The ongoing Fifth China (Shenzhen) Innovation & Entrepreneurship International Competition has received 1,473 project entries, 41 percent more than last year’s 1,047, the Shenzhen Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, the organizer, said yesterday.

Preliminaries of the contest will be finished before Nov. 10 in subvenues in nine countries, namely Tel Aviv in Israel, Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Sydney in Australia, Toronto in Canada, Berlin in Germany, Tokyo in Japan, Madrid in Spain, Silicon Valley in the U.S., and London in the U.K. The finals will be held both online and offline in Shenzhen before the end of this month, the organizer said.

The Silicon Valley subvenue recorded the most entries at 244, followed by 188 in Toronto and 181 in London. Around 41 percent of the total sign-ups are from Europe, 28 percent from North America, 21 from Asia and 10 percent from Oceania.

Since its launch in September, the contest has been warmly received, and global registration at the official website http://www.itcsz.cn has increased 25 percent compared to last year’s event.

The organizer will offer a total of 10.71 million yuan (US$1.67 million) in prizes. An individual winner could receive an award up to 1.35 million yuan.

Contestants will compete in seven emerging industries, namely new-generation electronic information, digital fashion, high-end equipment manufacturing, low carbon, new materials, biomedicine and health, and ocean economy.

Among the total entries, 408 projects, or 28 percent, will compete in the new-generation electronic information category, followed by 294 projects in biomedicine and health.

Some 83 percent of the applicants, or 1,566, have a master’s degree and above, among them 1,047 individuals, or 56 percent, have a doctorate degree. Foreign nationals account for 53 percent at 994.

For the first time, the organizer has introduced a reward mechanism to attract talents to compete in AI testing, technological development of power semiconductor materials, and R&D and application technologies of new absorption materials contests.

So far, 170 individuals have signed up for these three categories, including 109 for the AI contest.

Longhua District, along with Longgang and Bao’an districts, will co-host the competition.

Since its initiation in 2016, the competition has attracted 6,182 overseas projects.