China to build world's largest bio incubator

Almost half of China's top biologists are working in the Great Beijing Area on 40 per cent of the country's total national life science research programmes.

China, aiming to be the global leader in bio-technology, on Monday started constructing Asia's largest incubator in the western part of Beijing.

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The Ministry of Science and Technology's proposed China Bio-tech Research Centre is a 250,000-square metre building with lab and office space for at least 500 research groups and about 100 intermediaries.

The building will include offices for representatives from government departments who will provide administrative support for bio-tech start-ups, research entities, incubators and branches from financial institutes and offices of global venture capitals.

Wang Hongguang, director of the China Centre for Bio-technology Development which is under the ministry, said, "We're going to provide a world-leading platform for bio-technological research and development, which could be used by hi-tech start-ups and even individual researchers".

Statistics show almost half of China's senior-level biologists are working in the Great Beijing Area on 40 per cent of the country's total national biological research programmes.

Research academies based in Beijing are also given about 40 per cent of public funds for studying biological trends.