A national top science honor directly reflects the underlying logic of China's textile industry shifting from 'scale-driven' to 'technology-driven'.
The 2025 National Science and Technology Progress Award (First Class) was awarded to a project covering the entire polyester fiber industry chain. This is not an isolated technical accolade, but a concentrated confirmation of the industry's systematic breakthroughs in basic materials, smart manufacturing, and green processes over the past decade.
Technical Breakthrough: From 'Industrial Staple' to an Independent Technology System
Polyester fiber is the 'staple' of the textile industry, and its technological autonomy is directly linked to the security of the entire industry chain. The award-winning project, led by Tongkun Group as the primary unit, involved ten institutions including Donghua University and Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, culminating in over a decade of collaborative research. The core achievement is not a single technology, but a set of proprietary technologies covering the entire industry chain: green manufacturing, smart manufacturing, and service-oriented manufacturing. To date, the project has produced 76 authorized invention patents, 10 software copyrights, and 14 national and industry standards, with the overall technology deemed to have reached an internationally leading level. This means that China has built a complete technological moat, from lab to large-scale production, in the most competitive chemical material field globally.
Industrial Impact: The Economic Logic Behind 200 Billion RMB in New Sales
The value of technology is ultimately validated in the industrial sector. Public data shows that the project's results have been implemented in over 10 enterprises across industrial bases in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Xinjiang, generating cumulative new sales of over 200 billion RMB, profits/taxes of over 10 billion RMB, and export earnings of 1.8 billion USD. These figures are underpinned by significant reductions in energy consumption and defect rates, along with improvements in production efficiency and product added value. For buyers, this means domestic polyester fiber now has the hard power to replace or even surpass imports in terms of quality consistency, customization capability, and green attributes. For foreign trade companies, this proprietary technology system not only reduces dependence on external technology and equipment but also provides quantifiable low-carbon production data to counter green trade barriers like carbon tariffs.
International Collaboration: A Two-Way Empowerment of Academia and Industry
Alongside the First Class award, Professor Elsa Reichmanis from Donghua University received the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award. A member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, she has collaborated with Donghua's State Key Laboratory for Advanced Fiber Materials since 2013. Her award signals the global appeal of China's textile industry to top-tier talent and international recognition of the country's fiber material science. This model of 'industry leader + top university + international think tank' is becoming the standard path for technological breakthroughs.