About -

About the Competition

China Overseas Talents Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition is an innovation project competition for overseas talent organized by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) and local governments in China, aiming at introducing original, innovative and leading overseas high-tech projects, showcasing the latest S&T achievements and products, and building a bridge and platform to attract overseas elite talents to start businesses in China. Since 2016, the Competition has been successfully held for six years, attracting the participation of more than 2500 teams and innovation projects throughout the world. A number of projects have been successfully financed through the competition platform; many entrepreneurs promoted and noticed; and a lot of start-ups supported by the National Offshore Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base for Overseas Professionals, HOME Base Program, and Innovation China pilot cities. The Competition has contributed to accelerating the transformation of achievements and the implementation of projects, effectively helping overseas talents in science and technology settle in China and start businesses.

This year, CAST and the People’s Government of Hunan Province will jointly host the 2022 China (Changsha) Overseas Talents Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in the near future. As one of the activities of the 24th Annual Meeting of the CAST, the opening ceremony of the Competition will be held in June during the Annual Meeting, while the finals and the award ceremony will be held in November in Changsha, Hunan Province.

The Competition will invite projects from all over the world in five fields, including health (biomedicine, medical equipment, smart healthcare, life science, elderly care, etc.), intelligent technology (blockchain, metaverse, integrated optoelectronics, artificial intelligence, integrated circuit design, sensing technology, intelligent control, Internet of Things, etc.), equipment and new material (instrumentation, special automation equipment and new materials, etc.), sustainability (carbon neutrality, new energy, energy storage, resource recycling, etc.), and digital economy (digital infrastructure, industrial digitalization, digital public services, digital economic security system, etc.).

The Competition is composed of two stages – preliminary contests and the finals, and a series of Overseas Entrepreneur in China tours will be organized to showcase outstanding projects and introduce Hunan’s innovation policies and environment to the world. After the finals, a series of events – including conventions and exhibitions – will also take place, and follow-up service will be provided. The Competition is committed to providing a platform for global innovators, and help attract overseas elite talents and teams to start businesses in China.

Name:

Chinese：2022年中国（长沙）海外人才创新创业项目大赛暨海外创业者中国行

English：2022 China （Changsha）Overseas Talents Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition & International Promotion for the Innovation China

Time & Place:

Stage I: Primaries (qualifying, semi-final)

Time: June - October, 2022

Place: Online and In-person

Stage II: Finals

Time: November, 2022

Location: Changsha High-Tech Industrial Development Zone (National Offshore Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base for Overseas Professionals)

Organizers

Hosts: China Association for Science and Technology, People's Government of Hunan Province

Organizers: China Centre for International Science and Technology Exchange, Overseas Chinese Entrepreneur Alliance, Hunan Association for Science and Technology, Changsha Municipal Government, Zhuzhou Municipal Government, Xiangtan Municipal Government, Hengyang Municipal Government, Yueyang Municipal Government, Shaoyang Municipal Government, Chenzhou Municipal Government, Huaihua Municipal Government, Management Committee of Hunan Xiangjiang New Area

Co-organizers: CAST – FCPAE European (Belgium) Base for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, CAST- North America (New York) Base for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, CAST- North America (Silicon Valley) Base for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, CAST- Japan (Tokyo) Base for Innovation and Entrepreneurship，Changsha National Overseas Talents Offshore Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base，International Technology Transfer Network, International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation, "Innovation China " Investment Consortium

Recommend Projects: For social organizations, universities and scientific research institutes, innovation and entrepreneurship platforms, venture capital firms, etc., at home and abroad, please refer to the Recommend Projects page for details.

Venture Capital Firms: For VC firms at home and abroad, please refer to the Investment Institutions page for details.

