SHINE | 13-Jul-2020 | By Li Xinran
Giant step in global innovation
Shanghai’s ambition to be a global innovation and science hub took a giant step when establishing the Zhangjiang Lab.
Co-built by the Shanghai government and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the lab is in the northwest of Zhangjiang and works as a base for scientific innovation, functional research and development for interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. It is also a network for collaboration linking research with the industrial chain. Covering an area of 5.29 square kilometers, the national lab will initiate and coordinate large-scale international research studies and national key projects.
It will feature a world-leading photonic science center and the core area of scientific and technological creation. The surrounding areas are home to universities, national-level research institutes, world-class research and development facilities and scientific instruments. The instruments are major components of the infrastructure being developed for the national science center, such as the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility and the world’s first comprehensive protein research faculty.
“In the beginning of the lab’s development, we will focus on building major scientific facilities to make breakthroughs in fundamental sciences,” said Wang Xi, director of the lab, who is also the head of Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, which is part of the academy, “particularly on photonics (the physical science of light), life science, information technology and brain-inspired intelligence technologies, an interdisciplinary between life science and information technology.” Several national-level science facilities in Zhangjiang will be integrated into the institute to make the lab better serve the science community.
A target has been set to make it a world-class national laboratory by 2030. It will solve a number of strategic core technological problems urgently needed by China and provide strong support to build Shanghai into a center of technological innovation with global influence and the country into a scientific and technological power on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
More Readings: ‘Four brands’ lead way to polish Pudong’s -Shanghai- pioneering profile (1)