【Domestic News】New CAS Institute Established in Dongguan： Dongguan Institute of Materials Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

      On November 26, 2025, the inaugural meeting for the establishment of the Institute of Industrial Artificial Intelligence, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was held in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. On December 6, 2025, the inaugural meeting for the establishment of the Dongguan Institute of Materials Science and Technology, CAS, took place in Dongguan, Guangdong Province.
As of now, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has a total of 116 research institutes, including 43 located in Beijing and 73 located outside Beijing.

Establishment of the CAS Dongguan Institute of Materials Science and Technology

      On December 6, the inauguration ceremony of the CAS Dongguan Institute of Materials Science and Technology was held in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. The Institute was jointly established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Guangdong Provincial Government, and the Dongguan Municipal Government. It is tasked with undertaking research on strategic and frontier materials as well as fundamental scientific questions, focusing on information materials, energy materials, functional ceramics, and metallic materials. The Institute aims to build a globally influential and leading research center for advanced materials.

Introduction to the CAS Dongguan Institute of Materials Science and Technology

      The CAS Dongguan Institute of Materials Science and Technology (hereinafter referred to as “Dongguan Materials Institute”) was jointly established on January 20, 2025, by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Guangdong Provincial Government, and the Dongguan Municipal Government. It is located in the Pilot Area of the Greater Bay Area Comprehensive National Science Center (Songshan Lake Science City), with Phase I occupying 263 mu (approx. 17.5 hectares). On September 28, 2025, the Institute received approval from the Central Institutional Organization Commission to be designated as a central public institution. On December 6, 2025, it was officially inaugurated, marking a new stage of high-quality development.

      Led by Academician Wang Weihua, the Institute is structured around three major sectors: frontier science in advanced materials, major industrial needs, and innovation in R&D paradigms. With the mission of addressing fundamental scientific challenges and key application bottlenecks in the field of advanced materials and fostering new quality productive forces, the Institute aims to establish new research paradigms in materials science and promote future technological innovation in the materials sector. Leveraging the advantages of national major scientific infrastructure, it focuses on research into strategically essential core materials needed by the nation, advancing both fundamental and applied research to enhance the integration of the innovation chain and industrial chain. At the same time, the Institute is committed to building high-level talent teams and high-end research platforms, delivering breakthroughs in key core technologies, and becoming a leading national research institution in advanced materials—serving as a source of original innovation, a driver of industrial technology diffusion, and a hub for national innovation talent.

      The Dongguan Materials Institute will earnestly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s guiding principles for the Chinese Academy of Sciences—“four firsts” and “two accelerations and one effort.” It will strive to secure strategic heights in materials science and technology, resolve critical material bottlenecks, promote deep integration of scientific and industrial innovation, support industrial upgrading in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, explore AI-driven research paradigms, and contribute to China’s pursuit of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and the building of a strong science and technology nation.