Competition Categories

1. Healthcare Industry (biomedicine, medical equipment, smart healthcare, life science, elderly care, etc.);

2. Intelligent Technology (blockchain, metaverse, integrated optoelectronics, artificial intelligence, integrated circuit design, sensing technology, intelligent control, Internet of Things, etc.);

3. Equipment and New Materials (instrumentation, special automation equipment and new materials, etc.）;

4. Green and low-carbon Technology (carbon neutrality, new energy, energy storage, resource recycling, etc.);

5. Digital Economy (digital infrastructure, industrial digitalization, digital public services, digital economic security system, etc.).

Schedules & Rules

The Competition is composed of two stages: primaries (qualifying and semi-final) and finals. In between primaries and finals, there will be a series of Overseas Entrepreneur China Tour events.

A.Primaries

Primaries will be organized independently within the five different categories. After registration and qualification review, participants will go through primaries and semi-finals, and 20 projects from each category will be selected by a panel of professional judges to enter the finals.

1. Registration

1). Public announcement and widely mobilizing relevant parties at home and abroad to promote the Competition.

2). Recognition of the recommending institutions.

3). Participant registration and application.

4). The Organizing Committee conducts qualification review to confirm valid entries.

2. Qualifying

Selected expert review panels will conduct online assessments of all valid participating projects, and select projects to enter semi-finals in each category.

3. Semi-finals

Semi-finalists will pitch online and be evaluated by their pitch performance (no longer than 10 minutes). Eventually, 20 projects from each category will enter the finals (more places could be granted to those categories with a large number of projects or high-quality projects). A total of 100 outstanding projects from all 5 categories will enter the finals.

B.International Promotion for the Innovation China

The 100 finalists will participate in ten Overseas Entrepreneur China Tour events (online and in-person), two events for each category. Certain municipal and prefectural governments of Hunan Province will be invited to co-host the events. Ten outstanding overseas projects will be promoted to the local entities during each event and a local industry park will be invited to give a presentation on their business policy and environment.

C.The Finals

The Organizing Committee will invite owners of the 100 finalist projects to China to participate in the finals. Winners will be selected through roadshows, project defense and comprehensive evaluation.

Awards & Prizes

2022 China (Changsha) Overseas Talents Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project Competition

Reward Policy

Organizing Committee Office

1. Reward Policy

Projects that are launched and implemented in Changsha High-tech Zone within 2 years after winning the award can enjoy the following benefits and supports according to the winning situation:

First prize Winners. The project team members will be included in the talent pool of the Thousands of PhDs and Masters Project in Changsha High-tech Zone. The main person in charge of the project can receive up to 600,000 yuan of living allowance and 1 million yuan of entrepreneurial support funds (distributed in three years), and the companies incorporated by the project team can get three years of free office space and related services; particularly high-quality entrepreneurial projects and teams can be rewarded up to 100 million yuan in entrepreneurial support funds with a case-by-case approach.

Second Prize Winners. The project team members will be included in the talent pool of the Thousands of PhDs and Masters Project in Changsha High-tech Zone. The main person in charge of the project can receive up to 600,000 yuan of living allowance and 500,000 yuan of entrepreneurial support funds (distributed in three years), and the companies incorporated by the project team can get three years of free office space and related services.

Third Prize Winners. The project team members will be included in the talent pool of the Thousands of PhDs and Masters Project in Changsha High-tech Zone. The main person in charge of the project can receive up to 600,000 yuan of living allowance and 300,000 yuan of entrepreneurial support funds (disbursed in three years), and the companies incorporated by the project team can get three years of free office space and related services.

Excellence Prize Winners. The project team members will be included in the talent pool of the Thousands of PhDs and Masters Project in Changsha High-tech Zone. Qualified project teams and individuals will be supported to apply for various talent policies and benefits such as the Thousands PhDs and Masters Project.

The above policies shall be determined in accordance with the detailed terms and conditions of the Thousand PhDs and Masters Talent Project. In addition, the award-winning projects are supported to apply for other policies and benefits of innovation and entrepreneurship, industrial development, and financial capital in Changsha High-tech Zone.

