On July 2, 2026, the 2025 Shanghai Science and Technology Awards Ceremony was held, with a total of 206 awards conferred across the city. Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked first among all institutions, securing 32 projects as the primary completing institution and 16 first-class prizes. Among them, the School of Agriculture and Biology distinguished itself by winning two first-class awards, for the projects titled "Innovation and Application of Key Technologies for Quality and Safety Control of Tea Products" and "Key Technologies and Application for Efficient Conversion and Utilization of Diverse Urban and Rural Organic Wastes." Both projects tackled critical challenges in tea quality and safety and the resource utilization of organic wastes, overcoming multiple industry bottlenecks and generating a series of original core technologies that provide essential technical support for high-quality agricultural development.

Project: Innovation and Application of Key Technologies for Quality and Safety Control of Tea Products

Award: First-Class Prize of the 2025 Shanghai Technological Invention Award

Project Summary: This project addresses key bottlenecks in China's tea industry, including low efficiency in green pest control in tea gardens, outdated safety control technologies and standards for tea products, and inadequate monitoring technologies for hazardous substances. The team invented an integrated green pest control technology combining endogenous biological prevention with exogenous precision trapping, significantly reducing the risk of contamination from pesticides, heavy metals, and mycotoxins at the source. The project revealed the spatiotemporal dynamics of hazardous substances in tea based on the "migration-metabolism-degradation" principle, developed efficient removal technologies for hazardous substances during tea processing, and established a quality and safety control standard system for tea products. It also invented rapid and precise monitoring technologies and equipment for hazardous substances in tea using a "one-step purification pretreatment" approach. This work has safeguarded the quality and safety of China's tea products, increased tea farmers' income and prosperity, and promoted the high-quality development of the tea industry, shifting China's tea safety from a "passive response" to a "proactive assurance" model.

Project: Key Technologies and Application for Efficient Conversion and Utilization of Diverse Urban and Rural Organic Wastes

Award: First-Class Prize of the 2025 Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award

Project Summary: This project tackles the challenge of degrading diverse organic wastes with complex components—characterized by high oil and salt content, as well as abundant fibers and proteins. The team innovatively developed targeted screening, acclimatization, and microbial community modeling technologies, obtaining new highly efficient degrading strains and constructing degrading consortia. They also created coupled microbial-temperature intelligent degradation and conversion technologies and equipment, and established a comprehensive safety control system for the entire process of waste conversion and utilization. Several key technologies have achieved world-leading performance, transforming traditional composting methods. Three product series—soil conditioners, organic fertilizers, and bio-organic fertilizers—have been developed and promoted across over 24 million mu (approximately 1.6 million hectares) in the past three years, achieving an average reduction in chemical fertilizer use of 15% or more. The project has been granted 9 fertilizer registration certificates and contributed to the formulation of 9 national, industrial, and local standards.

Driving Research Excellence to Empower Agricultural Development

Over the years, the School of Agriculture and Biology has closely aligned with major national strategies, including food security, ecological civilization, and seed industry revitalization. Guided by the broader goals of modern agricultural development, the School has pursued a coordinated approach to fundamental research and industrial application, continuously advancing core agricultural technologies. It has produced a series of independently developed and practically applicable research outcomes, and has been repeatedly recognized with science and technology awards at various levels. Looking ahead, the School will continue to focus on the frontiers of agricultural science, deepen organized research, strengthen large-team collaboration and major outcome consolidation capabilities, and further reinforce its disciplinary core competitiveness—contributing sustained strength to the nation's drive for agricultural modernization.