A business cluster for the World Laureates Association, or WLA – a non-government organization whose members make up leading international names in science, including a large group of Nobel prizewinners – was established on Aug 6 in the Lin-gang Special Area in East China's Shanghai.

The WLA business cluster is set up in the Lin-gang Special Area on Aug 6. [Photo/WeChat account: shlgguanweihui]

The new WLA business cluster is understood to be composed of premier science organizations – including the WLA, the World Laureates Forum, the WLA Science Community, WLA Joint International Research Laboratory, World Laureates Development Foundation and interested companies such as Nuogang Science Group.

Nobel prizewinner Michael Levitt gives a speech at the opening ceremony for the WLA business cluster on Aug 6 in the Lin-gang Special Area. [Photo/WeChat account: shlgguanweihui]

The 2013 Nobel chemistry prizewinner Michael Levitt said at the opening ceremony that the WLA was at home in the Lin-gang Special Area and would develop in the area.

He said that since the first WLF was held in Lin-gang in 2018, a lot had changed. He said he believed that by bringing technology, finance and innovation together, they could make a contribution to Shanghai, to China and – most importantly – to the world.

The cluster will reportedly gradually develop as a hotbed of major frontier science in the new era.

It is also expected to help the Lin-gang Special Area evolve as a global scientific innovation powerhouse and as an international scientific innovation zone.