On December 8, the contract signing ceremony was held for building China’s first international age-friendly social and technological innovation center in Nanjing’s Lishui District, the only health demonstration area in Jiangsu Province. The innovation center will be jointly developed by Harvard University, Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute, and Lishui District.

Backed by Harvard University and Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute, the innovation center targets the needs of aging populations. It will carry out research on high-end elderly-friendly services and products, involving healthcare, consultation service, training, certification, intellectual property, smart manufacturing, mobile IoT, artificial intelligence and data economy, so as to form innovative industrial clusters.

Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute and Lishui District also signed a strategic cooperation agreement, the first of its kind between the institute and Nanjing’s districts. According to the agreement, the two parties will build 10 enterprise joint innovation centers in three years, promote the establishment of two or three specialized research institutes in Lishui, and jointly develop graduate student training programs, etc.