For three years there were no recipients for the first prize in natural science, and now the award has gone to a team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Science and Technology of China.

They are awarded for their contribution in the field of superconducting material.

Meanwhile, a project led by "the Father of Hybrid Rice" Yuan Longping has won the special prize for Progress in Science and Technology. This agricultural scientist has developed a new strain of rice that could yield 40 percent more per unit than the previous.