On the morning of December 25, 2019, Zhejiang University Medical Center held a plain yet solemninauguration ceremony at No. 1369, West Wenyi Road, Hangzhou. Li Xiaoming, Executive Dean of the School of Medicine; Fang Xiangming, and Xu Xiao, AssociateDean of the School of Medicine; Xu Zhengping, Executive Director of the Medical Center and Senior Associate Dean of the School of Medicine; Tian Mei, Deputy Director of the Medical Center; He Qiaojun, Lou Min, Zhang Jin, and Xia Hongguang, the PI representatives from the first batch of launched CoreFacilities; Wang Zhaopin, Deputy Director of the Dean’s Office, School of Medicine; also attended the ceremony with all staff of the Administration Office of the Medical Center.

Xu Zhengping introduced that it is the shared aspiration of Zhejiang University Medicine System to build a high-level international research-oriented medical center integrating medical education, medical research and clinicalservices. By the opportunityofsetting-up the Overseas High-Level Talent Innovation And Entrepreneurship Park, Zhejiang University made the decisionin September 2011to build a modern Medical Center there. In the eight-year-long preparation, new difficulties, problems and challenges continuously emerged. However, under the intimacy care and instruction of university leaders, with thestrongcooperation from medical school and all-around support from Yuhang Districtand Zhejiang Hangzhou FutureScience&Technology City Administration Committee (Zhejiang Overseas High-level Talents Innovation Park), the Medical Center Preparation Office, on the one hand, strived to push forward the basic construction together with the Asset Management Co., Ltd affiliated to the Administration Committee anddid its best, on the other hand, to leverage the expertise of faculties in the School of Medicine,School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and other schoolstoplan core platformsandresearch fields with priority. In this process, the Medical Center has been supported in various manners by all walks of life. The inauguration ceremony today marks the beginning of a new phase in the development of Medical Center. After the inauguration, the Medical Center staff team, together with the backbone team of the platforms and the research fields, will first complete the equipment procurement and animal center decoration, and proactively bring in high-level talents from home and abroad to create, with new mechanisms,ainnovation high-land for medical science and healthcare.

Li Xiaoming, Executive Dean of the School of Medicine, highly praised the hard work and wisdom of all members of the preparation team and thanked the participation professors for their selfless dedication. He stressed that the construction of Medical Center is a strategic move for the School to promote the development of world-class medical disciplines. He also emphasized that the School will further bolster the personnel, fund and operation management of Medical Center. It is hoped that the Center will further strengthen communication with the government, enterprises and social stakeholders, innovate cooperation mechanisms and strive for resources in various ways. On the basis of the existing support from the School of Medicine, the Center is required to set up special taskforce in three research fields to speed up the introduction of talents and the construction of follow-up laboratories.

With the inauguration as the new starting point for its journey, the Medical Center will benchmark to nationally-advanced and internationally-leading standards. Oriented to the clinical problems, guided by cutting-edge research and supported by public platforms, it will focus on the R&D of disruptive medical technologies and synergize multiple disciplines including medicine, engineering and ICT. It will also secure the connected chain of knowledge innovation, technology innovation and democratized applications so as to build itself into an international medical innovation center leading the life science and healthcare technology.