On July 15, 2026, the plenary forum of the 28th Annual Meeting of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) was held in Beijing, officially releasing the 2026 major scientific questions, engineering and technical challenges, and industrial technical problems. Since 2018, CAST has continuously organised the collection and release of major scientific and technological issues. The 2026 event strictly evaluated submissions from four perspectives—frontier orientation, leading significance, innovativeness, and strategic value—and, through rigorous and standardised procedures including review, deliberation, and voting, ultimately selected 10 frontier scientific questions, 10 engineering and technical challenges, and 10 industrial technical problems, establishing a "bellwether" for the sustained production of original and disruptive scientific and technological achievements.

Among the 30 issues released this year, two directions closely related to brain‑inspired intelligence drew particular attention—"High‑fidelity intelligence driven by fine‑scale whole‑brain structure" (an engineering and technical challenge) and "First principles of bio‑inspired computing paradigms and their mesoscale implementation mechanisms" (a frontier scientific question). These two directions address, from different dimensions, the same contemporary challenge: how to find breakthroughs in the operational principles of biological intelligence to fundamentally transcend the performance limits of current artificial intelligence and computing technologies.

High‑fidelity Intelligence Driven by Fine‑scale Whole‑brain Structure: From Data‑driven to Structure‑driven

Selected as an engineering and technical challenge, "High‑fidelity intelligence driven by fine‑scale whole‑brain structure" is regarded as a potentially disruptive direction that could reshape humanity's scientific understanding of the nature of intelligence. A breakthrough in this area would propel artificial intelligence from a "data‑driven" paradigm towards a "structure‑driven" one, establishing a unified theoretical framework that explains both biological and machine intelligence.

At the level of scientific understanding, it would reveal the nature and origins of intelligence, providing a computable and verifiable empirical foundation for ultimate questions such as the origin of consciousness. At the technological and industrial level, it would give rise to disruptive technologies such as energy‑efficient brain‑inspired computing, novel chips, and brain‑computer interfaces, potentially forming a new industrial cluster worth hundreds of billions of yuan. At the societal level, it would offer new pathways for early diagnosis and precision intervention of major brain disorders such as cognitive impairments.

Bio‑inspired Computing Paradigms: Resolving the Predicament that "the End of Computing Power is Electricity"

Selected as a frontier scientific question, "First principles of bio‑inspired computing paradigms and their mesoscale implementation mechanisms" directly addresses the deep crisis currently facing computing science. The von Neumann paradigm of "separation of storage and computation plus complex nodes" is facing an unsustainable crisis, where "the end of computing power is electricity." Returning to the first principles of biological computing, uncovering the scientific mechanisms by which "simple nodes + complex connections" give rise to high intelligence at extremely low power consumption, and developing bio‑inspired computing paradigms centred on complex networks and weakly dependent on advanced manufacturing processes, represent the fundamental path to overcoming this crisis.

This paradigm, with mesoscale reconfigurable complex networks as its physical substrate, is expected to achieve improvements in energy efficiency by 3–5 orders of magnitude using mature manufacturing processes, opening a green, inclusive, and secure new path for computing, reshaping the foundational theories of computing science, and giving rise to a trillion‑yuan‑scale new computing industry.

Advancing Frontier Technologies in Brain‑Inspired Intelligence: Steering a Chinese Paradigm for Intelligent Science

Notably, at the plenary forum of this annual meeting, Professor Xu Zhang—President of the Chinese Society for Neuroscience, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Director of the Guangdong Institute of Intelligent Science and Technology (GDIIST)—was invited to deliver a keynote report entitled "Brain‑Inspired Science and Technology for the Benefit of Humanity." The report systematically elaborated on the complete pathway from fundamental research to industrial deployment in brain‑inspired intelligence, reviewed China's progress in brain‑inspired science and technology, and envisioned future application prospects. Over 550 participants attended the plenary forum on site, including representatives of scientific and technological workers from 152 national societies and international scientific and technological organisations, related universities and research institutes, representatives from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, and representatives from CAST and provincial associations for science and technology.

From the inquiry into the nature of intelligence through "high‑fidelity intelligence driven by fine‑scale whole‑brain structure" to the fundamental reconfiguration of computing architectures via "bio‑inspired computing paradigms"—the simultaneous selection of these two directions reflects not only China's deep accumulation and forward‑looking layout in the frontier of brain‑inspired computing, but also heralds a new pathway for the revolution in intelligent science: moving from "data‑driven" to "structure‑driven," and from "separation of storage and computation" to "reconstruction of computing paradigms." With original and disruptive scientific and technological exploration, China is contributing a "Chinese solution" to this global race concerning the future of computing and the nature of intelligence.