A group of top Chinese academics have launched the country's first-ever private science research institute.
The Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, launched on Saturday in the eastern city of Hangzhou, "is the first privately run institution dedicating to researching and teaching multiple scientific disciplines, including life sciences," said Shi Yigong, a Tsinghua University vice president and institute co-founder who is heading it.
Shi, 49, is a Princeton University-trained molecular biologist who rejected a prestigious $10 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland to return to China in 2008.
Rao Yi, a neurobiologist and a former dean of Peking University's School of Life Sciences, is another co-founder of the institute. Rao, 54, is a leading voice advocating for cutting red tape in government agencies linked to managing scientific research and promoting integrity in China's research community.
Shi and his co-founders were each given a one-time 100 million yuan grant by the Zhejiang provincial government to establish the institute.
But the research outfit will rely on private donors for most of its funding, said Shi.
Among its high-profile backers are China's richest man, Wang Jianlin, who runs the property and entertainment conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group; and Pony Ma, founder of internet giant Tencent Inc.
Shi said he hopes the institution will one day rival U.S. schools such as the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University. The new institution will be developed into a full-fledged research university with 130 independent labs, Shi said.
The new institute plans to recruit about 200 professors from around the globe and nearly 2,000 researchers. But management did not disclose how many academics they have signed up during two rounds of global head-hunting over the past six months.