The 1st China Postdoctoral Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition was successfully held at the Tanzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center in Foshan, December 18-20. This competition was sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People's Republic of China and the People's Government of Guangdong Province, and organized by the National Office of the Postdoctoral Management Committee, the Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Guangdong Province, and the People's Government of Foshan Municipality. This national postdoctoral innovation & entrepreneurship competition has by now the largest scale, highest level and most extensive coverage ever since the implementation of China's postdoctoral system. The theme of this competition was “To explore the essence of science and technology, and to walk into the future of innovation”. There were four categories of competition, including Innovation Competition, Entrepreneurship Competition, Overseas Competition and Project-themed Competition. These competitions were further divided into eight fields, including New-Generation Information Technology, High-End Equipment Manufacturing, New Materials, New Energy, Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection, Biomedicine and Big Health, Modern Agriculture and Food, and Other and Miscellaneous. Awards included gold medal, silver medal, bronze medal, winning award, and excellent organization award. There were over 5,000 teams and more than 24,000 people participated in this competition. After pre-selection and recommendation in local competitions, 1,418 team stood out and entered the national finals. The research project “Optical biosensors for rapid and automatic detection of foodborne pathogens” led by Dr. Lei Wang, postdoctoral fellow of professor Jianhan Lin’s biosensors group at the China Agricultural University, won the silver medal in the Innovation Competition, Modern Agriculture and Food category. This news was also reported by China Agricultural University (http://news.cau.edu.cn/art/2021/12/24/art_8769_805240.html). The full list of winners was announced by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People's Republic of China （http://www.mohrss.gov.cn/SYrlzyhshbzb/dongtaixinwen/buneiyaowen/rsxw/202112/t20211221_430919.html.

The project was supported by the Walmart Foundation and the Walmart Food Safety Collaboration Center. This project integrated science and technologies in engineering, biology, and nanomaterials, and utilized immunomagnetic separation, nanoenzyme-based signal amplification, electro-mechanical automatic control, and smart phone-based image processing to develop a novel optical biosensor for rapid and automated detection of foodborne pathogens. The developed biosensors could serve for the national implementation of food security, prevent and control food safety risks, and protect the safety of people's food. Moreover, this research could also benefit the prevention and control of major animal diseases, enable the early detection, early warning, and early control of important diseases, and thus reduce the occurrence of major animal epidemics.