Gradient Cultivation Bears More Fruit: Ningbo "Maker in China" Projects Continue to Lead the National Competition

On October 21, the Organizing Committee of the 10th "Maker in China" SME Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition announced the national Top 500 and Top 50 lists for the Enterprise Group, and the national Top 300 and Top 10 lists for the Start-up Group. Based on the competition from over 30,000 projects across 520 enterprise group and 325 maker group nationwide, 16 projects selected from Ningbo stood out. 10 projects advanced to the national Top 500 for the Enterprise Group. Among them, the "Breakthrough and Industrialization of Ultra-Precision Dicing Equipment for AI Chip Manufacturing" project by the XPTC Technology Co., Ltd. successfully advanced to the list of national Top 50, recognized for its key fully self-developed technology in the high-end semiconductor equipment field that achieves import substitution.6 projects advanced to the national Top 300 for the Maker Group. Among them, the "High-Precision, Generalizable Humanoid Robot for Multi-Scenario Applications" project by the Zhejiang Humanoid Robot Innovation Center team successfully advanced to the national Top 10, recognized for its brand-new innovation and application potential in cutting-edge technology. Ningbo further distinguished itself as one of only 10 out of 325 maker groups to have a project reach the Maker Group's national Top 10, and the only city with independent planning authority to do so. These two projects will represent Ningbo in the national finals in late November, competing for top national honors.

The 16 top projects, which emerged through fierce competition from 1,231 entries in Ningbo, are not only solid proof of the innovative strength of Ningbo's participants but also a vivid reflection of Ningbo's efforts in recent years to deepen innovation-driven development, cultivate new quality productive forces, and guide SMEs towards the path of specializing, refining, featuring, and innovating. The 16 projects selected by Ningbo precisely target key tracks for developing new quality productive forces, achieving full coverage in strategic emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, high-end equipment, new materials, integrated circuits, and biomedicine, etc. The cohort includes both SMEs specializing, refining, featuring, and innovating to deepen manufacturing upgrades, and maker teams focusing on frontier technologies. They not only possess the potential of core technologies but also, as "seed forces", directly align with the transformation needs of Ningbo's real economy, injecting a source of vitality into the vigorous development of new quality productive forces for advanced manufacturing.

As a "regular" on the national "Maker in China" stage, projects selected by Ningbo have consistently won awards at the national finals since 2019, even achieving the historic feat of the "National Double Championship", winning both Maker and Enterprise top prizes, with project quality continuously taking the lead in the nation. Through its "competition selection - project incubation - empowerment growth" service system, Ningbo has successfully nurtured dozens of national-level "Little Giant" enterprises specializing, refining, featuring, and innovating from its competition participants, such as the Ningbo Qunxin Microelectronics Co., Ltd. and the SiChain Semiconductors Co., Ltd. This thriving wave of innovation has continuously infused vitality into the city's specialized, refined, featured, and innovative SMEs, setting a benchmark model for the high-quality development of SMEs.

Moving forward, Ningbo will continue to use "Maker in China" as a link to build a national stage for SMEs and maker teams to showcase innovation and realize their dreams, continuously stimulating enthusiasm for innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the society. This will enable "Ningbo Intelligent Manufacturing" to transition from leading in competitions to leading in industry, helping more achievements in new quality productive forces to progress from Ningbo to the nation and the world as a whole.