Young scientists around the world are meeting in Wenzhou for science as the opening ceremony of the 2023 World Young Scientist Summit (WYSS) is about to be held tomorrow at the Olympic Sports Center in Ouhai district, Wenzhou.

Throughout the years, WYSS has gradually become a phenomenal platform for international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation, and one of the most influential scientific events in the world, featuring powerful integration of the youth, science and the future.

What have the spillover effects created by the summit benefited innovative development of Wenzhou? How can it inspire the city to gain development advantages through technological innovation?

It is a highly dynamic gathering of young talents, a high-level academic exchange summit, a highly productive cross-disciplinary meeting, an event of innovation and cooperation for common development, and a high-standard assembly of international exchanges. On October 26, Nature, one of the world's oldest and most prestigious science magazines, praised the summit by saying that "World Young Scientist Summit is a forum for shared growth". Since the first WYSS held in Wenzhou, Zhejiang on October 26, 2019, a total of 827 high-level talents have been introduced to this city, and nearly 3,000 representatives of young scientists have been invited to participate in the summit to engage in “brainstorming” with more than 30 Nobel Prize laureates, Turing Award and Wolf Prize winners, and over 300 Chinese and international academicians. From the "hometown of mathematicians" to the "gathering place of young talents", from generations of Wenzhou scientists who integrate self-development with national needs and social progress, to groups of the world's top young talents gathering in Wenzhou to jointly contribute to national scientific and technological innovation, Wenzhou continues to write new chapters in passing on the spirit of scientists.

2022 World Young Scientist Summit

Archive photo

Wenzhou has become a frequently-visited place by numerous academicians and experts who have never been to before, and where talented young scientists emerge. With the world's most brilliant minds, Wenzhou has accelerated its integration into global innovation network. Focusing on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Belt and Road Initiative, WYSS conducted in-depth discussions on international hot topics such as energy security and digital economy, building a bridge of open cooperation to carry out fruitful scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation with 14 international science and technology organizations. Representatives of 79 countries in China have attended the summit. A number of international consensuses such as Wenzhou Young Scientist Declaration were released, and the first Secretariat of international science and technology organization was established in Wenzhou, continuing to enhance the cohesion and influence of young science and technology workers around the world. Li Xiaokun, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Wenzhou Medical University, has been working in Wenzhou for nearly 20 years and has attended the summit every year. He believed that WYSS has boosted scientific and technological innovation and enhanced the image of Wenzhou by attracting talents, creating synergies, and accelerating the transformation of this business city into a dynamic and innovative city.

Photo by Yang Bingjie

WYSS has been hosted in consecutive years in Wenzhou, the city known as “the capital of China’s private economy" that has fostered numerous entrepreneurs. Science is more popularized among the public under the influence and insight from the summit, which awakens the pioneering spirit and entrepreneurship of the people in Wenzhou and elevates the openness and creativity of the city.

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The fruitful summit has ignited sparks of wisdom, enabled convergence of innovation resources and establishment of high-level scientific and technological innovation platforms, and laid a rich foundation for innovation and entrepreneurship.

China Gene Medicine Valley was launched at the 2020 WYSS; the first national engineering research center for growth factor drugs and protein formulations was launched at 2022 WYSS; this year, a national key laboratory for macromolecular drugs and high-throughput production was brought into operation. Currently, China Gene Medicine Valley has built a biomedical R&D and production headquarters, boasting 3 major "national brands", 115 innovative projects, and 194 technology-based enterprises.

