Seven mainland scientists will share this year’s Future Science Prize, it was announced on Wednesday.

The awards, first introduced in 2016, honour remarkable achievements of researchers from the mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

This year's life sciences prize goes to Ji Qiang, Xu Xing and Zhou Zhonghe, for finding fossil evidence proving that birds evolved from dinosaurs.

Fang Zhong, Dai Xi and Ding Hong have won the physical sciences award, for introducing a method for finding a kind of semimetal.

Meanwhile, the mathematics and computer science prize goes to Lu Chih-yuan, who managed to expand the durability of semiconductors and chips by 10,000 times, to 100 million cycles.

At a press conference, Hong Kong Academy of Sciences president Dennis Lo said the prizes will be dished out in October, with the event to be held in Hong Kong for the third year in a row.

“As the Prize Week continues in Hong Kong this year, we aim to leverage on the city's unique role as a global academic exchange hub," he said.

"With support from the civil society, we seek to advance scientific progress and strengthen this internationally influential event, contributing to the Greater Bay's development as an innovation and technology centre."

Lo said October's celebrations will be held at various universities, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and Hong Kong Science Museum and will feature symposiums and exhibitions along with the prize ceremony.