On 22 October 2026, a press conference was held in Shanghai's Lingang district, at which details of the upcoming World Forum of Leading Scientists were announced. The theme is "Shifting Paradigms: Scientific Breakthroughs of the Next Decade." The forum will take place from 30 October to 1 November at its permanent venue, the center in Lingang. Among the 33 confirmed participants are laureates of the Nobel, Turing, Wolf and Fields prizes, including two-time Nobel laureate Barry Sharpless, who will come again.
The co-chairs of the forum are former chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology Wan Gang and American Nobel laureate of 2013 Randy Schekman. For the first time, a joint Chinese-foreign academic committee has been created under the leadership of academician Zhang Jie and president of the New York Academy of Sciences Du Ningkai. 139 experienced and 81 young scientists have been invited to participate; more than 80 % of participants are newcomers to the forum. Additional events will cover young people, women scientists and issues of commercializing results.
For Wan Gang and Schekman this is the continuation of a long line: both spent decades building bridges between national scientific systems. Wan Gang, an engineer by training and a former minister, consistently promoted China's international projects in the fields of electric vehicles and renewable energy. Schekman, known for his work in cell biology, has repeatedly emphasized the need for open data exchange even during periods of political tension.
The event confirms a persistent pattern: leading scientists come to Shanghai not in spite of, but precisely because of global fragmentation. At a time when geopolitics complicates visas and the funding of joint projects, the forum provides a rare platform for direct dialogue. China uses infrastructure and funding to position itself as a neutral host rather than merely a participant. This is no coincidence — previous forums already attracted a growing number of laureates, and the share of Chinese academicians has risen noticeably.
The forces acting on the participants are obvious: they need to preserve access to global networks and data without losing their reputation as independent researchers. For the organizers, the task is to demonstrate that China is capable of gathering the elite of science when other venues are narrowing. Public statements about "shifting paradigms" diverge from reality: the main value of the forum lies not in new theories but in the very fact of the meeting.
Like an old bridge that is repaired not because it is beautiful but because without it the crossing becomes dangerous, so these forums sustain channels that might otherwise disappear. Scientists come because the alternative — isolated national programs — slows down precisely those breakthroughs for which they have been working for decades.
In the end, 33 laureates in Shanghai show: even in a divided world, science continues to seek a common language, and those who find it first set the rules of the next decade.
