubei’s core digital economy industries continued to grow steadily in 2024, with its share of Hubei’s GDP increasing from 5.0% in 2018 to 9.6% in 2024.

The Wuhan Science and Technology Innovation Center Index Report 2025, released by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development, shows that Wuhan’s science and technology innovation center index score increased by 14% compared to the previous year. Wuhan’s overall innovation capabilities have been comprehensively enhanced, making it a “hub for gathering innovation resources,” a “source of high-level scientific and technological achievements,” a “powerful engine for innovation-driven development,” and a “radiating center in the global innovation network.”

The China Basic Research Competitiveness Report 2025, released by the Wuhan Documentation and Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reveals that Hubei Province’s basic research competitiveness index for 2024 is 71.70, ranking 6th nationally. Disciplines such as remote sensing, geochemistry and geophysics, ceramic materials, physical geography, geology, geography, multidisciplinary geosciences, geological engineering, mineralogy, and virology demonstrate prominent advantages across the country.

The Global Enterprise Innovation Index 2025, released by Wuhan University, analyzes the innovation landscape of leading global and Chinese enterprises in five future industries: future information, future manufacturing, future materials, future health, and future energy. Overall, China’s future industry innovation resources are highly concentrated in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area regions, presenting a spatial development pattern characterized by “multiple points of leadership and clustered advancement.” Hubei, underpinned by innovation, supports the strategic pivot for the rise of central China, demonstrating robust development resilience and significant growth potential.

During the “Donghu Witness” segment, the Department of Science and Technology of Zhejiang Province and the Department of Science and Technology of Hubei Province signed a science and technology cooperation framework agreement. The two provinces will promote cross-regional interaction and cooperation in innovation networks, jointly advance the construction of an “Innovative Zhejiang” and a “Science and Technology Innovation Pivot in Hubei,” and accelerate the formation of an open innovation pattern characterized by resonance and mutual reinforcement.

In the “Donghu Practice” segment, leading experts including Li Deren, Ding Lieyun, and Jin Meilin took the stage to present awards to representatives of the Donghu Special Award for the 2025 National Youth Creation & Innovation Practice Activity and offered encouraging messages to the students, who were deeply inspired.

During the keynote speech session, five distinguished guests delivered addresses: Benjamin List, 2021 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research; Lena Halounova, President of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS); Ding Rongjun, Chief Scientist of CRRC; Gao Peiyong, Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), National First-Class Professor, and Former Vice President of CASS; and Ding Lieyun, Professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Their speeches provided the audience with a feast of “science popularization plus science and technology innovation.”

The Donghu Forum is distinguished by its focus on “science popularization, science and technology innovation, and sci-tech talent.” It serves as a vital platform for advancing scientific and technological innovation, fostering open cooperation, and connecting global resources. This year’s forum features a rich array of activities, including five major sections: one opening ceremony and main forum, two series of sci-tech talent matchmaking events, 13 parallel forums on science popularization and sci-tech innovation themes, five project roadshow and matchmaking events, as well as a series of public science popularization activities organized by over 30 science popularization venues and innovation platforms within the province.

During the forum, project roadshow and matchmaking activities will be held concurrently to facilitate the transition of scientific and technological achievements from the “laboratory” to the “production line.” Public science popularization activities will also be organized to allow the general public to experience the charm of technology up close.

Source：hb.news.cn