Making headlines with science

Science towns

The National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Science and Technology agreed last year to promote two science towns in Shenzhen's Guangming district and Songshan Lake Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone in Dongguan as key drivers of the Bay Area's national science center.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences - one of the nation's highest scientific and technology research institutions - signed cooperation agreements with the Shenzhen and Dongguan governments in November to jointly build the center.

The two science towns have already built many office buildings, factories and living facilities there, such as schools, residential homes and hospitals. These facilities and industry chain firms have laid a solid foundation to woo new high-end talent, startups, research institutions and firms in order to form the science center as soon as possible.

Their main task now is to build a new batch of large-scale scientific study facilities, universities and research institutions, many of which are nearing completion. Construction of the main structure housing large-scale scientific study facilities for brain analysis, brain simulation and synthetic biology was completed this month in Guangming science town. The five-building complex, covering an area of about 230,000 square meters, is expected to go into operation next year.

Another large-scale scientific facility for the study of integrated particles began construction in August last year. The second phase of the national supercomputing center, a precision medical imaging device and a set of special environmental science equipment are in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, Sun Yat-sen University has launched its Shenzhen campus and started accepting students last year, while CAS initiated its fourth university nationwide in the district late last year.

Since the establishment of the Shenzhen special economic zone in 1980, the Guangming area has remained dotted with animal rearing farms. In 2018, the new Guangming District was founded, tasked with building a top-end scientific town. The local government has so far invested about 11 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) in the project that covers an area of 99 square kilometers, about two-thirds of the entire district.

Guangming District Governor Liu Sheng said the science town will be merged with the Bay Area's basic research and applied basic research facilities. "Based on basic research, we'll establish a step-by-step cultivation system of technology firms - from budding startups and graduated projects and from incubators to national high-tech firms, high-growth enterprises and industry champions."

Dongguan's Songshan Lake science town, a 30-minute drive from Guangming, houses the CSNS. Jointly built by Guangdong and the CAS in 2011, the CSNS began operations in 2018, serving more than 1,500 users from around the globe. The local authorities aim to start building CSNS's second phase once approval is obtained and open eight new spectrometers.

The CSNS is like a super microscope, with each spectrometer to be used in each scientific research sector. Next to the CSNS, a new building complex is emerging. It's the new Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, which completed registration in 2018 and has been working in a temporary office nearby.

Wang Enge, vice-president of the CAS and chairman of SLAB, told a forum last year the lab has incubated a few startups based on their scientific research achievements.

Some products have been widely used in the manufacturing sector, such as new combustion materials for pollution reduction and scarce parts to make N95 masks. "We're pushing for an innovative model factory to facilitate industrialization and export transformation," said Wang.

Other companies could also apply for the usage of various test and measurement equipment at the lab or send their samples to the lab for tests.