2. Project Implementation Requirements

The team members of the winning projects (including the first prize, the second prize, the third prize and the excellence prize) incorporated in Changsha High-tech Zone will be directly included in the Thousand PhDs and Masters policy, and no additional review will be required. All award-winning project members should provide corresponding academic degree certificates (those who graduated from overseas schools should also provide Certified Foreign Academic Degree).

The companies should be established in Changsha High-tech Zone after December 21, 2021, or newly established or moved in after the competition. The business scope of the company should be the following key industries that Changsha High-tech Zone focuses on, such as next generation information technology, constrction machinery, biomedicine, CCUS, new-energy vehicles and aerospace engineering. Members of the winning team hold shares in the established companies. For the rest of the standards, refer to the corresponding terms and conditions of the Thousands of PhDs and Masters Project Implementation Measures.

The person in charge of the winning project and the company must submit a letter of commitment, promising the actual operation of the company, not to dissolve the company within 5 years, and not to move the industrial and commercial and tax relations out of Changsha High-tech Zone.

3. Project Services

According to the actual situation of the winning projects, Changsha High-tech Zone will provide one-on-one follow-up service to fully help the winning project team to start a business in Changsha High-tech Zone and enjoy relevant policy support.

Entry Requirement

A.Eligibility

Participating projects must meet the following requirements:

1.You can choose to participate either as an individual or as a team. If participating as a team, the team members shall not exceed 5 people. All participants must abide by the laws of the People's Republic of China and the country where they are located and have no major dishonesty or criminal records. Each participant can only participate in one project.

2. Individual participant or team leader shall have a master's degree or above obtained from overseas institutions and have more than one year of study experience outside China’s mainland, or more than one year of work experience outside China’s mainland; more than half of the team members shall have more than one year of overseas study or work experience.

3. If a participating project is a registered company, its registration date shall be on or after January 1st, 2022. Those who participate as individuals shall be the main founder of the company and the major natural person shareholder, with an ownership of no less than 30% of the company (including both direct and indirect shares). Those who participate as a team, the team leader shall be the main founder of the company and the major natural person shareholder; all team members shall hold equity and the shareholding ratio of each member shall be no less than 5%, with the total shareholding ratio of all team members shall be no less than 50% (including both direct and indirect shares).

4. Participating project cannot be a listed company (except listed on China’s NEEQ).

5. All participating project shall comply with the relevant provisions of current Chinese laws and regulations, industrial policies or planning, possess independent intellectual property rights related to products and technologies (must be free of disputes) or key technologies, and have certain innovation and commercialization potentials.

6. Participating project shall not involve any state secrets, and a declaration of state secrets exclusion must be signed.

7. Individuals or teams must have independent intellectual property rights for the inventions, patented technologies, resources involved in the project, and submit a statement of independent intellectual property rights or a complete written authorization from the intellectual property owner with legal effect.

8.You can choose one and only one racetrack for one project.

9. Each project can only be recommended by one recommending channel for registration. Real and effective contact information shall be provided, otherwise the submission will be nullified.

10. Any plagiarism, misrepresentation, presentation of false materials or violation of relevant laws and regulations will result in immediate loss of eligibility to participate in the competition and violators shall bear all the legal responsibilities.

B.Restrictions

1. Projects that have participated and won awards in the previous China Overseas Talents Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition are not allowed to register to the Competition.

2. If a participant does not meet the registration requirements, once found, the Competition Organizing Committee has the right to suspend the participant 's competition, cancel the award and void its eligibility to receive an award.

3. If one participant participates in multiple projects, or one project is recommended by multiple referrer channels at the same time, once found, the subject will be required to participate in one project only or only one referrer channel shall be confirmed and used within 3 days, otherwise the Competition Organizing Committee has the right to suspend the entrant’s competition, cancel the award and void the eligibility to receive an award.

C.Early Termination

The competition follows the principle of voluntary participation. If a participant chooses to discontinue after the competition starts, they may submit a written termination application to the organizing committee. After receiving the confirmation from the committee, they may withdraw from the competition.

中文目录