The Global Cooperation Alliance of Science Centers

        On October 17-18, 2019, the Third International Science Centers Symposium jointly sponsored by the Beijing Municipal People's Government and the Chinese Academy of Sciences was held in Huairou, Beijing. Sui Zhenjiang, Vice Mayor of Beijing, and Xiang Libin, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences attended the symposium and delivered speeches. On the symposium, the establishment of the Global Cooperation Alliance of Science Centers (GCASC) was officially announced.

        With the theme of "Science Center Promotes the Construction of Science Communities", the symposium attracted 18 representatives of science centers from 9 countries including China, Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden and France, as well as over 200 domestic experts, scholars and scientific research management personnel, to exchange and share construction practice, management and operation experience and the transfer and mechanisms of transforming achievements of science centers.

        During the roundtable meeting before the symposium, representatives of science centers discussed, approved and signed the Alliance charter, and Wang Enge, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Expert Committee of the Beijing Huairou Comprehensive National Science Center, was elected as the chairman of the first Alliance.

        It is reported that the idea of the Alliance was first proposed during the first symposium in 2017 and a promotion declaration was issued during the second symposium. This year, the formal establishment during the symposium marked a new chapter in the global cooperation of National Science Centers.

        GCASC will strive to build itself into an important platform and link between domestic and foreign science centers, further promote the exchanges of experience among science centers on planning, construction, management and operation, promote the co-construction and sharing of science centers in promoting international major science programs and major science projects, and further promote innovative cooperation among science centers in personnel training and people-to-people communications.

        During the symposium, Xiang Libin, Liu Yinchun, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing municipal government, and Wolfgang Marquardt, chairman of the symposium, respectively delivered keynote speeches on "Actively Participate in the Construction of the National Science Centers", "Practice and Thinking of the Construction of Beijing Huairou Comprehensive National Science Center" and "Shaping Change: Knowledge and Technology Transfer at Helmholtz".

        Around the theme of the symposium, three parallel sessions were also set up: "Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements in Science Centers: Mechanism and Management", "Financing of Science and Technology Infrastructure Operation in Science Center and Management of Scientific Research Organization: Experience and Prospects", "Medium and Long-term Development of the Future of Science and Technology Infrastructure of the Science Center: Planning and Challenges". On those sessions, 18 experts and scholars from home and abroad made keynote reports on which representatives had in-depth exchanges and discussions, sharing the successful experience of planning, construction, management and operation of national comprehensive science centers.

        Officials from Beijing, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and relevant departments of national ministries and commissions, and representatives from Shanghai Zhangjiang and Anhui Hefei Comprehensive National Science Centers attended the meeting.