China Gene Medicine Valley

Photo provided by Innovation Wenzhou

Wenzhou continues to expand the influence of WYSS and Innovation China to gain development advantages. The innovation platforms, including the Business Incubator for World Young Scientists, Business Development Park for World Young Scientists, Industrial City for World Young Scientists, Academic Center for World Young Scientists and Fund for World Young Scientists, have been developing and upgrading to create the optimized innovation “rainforest” ecosystem, to promote integration of scientists, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists, and to broaden the paths of innovation in conjunction with incubator cluster construction. In the past two years, the city has built more than 3.5 million square meters of incubators, setting off an upsurge in the construction of scientific and technological innovation hubs with new advantages in development momentum. The systematically designed innovation layout featuring Wenzhou National Demonstration Zone for Independent Innovation that contains high-end elements, Wenzhou Sci-Tech Innovation Corridor around Daluo Mountain that emphasizes science and technology incubation, World Young Scientist Summit that enables cutting-edge exchanges, and Oujiang Lab and Business Incubator for World Young Scientists, have shared benefits with the whole city. A total of 67 high-level science and technology innovation platforms have been launched, including the Wenzhou Institute UCAS, Institute of Wenzhou of Zhejiang University, and Zhejiang Laser Equipment Technology Innovation Center, among which over half were established in the past three years, with China (Wenzhou) Data Intelligence and Security Service Innovation Park, China Eye Valley, Wenzhou International Cloud Software Valley, China Gene Medicine Valley, China (Wenzhou) Laser Valley and China Intelligence Valley being the highlights.

Wenzhou Institute UCAS

Photo provided by Wenzhou

As WYSS is facilitating the continuous growth of scientific and technological innovation platforms, Wenzhou strives to boost innovation-driven development, further improve the efficiency of innovation systems, and raise the city's innovation level. This year, Wenzhou rose to the top 35% of national innovative cities for the first time, and ranks 6th among the pilot cities of “Innovation China”.

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Generations of scientists have committed to scientific and technological development and innovation, and have achieved remarkable success.

Song Weihong, fellow of Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and Director of Oujiang Lab, officially joined Wenzhou Medical University during the 2020 WYSS, becoming the first full-time academician recruited by Wenzhou. In his view, WYSS offered Oujiang Lab an opportunity to introduce itself to China and the world, showing that a high-level scientific and technological innovation platform is based in Wenzhou and that it endeavors to attract more talents with the current talent pool. In the past two years, Oujiang Lab has recruited over 650 talents in total.

Researchers working at Oujiang Lab.

Photo provided by WYSS

Chou Shulei, a young scientist from the University of Wollongong in Australia, joined Wenzhou University with his team and the sodium-ion battery project. Relying on the platform of WYSS for gathering talents and developing industries, he realized faster industrialization of his scientific and technological achievements after settling in the Business Development Park for World Young Scientists, and successfully produced high-performance cylindrical sodium-ion batteries.

How to better use the platform of WYSS to attract talents, develop businesses, and strengthen the market?

Business Incubator for World Young Scientists

Photo provided by Wenzhou

Wenzhou strives to promote industrial upgrading, speed up the shift from traditional development paths to talent-based and innovation-based growth, and obtain new advantages in development methods. With the trust of well-known domestic and international enterprises gained through the WYSS, Wenzhou has signed 503 major industrial projects with a total investment of over 680 billion yuan since last year, and has accelerated the advancement of two trillion-yuan industrial clusters: traditional pillar industries and emerging leading industries. A number of leading companies have entered Wenzhou, such as China General Nuclear Power Corporation, BYD Auto and Goldwind, with a contracted investment in new energy industry exceeding 350 billion yuan, leading to more rapid growth of the city as a national new energy production capacity center and new-energy model city. Wenzhou is dedicated to promoting transformation of the private economy, carrying forward Zhejiang entrepreneurship in the new era, guiding private enterprises to delve deep into innovation, and seeking new development advantages. WYSS has enabled local leading enterprises to establish collaboration with academicians and experts at home and abroad on 657 talent industrialization projects. More than 5,000 heads of private enterprises in Wenzhou have participated in various activities of WYSS and are in frequent contact with national-level academic societies and experts. Wenzhou has continuously held Wenzhou Global Elite Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, set up private investment funds, guided social capital to invest in talent projects, and fostered new economy and new enterprises. In the past five years, the number of small and medium-sized provincial science and technology enterprises and high-tech enterprises in the city has increased by over four times. Last year, Wenzhou's total social investment in R&D exceeded 20 billion yuan for the first time. With the expanding influence of WYSS and growing number of innovative achievements, Wenzhou, the capital of entrepreneurship, is expected to make a leap towards a city of innovation.

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