Private donors fund “China’s Nobel Prizes” to support groundbreaking research that is helping us understand our world better and find responses to global challenges, including climate change.
Climate change threatens crops, adding to food security concerns for a growing global population that already sees 40% of production lost to pests and infection. So, when long years of research by Jijie Chai and Jian-Min Zhou shed light on plants’ immune systems, they sparked hope of averting hunger caused by environmental change. Now their work has been recognized by a Future Science Award, supported by Give2Asia.
The 1 million U.S. dollar Life Science Prize is one of three granted each year by Hong Kong’s Future Science Awards Foundation and, thanks to its value and recognition standards is widely regarded as a Chinese equivalent of the Nobel Prizes. Discoveries in Physical Science and in Mathematics and Computer Science are also recognized annually by Future Science Awards.
Chai and Zhou’s 19 years of collaboration on what are known as resistosomes had, the prize committee found, cracked mysteries that had baffled science since the existence of plants’ innate immune systems was first broached in the 1940s and then confirmed some 30 years ago. “Understanding of resistosome functions will lead to better methods for controlling plant disease and therefore have enormous importance for global food security,” the award citation noted, hailing the two men’s “seminal contributions to the understanding of innate immune mechanisms in plants”.
Since 2017, the Future Science Awards Foundation has partnered with Give2Asia to enable private funding partnerships critical to their work. This partnership has significantly enhanced the foundation’s capacity to fund groundbreaking research that addresses environmental issues and advances scientific understanding.
Future Science for present challenges
The Future Science Prize, established in 2016 and funded privately, has quickly become a beacon of recognition within the Chinese scientific community. The prizes aim to foster a spirit of scientific inquiry, ignite a passion for scientific pursuits, influence societal attitudes towards science, and encourage more young people to choose science as a career.
The organizational structure and selection criteria are designed to ensure that private capital effectively supports not only high-caliber research but also advances humanity’s understanding of and solutions to ecological challenges.
At the heart of the awards is a commitment to excellence, supported by significant funding and oversight from anonymous philanthropic contributors. This ensures that each laureate’s work meets rigorous scientific standards and meaningfully addresses global challenges.
Wide implications
The achievements of past laureates of the Future Science Prize exemplify the program’s far-reaching impact and its vital role in addressing some of the most pressing global challenges. The 2023 award to Chai and Zhou is a prime example. Their work on plant resistosomes has implications extending well beyond improving agricultural yields. By enhancing crop resistance to environmental stresses, their discoveries also address broader issues like climate change and its impact on human nutrition, highlighting how targeted scientific research can yield solutions that mitigate broad ecological challenges.
The Future Science Awards Foundation continues to spotlight such exceptional contributions and will announce its next round of winners in autumn 2024.
Looking ahead
A substantial boost to our collaborative efforts with the Future Science Awards Foundation came from successful efforts to facilitate an anonymous donation of 3.2 million U.S. dollars to the Hong Kong-based nonprofit. This generous contribution supports a broad range of scientific research, empowering laureates to advance in their respective fields and develop solutions that address pressing environmental and other challenges.
The transformative impact of such donations highlights the pivotal role of this foundation and its importance in connecting international funders with innovative scientific projects. Give2Asia’s expertise in bridging philanthropy into China with the impactful research initiatives of the Future Science Awards Foundation has significantly enhanced the latter’s capacity to promote critical research. This strategic partnership sets a precedent in Asia for how private funding, when channeled effectively through experienced professional partners like Give2Asia, can play a crucial role in helping the top minds in Asia address global challenges.
As the Future Science Awards Foundation continues to support pioneering work, the role of Give2Asia in enabling these philanthropic connections remains critical, supporting innovations that tackle pressing issues, including food security to ecological sustainability. By backing these efforts, individuals and organizations can contribute to a legacy of scientific innovation that prioritizes sustainability and the health of the planet.
To stay informed of these exciting developments, the scientific community and the public are encouraged to connect with us and the Future Science Awards Foundation, joining hands in advancing a sustainable future.