On June 15th, the main arena competition for the 2026 China Youth Science and Technology Innovation "Unveiling the List and Appointing the Commander" in the field of artificial intelligence, along with the launch event for the Ping An "Inspiration Plan", was held at Renmin University of China.
The annual core competition topic, "Identification and Management of Unique Risks in Science and Technology Innovation Enterprises," was officially unveiled on-site. Representatives from industry, academia, and research engaged in in-depth discussions on empowering social risk governance with cutting-edge technology.
This year's Inspiration Plan offers a total prize pool of approximately 750,000 yuan and provides participating university teams with various supports including mentorship from corporate advisors and internship opportunities, aiming to create a high-level, practical platform for youth science and technology innovation.
Registration for the competition opened on May 30th and will close on June 30th. Interested teams can register on the official "Challenge Cup" website.
Initiative Overview
The organizers explained that the continuous emergence of new technologies, scenarios, and industries demands higher standards for social risk governance, necessitating innovative perspectives and insights from the younger generation.
The released core topic focuses on the sci-tech innovation industry sector, encouraging interdisciplinary teams to utilize advanced technologies like AI large models and the Internet of Things to research and solve risk governance challenges faced by tech enterprises throughout their lifecycle, including technology application security, data governance, industry-standard development, and scenario risk response.
Industry Collaboration
Multiple companies, including Horizon Robotics, Haitian Flavouring & Food Company Ltd, JA Solar, Carbon Benefit Technology, CoFly Technology, Digital Huaxia, and Bandu Technology, will provide problem-solving insights based on real industrial scenarios.
Participating companies will also open their R&D environments, guide students in problem-solving, and reward the transformation of results, fostering a new industry-education integration ecosystem characterized by "enterprises posing challenges, students providing solutions, and outcomes being transformed."
Attendees at the launch event included Zheng Xinye, Member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Vice President of Renmin University of China; Mei Feng, Party Committee Secretary and Chairman of the China Youth Development Foundation; Sheng Ruisheng, Board Secretary and Brand Director of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (SHSE: 601318), as well as experts from various renowned universities involved in the Inspiration Plan.
Support from Academia and Philanthropy
Zheng Xinye stated that Renmin University of China has always regarded the "Challenge Cup" as a vital platform for cultivating innovative spirit, practical ability, and a sense of social responsibility among young students.
He expressed confidence that the high-level academic and practical platform established by this event would promote learning, innovation, and education through competition, guiding young scholars to translate their knowledge and capabilities into tangible measures to address pressing challenges, test truths through research and exploration, and enhance their skills by solving problems, thereby contributing youthful wisdom to achieving high-level technological self-reliance and national development.
Mei Feng emphasized that the China Youth Development Foundation remains committed to its original mission of nurturing talent for the Party and the country, closely aligning with the growth and development needs of youth, and collaborating with caring enterprises like Ping An to continuously build a broad stage for practical experience for young students.
He encouraged interested university students to actively participate in this year's "Inspiration Plan" research project, hoping they would learn teamwork, conduct in-depth investigation and research, maintain independent originality, and improve their scientific research and problem-solving abilities in practice to contribute youthful strength to national development.
Corporate Perspective on Risk
Sheng Ruisheng shared insights and practices on how insurance companies utilize technological capabilities to participate in social governance. He highlighted the important role of insurance in safeguarding people's livelihoods and promoting the modernization of social governance.
In recent years, Ping An has extended insurance from post-event compensation to pre-event prevention and in-event intervention. For example, its "Traffic Light" road safety public welfare initiative has completed the renovation of 3,807 high-risk road sections nationwide, effectively reducing traffic accident rates.
He stated that Ping An would further deepen related practices to explore value co-creation for enterprises, society, and individuals.
Industry Insights Shared
During the event, representatives from four companies—Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance, JA Solar, Horizon Robotics, and Carbon Benefit Technology—delivered keynote speeches on industrial practices and frontier trends.
Ping An P&C explained how it relies on technological engines to transform the concept of risk reduction services into practical capabilities for responding to natural disasters and workplace safety incidents.
JA Solar analyzed that facing global environmental risks and grid bottlenecks, different regions require tailored solar-plus-storage solutions, which is a key path to breaking "gridlock" and moving towards a zero-carbon future.
Horizon Robotics shared its technological vision of progressing from digital AI to physical AI, affirming its commitment to empowering intelligent driving and embodied intelligence with integrated software-hardware solutions and an open ecosystem as its foundation, and invited young students to jointly explore new transformations in human-machine collaboration.
Carbon Benefit Technology shared that, confronting risks of bias, compliance, and trust arising from the "black box" of AI algorithms, establishing a governance framework inspired by ESG principles—incorporating the four elements of explainability, traceability, accountability, and corrigibility—is a crucial path to building a trustworthy AI ecosystem.
Program Legacy and Evolution
Since its inception in 2003, the Ping An Inspiration Plan has awarded over 6,000 outstanding university students and disbursed more than 22 million yuan in prizes.
In 2025, under the guidance of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, the project was integrated for the first time with the "Challenge Cup" and the "Unveiling the List" arena competition.
In 2026, responding to the era's call for accelerating the cultivation of new quality productive forces, the Inspiration Plan has undergone a comprehensive upgrade. Leveraging the "Challenge Cup" platform, it now further solicits risk governance solutions in the sci-tech innovation field from students nationwide.
Future Direction
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. stated that the 2026 Inspiration Plan has been further upgraded, not only creating an enabling platform for youth growth and talent development but also aiming to establish an important collaborative vehicle for all parties to participate in social risk governance.
Moving forward, Ping An will continue to partner with the China Youth Development Foundation, using the Inspiration Plan as a link to focus on risk governance for sci-tech innovation enterprises, deepen the "Unveiling the List" mechanism, nurture young scientific and technological innovation forces, and gather youthful momentum to serve national strategies and advance the construction of a strong technological nation and a talent-rich country.
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