First Council of Xiangjiang Laboratory Established

2023-10-23

The inaugural meeting of the first council of Xiangjiang Laboratory was held in Changsha on October 22, marking the establishment of its first council. This signifies a new stage of comprehensive development for Xiangjiang Laboratory.

Vice Governor Qin Guowen attended the inaugural meeting and delivered aspeech. Zhou Yixiang, First-level Inspector of the General Office of the People’s Government of Hunan Province, presided over the meeting, and Li Zhijian, Secretary of the Leading CPC Group of and Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Hunan Province, read out the list of members of the first council and the chairperson committee. Chen Xiaohong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Director of Xiangjiang Laboratory, and Secretary of CPC HUTB Committee, and Liu Zhongmin, a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Engineering and honorary president of the Oriental Hospital affiliated to Tongji University, along with representatives from relevant provincial departments, Changsha Municipal Government, Xiangjiang New Area, universities, research institutes, enterprises, and media attended the meeting.

In recent years, the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Partyof China and the People’s Government of Hunan Province have made ambitious plans and promoted the "4 + 4 Science and Technology Innovation Project" with high quality. The project focuses on advanced computing and artificial intelligence fields, leveraging the advantages of Hunan's talent chain, innovation chain, and industrychain. It has proactively established Xiangjiang Laboratory with a forward-looking layout. Over the past year, Xiangjiang Laboratory has made strong progress in various tasks. Vice Governor Qin Guowen emphasized the importance of bearing in mind the State’s interests.He stressed the need to set high standards, strategically plan goals and tasks based on scientific methods, establish clear positioning, anchor targets, and promote systematic progress. He also highlighted the importance of adhering to the "Four Orientations", accelerating the production of landmark and leading innovative achievements, focusing on original innovation, technological breakthroughs, and result transformation. Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of widely attracting and gathering talents, creating ahigh-end innovation talent pool through attracting top-level talents, nurturing talented individuals with strong capabilities, and utilizing new mechanisms for talent utilization. Additionally, he called for strengthened coordination and synergy, fully leveraging the advantages of the platform to stimulate innovation dynamics. Flexibility in institutional mechanisms and acceleration of operational processes should be ensured for effective collaboration.Qin Guowen expressed his hope that Xiangjiang Laboratory, at this new starting point, would gather more innovative resources, consolidate greater innovative strength, accumulate stronger innovation advantages, and produce more innovative outcomes.

Chen Xiaohong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Director of Xiangjiang Laboratory, and Secretary of CPC HUTB Committee, presented the letter of appointment to the Deputy Director of the laboratory.

During the meeting, all attendees collectively watched the advertising video of the Xiangjiang Laboratory. Liu Guoquan, Executive Deputy Director of Xiangjiang Laboratory and Vice President of HUTB, explained the drafting process of the Draft Charter of Xiangjiang Laboratory and the Draft Charter of the Council of Xiangjiang Laboratory. Yi Mianyang, Deputy Director of Xiangjiang Laboratory and Vice President of HUTB, delivered the Work Report of Xiangjiang Laboratory. Over the past year, Xiangjiang Laboratory has made remarkable achievements in its development: the talent team has continued to grow, operational management has become more refined, progress in scientific and technological research has been smooth, initial results have been seen in transformation of achievements, extensive and in-depth cooperation and exchanges have taken place, and significant contributions have been made in providing suggestions and advice. Next, Xiangjiang Laboratory will accelerate the establishment of research and development centers, expedite the introduction and cultivation of high-level talents, achieve the construction of data centers to high standards, accelerate the development and construction of algorithm centers, and promote the production of landmark scientific and technological achievements.

The meeting discussed and voted to pass the Draft Charter of Xiangjiang Laboratory, the Draft Charter of the Council of Xiangjiang Laboratory, and the Work Report of Xiangjiang Laboratory. This marks a new phase for Xiangjiang Laboratory in operating in a standardized, institutionalized and tangible manner.

The construction of Xiangjiang Laboratory is a deployment made by the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and the Provincial Government to implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's import speech on "developing digital economy and promoting deep integration of digital technology and the real economy". It is also an important part of Hunan's flagship project "4 + 4 Science and Technology Innovation Project" to build a science and technology innovation highland with core competitiveness. Xiangjiang Laboratory adheres to integrated promotion of "computing power, algorithm, computing basis and computing network", and is committed to becoming a center for original theoretical research and key technological innovation in the field of advanced computing and artificial intelligence, an industrial empowerment base, and promoting high-quality development of industrial clusters such as advanced computing, artificial intelligence, and smart society in Hunan.

Xiangjiang Laboratory was unveiled in July 2022, being the first among the four major laboratories in Hunan Province. Since its establishment over a year ago, Xiangjiang Laboratory has actively undertaken significant national scientific research tasks and benchmarked national laboratory construction. It aims to build a domestically top-notch and world-class laboratory for advanced computing and artificial intelligence. The laboratory promotes the deep integration of policy chain, innovation chain, industry chain, education chain, talent chain, and funding chain. It adheres to the principles of simultaneous construction, operation, research, and output. Xiangjiang Laboratory actively contributes to the acceleration of achieving the "Three Highlands, Four New Missions" beautiful blueprint by providing technological innovation strength. (Written by Yang Lei and Xu Xiaolei and Photo by Converged Media Center)