He-Liang-He-Li Fund Awards 2006 was held in the afternoon of Nov. 15,2006 in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. This was the 13th awards ceremony of the Fund.

Attending were Chen Zhili, state councilor, Song Jian, former vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Li Zhaozhuo, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and other leaders of relevant government departments.

Chen and Song, as well as representatives of the fund founders, issued awards to 39 candidates for their contributions in promoting scientific and technologial progress, and 20 candidates for achieving science and technology innovations. Awards for science and technology innovations were newly added to He-Liang-He-Li Fund Awards this year.

Viewed from structure and credentials of awards winners, several characteristics indicating higher quality of their achievements can be summarized as follows:

First, the average age of award winners is 61.4, lower than 68.8 in previous years. This shows the aging problem of award winners was lessened somewhat.

Second, previously, award winners from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) accounted for 75 percent of the total, while non-CAS and non-CASS winners, the rest. However, the ratio of non-CAS non-CASS winners this year made up 49.2 percent of all winners.

Third, achievements of awards winners this year are markedly higher in the academic level, 56.4 percent of which met international academic standards.

In addition, the number of female and ethnic minority winners is also more than in previous years.

Also present at the ceremony were Li Xueyong, vice minister of Science and Technology, Zhao Qinping, vice minister of Education, Bai Chunli, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Duan Ruichun, chairman of the Working Office of Supervisory Panel for SOE, SASAC, Song Nanping, member of the Secretariat of China Association for Science and Technology, Zhu Daoben, vice president of National Natural Science Foundation as well as some 300 experts, representatives from S&T, education and other sectors in Bejing.