The amount of annual support funds and the number of projects for science and technology planning in North China's Shanxi province have doubled over the past decade.

That's according to Wei Yinghui, director of Shanxi Department of Science and Technology, who was speaking at a government news conference held in the provincial capital of Taiyuan on Sept 22. 

Over the past 10 years, Shanxi has built an innovation platform system with laboratories as the main driver, backed up by technology innovation centers, pilot scale experiment bases and new R&D institutions as the support.

The number of national key laboratories being operated in the province increased by 1.6 times to 8 during the period.

To better cultivate innovators, Shanxi has adopted classified policies and provided policy support for the whole life cycle of the development of technology-based enterprises, helping them to accelerate innovation. 

The province's enterprise R&D investment has increased by 1.25 times in the past decade, with its proportion of total R&D investment topping 80 percent for six consecutive years. 

The number of high-tech enterprises and makerspaces at the provincial-level or above, respectively, rose by more than 13 times and 12 times during the period. Furthermore, tech business incubators at provincial-level or above surged to 72. 

Shanxi has further promoted cooperation with domestic first-class universities and institutes on projects and talent, and expanded international scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges.

Institutions in the province have jointly undertaken more than 200 provincial-level scientific research projects with domestic first-class scientific research institutes, such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, with support of 350 million yuan ($48.92 million) in research funds during the decade.

The province has established scientific research institutions together with Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University and Peking University, and introduced top experts to build the Shanxi Energy Internet Research Institute.

To stimulate the vitality of talent, the province has enacted and implemented various policies. 

As a result, the province won 40 national science and technology awards from 2012 to 2021, with 10 awarded in 2021 alone.