On November 5, SZBL held a symposium to launch the 2021 Open Fund. Program leads from external partner institutes and their corresponding counterparts from SZBL, as well as program members were convened to exchange on the programs. SZBL leadership Hu Xiaojun attended on the occasion and SZBL Office for Research Deputy Director Li Chao presided over the symposium.

Hu Xiaojun pointed out in his speech that the SZBL Open Fund are launched to advance the basic innovation capacity and bolster biomedical industrial development in the Greater Bay Area through integrated and synergized coordination and cooperation among leading scientific institutions across the region. Particularly, the Open Fund prioritizes and promotes interdisciplinary research on infectious diseases, cancer, neurodegeneration, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases in the areas of bio-information, biomedicine and medical engineering.

Fourteen new program leads for the Open Fund gave presentations on their programs and was fully engaged by discussion among all attendees. This has built up closer academic linkage between the program leads with their respective counterparts, and made more possibilities open for different programs and research to integrate, evolve and upgrade.

2021 is the third year since SZBL first launched the Open Fund. The Fund initially seeks to cement the laboratory’s basic innovation capability with strengthened external cooperation. It serves as a facilitator for SZBL to build an influential platform for frontier and application-driven biomedical sciences and scientific exchanges. Over the years, cooperation has seen gradual increase with the development of SZBL. Now more and more universities, research institutions and hospitals in the GBA are joining as partners.