Development Trends and Priority Research Fields of Electrochemical Discipline in the 15th Five Year Plan Period

In fulfillment of the national science-and-technology development agenda, the Department of Chemical Sciences of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) convened the Strategic Symposium on the Fifteenth Five-Year (2026–2030) Development Plan for Electrochemistry held in Xiamen on 29 August, 2025—the culminating year of the Fourteenth Five-Year (2021–2025) Development Plan. More than forty leading experts in the field of electrochemistry participated with spanning nine thematic fronts: Interfacial Electrocatalysis, Interfacial Electrochemistry for Energy Storage, Bioelectrochemistry, Electrochemistry of Hydrogen Energy, Electrochemical Micro-/Nano-Manufacturing, Operando Electrochemical Characterization, Electro-Thermal Coupling Catalysis, Theoretical and Computational Electrochemistry, and Electrochemical Synthesis. The forum assembled China’s foremost electrochemical expertise to blueprint high-quality disciplinary growth for the coming five-year period, thereby serving overarching national strategic needs and sharpening the international competitiveness of Chinese electrochemistry.

This paper is presented to highlight the strategic needs and priority areas for the next five years (2026–2030) based on this symposium. The development status of basic research and applied basic research in China’s electrochemistry field is systematically reviewed. The in-depth analyses of the existing problems and key challenges in the research and development of electrochemistry related fields are outlined, and the frontier research areas and development trends in the next 5–10 years by integrating national major strategic needs are discussed, which will further promote the academic community to reach a clearer consensus. The proposed strategic roadmap is intended to accelerate a sharpened community consensus, propel the discipline toward high-quality advancement, and furnish a critical reference for building China into a world-leading science and technology power.