One million dollars Chinese Nobel to honour Chinese scientists

Named Future Science Awards, those entitled to get the awards would be limited to researchers from China, unlike Nobel Prize, which honours scientists across the world.

Notably, the award money will be in dollars and not in Chinese currency.

According China Daily, the Future Science Awards were initiated by a group of elite Chinese scientists and business leaders, including Shi Yigong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and winner of Gregori Aminoff Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Rao Yi, president of life sciences of Peking University, Robin Li Yanhong, Chairman and CEO of Baidu, and Yang Yuanqing, CEO of Lenovo.

Robin Li Yanhong made the announcement at Future Forum Annual Conference 2016 held in Beijing yesterday. 

This was the second session of the Conference, with theme "Bridging Disciplines: Human Cognition for A New Century".

The new awards comprise two categories: Life Science Award and Materials Science Award, and the prize of 1 million dollars each will be given to winners from 2017 onwards.

The new honour is regarded by some as the Chinese version of Nobel Prize, because as with the awards established by Swedish scientist Nobel, the Future Science Awards are also founded by private organizations, instead of government, says the China daily report.

Yang Zhenning, the 94-year-old Chinese-American Nobel Prize winner, said at the conference that "there is not yet a top science award set up by Chinese nongovernmental organizations," and "this award will spark huge influence in China."

Robin Li Yanhong said the Future Science Awards will bring creative talents from different fields together and help them communicate and breed new ideas.