This year's forum is known as the biggest turnout of overseas top science award winners to offline meetings since the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world in 2020.

The fifth World Laureates Forum, or WLA Forum, officially opened on Sunday with the launch of a series of joint programs on science, education.

This year's forum features 60 top scientists from around the world, including 27 Nobel Prize laureates. It is known as the biggest turnout of overseas top science award winners to offline meetings since the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world in 2020.

Chen Jining, Party secretary of Shanghai, said collaborative innovation and open innovation has become an irresistible trend, and Shanghai will create a more open environment to work with the world's leading scientists to make contributions for a better future for all human kind.

Chen Jining, Party secretary of Shanghai, delivers a speech.

Roger Kornberg, chairman of the World Laureates Association, said the world is changing and it is science that can helps us tackle and solve the challenges. The forum is truly a science gala where people gather together to brainstorm global topics and new approaches to solve these problems.

Before its official opening, a variety of meetings and events including WLA Zero Carbon Forum, WLA SHE Forum and the newly-launched WLA Laboratories Forum have been held since October 29.

Notably, the permanent venue of the WLA Forum was unveiled on November 4 in the Lingang area, together with an international R&D community.

The permanent venue of the WLA Forum was unveiled on November 4 in the Lingang area.

And Sunday's opening ceremony shows there's more to expect.

The ceremony witnessed the establishment of the WLA High School League, the WLA University Presidents Advisory and Collaborative Committee and the WLA Entrepreneurs Advisory and Collaborative Committee.

The high school league was initiated by 13 top high schools such as Shanghai High School, Shenzhen Middle School and the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China. Feng Zhigang, president of Shanghai High School, is the chairman.

It is designed to provide students access to top scientists.

Michael Levitt, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and Efim Zelmanov, who was awarded a Fields Medal in 1994, have visited Shanghai High School and No.2 High School of East China Normal University.

The WLA Prize winners receive their awards.

At the higher level, the university committee was established to strengthen cooperation between top universities.

University of Oxford in UK, and Shanghai's Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have agreed to form strategic partnerships in fostering talent, academic exchange and more. What's more, through the committee, University of Oxford plans to offer chances for four post-graduates, two from China and two from UK, to pursue further studies.

As its name suggests, the entrepreneurs committee encourages entrepreneurs to support science.

WLA Laboratories program was also launched, with three Nobel laureates – Roger Kornberg, Barry Sharpless and James Rothman – being the first "cornerstone scientists." The first laboratories will focus on life science such as the origin of life, gene regulation and cell biology.

The WLA Scientific Journal and the WLA Documentary Project "The Luminaries" were also launched. The documentary is planned to film the 100 top scientists across the world, and the first season has started filming in US, Israel and other countries. It is set to be screened in 2023.

Also, two first winners of the WLA Prize, which was set up during last year's forum with the aim of becoming a local version of the Nobel Prize, received their prizes at the ceremony. They are: American computer scientist and statistician Michael I Jordan and German biochemist Dirk Görlich. Each got 10 million yuan (US$1.39 million).