WFEO President and former President of Nankai University, Gong Ke, attended the Sweden-China Top Scientist Dialogue & Memorial Gala Dinner in the Spirit of Nobel as invited by Ambassador Helena Sångeland of the Embassy of Sweden in Beijing on December 10th.

The Memorial Gala Dinner was hosted to celebrate the 2020 Nobel Day under the theme of “research, innovation and sustainability”. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is the first time the Nobel Dinner have been held in a distributed manner, in different places of the world instead of gathering together in Stockholm. The high-level dialogue, being the most important and inspiring part of the dinner, highlighted the importance of research and innovation in this time of challenges and uncertainty.

President Gong Ke together with Mr. Wan Gang, President of Chinese Association of Science and Technology (CAST)，Mr. Ibrahim Baylan, Minister for Business, Industry and Innovation of Sweden, Professor Tuula Teeri, President of Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, respectively addressed the audience, drawing on their own particular work and academics experiences to discuss how future research and innovation cooperation can contribute to the global sustainability transformation from the perspective of Sweden-China bilateral cooperation as well as international cooperation.

President Gong Ke highlighted the sustainable and innovative solutions made available by science, technology and engineering in the context of the pressing planetary and socio-economic challenges and called for a collaborative international scientific and engineering community, one that draws on the intellectual potential of the whole world to efficiently resolve the pressing issues faced by humanity, as listed in the 17 UN 2030 sustainable goals with the spirit of science internationalism.

（Reported by Guanyi Wang, Edited by Davide Francolino and JianjingYun)