The International Nanotechnology Innovation Alliance was founded on the afternoon of November 17. Zhang Jinghua, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Secretary of the CPC Nanjing Municipal Committee unveiled the organization. Luo Qun, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Nanjing Municipal Committee and full-time Deputy Secretary of the Party Work Committee of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area delivered a speech. The ceremony was attended by Shen Xuechu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of Fudan University, Huang Wei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Vice President of Northwestern Polytechnic University and Chairman of the Federation of Engineering Institutions of Asia and the Pacific (FEIAP), Lu Yalin, Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China and Special Assistant to the President of the University of Science and Technology of China, Jiang Yuejian, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Nanjing Municipal Committee and Secretary General of the CPC Nanjing Municipal Committee, and Bao Hongxin, Deputy Secretary General of Nanjing Municipal People’s Government. It was presided over by Chen Chanmei, Deputy Director of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area Administrative Committee.

Headquartered in China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone Nanjing Area and managed by Nanjing Nanotech Research Institute, the International Nanotechnology Innovation Alliance is committed to building a high-level platform of international exchanges and cooperation for cross-disciplinary, cross-industry, cross-departmental collaborative innovation, integration of talent and resources, and commercial transformation and advancement of research results. It is a non-profit organization initiated on a voluntary basis by academia, the business circle, investment institutions and other stakeholders, with Zhang Xiang, Dieter Bimberg and Ming Hsieh as Co-chairmen and Wang Yuan as Executive Director as well as 12 domestic and overseas experts as members of the advisory committee. The Alliancehas established partnership with 15 institutions at home and abroad, and is engaged in making breakthroughs in core nanotechnology and promoting industrial upgrading.

Luo Qun expressed congratulations on the establishment of the Alliance. He noted, nanotechnology, as acutting-edge discipline and technology in the world, catalyzes the development and transformation of many other disciplines with its wide applicability. Industrial fields represented by electronic information technology, life science, new materials and new energy see one innovation after another and are highly compatible to the “eight major industrial chains” which is Nanjing’s priority and the “Two Towns and One Center” which is Nanjing Jiangbei New Area’s focus. As a vivid example of setting innovation as the core of the overall undertaking of modernization advocated by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee and emphasized by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his inspection in Jiangsu, the establishment of the International Nanotechnology Innovation Alliance will fuel the coverage and application of nanotechnology. We hope the Alliance will move faster to develop indigenous nanotechnology that has a leading effect onthe industry, set up a platform for exchanges of the nano industry that integrates science and innovation, build a world-class incubation base for nano enterprises, and take initiative to cultivate a talent pool for the nano industry that is adaptive to the market to achieve technology spillover and make ecological progress in industries through talent spillover.

The event was addressed online by Zhang Xiang, Academician of the National Academy of Engineering of the United States, Foreign Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and President of the University of Hong Kong; Dieter Bimberg, Academician of the German Academy of Sciences, Academician of the National Academy of Engineering of the United States, and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Ming Hsieh, Academician of the American Academy of Sciences, founder of Cogent Systems, and Chairman of Fulgent Diagnostics; and Li Baowen, Academician of the European Academy of Sciences, and APS Fellow.

A signing ceremony was also held for the co-construction and cooperation of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area Nanotechnology Innovation Platform. It was attended by the main leaderships of Nanjing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, Nanjing Municipal Science and Technology Bureau and Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, and persons in charge of competent departments and bureaus of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area and of the platform, as well as representatives of member enterprises of the Alliance.