From June 16 to 20, 2025, at the "EUROCK 2025" conference organized by the International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering in Trondheim, Norway, the research achievement "Test System for Complex Mechanical Response of Rock" of the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was awarded the ISRM 2025 Technological Innovation Award.

With the depletion of shallow resources, the efficient development of deep underground space, deep resources, and energy has become a major strategic demand for countries around the world. However, during deep engineering construction, disasters such as rockbursts and water inrushes occur frequently. The key reason lies in the extremely complex mechanical response of rock under high deep stress and high water pressure, which has not yet been comprehensively and finely understood. A series of key limitations in traditional rock mechanics testing technologies have seriously constrained the understanding of the complex mechanical response of deep rock and the development of disaster prevention and control technologies, prominently manifested in: (1) the lack of an innovative technical system for fine mechanical testing of complex stress conditions in deep engineering; (2) the lack of testing technologies and equipment for the shear mechanical response of structural planes under complex conditions; and (3) the lack of quantitative measurement technologies for fine visualization of the coupling characteristics of rock under high stress and high water pressure. Therefore, the key to overcoming these challenges lies in breakthroughs in testing methods and technologies.

The geotechnical multi-field coupling effects team led by Researcher Zhou Hui of the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, after 15 years of scientific research, has achieved a series of breakthrough inventions. First, it invented new technologies and key equipment for fine mechanical testing of rock under complex stress conditions, enabling fine mechanical testing of typical complex stress paths and stress states of deep rock masses, and solving the technical difficulties of the shear mechanical properties and mechanisms of rock under stress principal axis rotation and tension-shear conditions. Second, it invented new technologies and key equipment for testing the shear mechanical response of structural planes under complex conditions, enabling reasonable experimental simulation of the complex stress states and loading-unloading conditions of deep surrounding rock, and forming a multi-scale innovative testing technology system from rock shear to joint fissure shear to fault creep slip. Third, it invented new technologies and a series of key equipment for fine visualization testing of rock fluid-solid coupling under high stress and high water pressure, enabling high-precision testing of macroscopic coupling characteristics and fine visualization measurement of microscopic mechanisms, and solving key technical difficulties such as the long-term disconnection between experimental research on macroscopic laws and microscopic mechanisms of rock fluid-solid coupling.

The related technologies and equipment have been patented and transformed, and have been promoted to many well-known universities and research institutes at home and abroad, including Tongji University, Shandong University, and Chongqing University. The research results have been widely applied in fields such as water conservancy and hydropower, transportation, mining, and nuclear power, including more than 40 national key projects such as the Central Yunnan Water Diversion Project, Baihetan Hydropower Station, and Gaoligongshan Tunnel, serving the main battlefield of the national economy.

The International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (ISRM) has established the "ISRM Science and Technology Awards," which include two sub-awards: the "Science Achievement Award" and the "Technological Innovation Award." The Technological Innovation Award is reviewed globally every two years. The purpose of establishing this award is to recognize ISRM individual or group members who have made outstanding contributions to science and technology in the field of rock mechanics and rock engineering.

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