From May 14th to 15th, Wuhan University hosted the 2nd Meeting of the University Alliance for Philosophy and Social Sciences Laboratories. VIPs attended the meeting were as the followings:

Pingwen Zhang, Academician and President of Wuhan University;

Xuelong Huang, President of Hubei Provincial Academy of Social Sciences;

Guohua Jiang, CPC Deputy Secretary of Peking University;

Li Li, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Exeter;

Thomas Sargent, Professor at New York University, Nobel Economics Prize Laureate;

Shanlin Yang, Academician at Hefei University of Technology;

Zitang Fu, Professor at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law;

Feicheng Ma, University Distinguished Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences at Wuhan University;

and nearly 200 experts, scholars, and research management professionals from 30 philosophy and social sciences laboratories of the Ministry of Education participated in the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Wei Lu, Vice President of Wuhan University.

In his opening remarks, Pingwen Zhang noted that with the ninth anniversary of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech at the Symposium on Philosophy and Social Sciences approaching, this meeting focused on the theme of Philosophy and Social Sciences in the Digital-Intelligent Era and New Forms of Human Civilization. It aimed to discuss how to effectively enhance universities' capabilities in knowledge innovation, theoretical innovation, and methodological innovation in philosophy and social sciences, with a commitment to accelerating the construction of a self-reliant Chinese knowledge system. He put forward three expectations for the development of the laboratory alliance: first, to promote resource integration and collaborative innovation to build a resource-sharing system; second, to cultivate interdisciplinary talent and strengthen cooperation and exchanges; third, to deepen the application of achievements and social service empowerment to establish an integrated industry-university-research-application transformation platform. Taking this meeting as an opportunity, Wuhan University will join hands with member institutions to jointly drive new leaps in philosophy and social sciences laboratories in the digital-intelligent era and contribute to building a philosophy and social sciences academic system with Chinese characteristics.

Xuelong Huang stated that laboratories serve as important platforms and bases for innovation in philosophy and social sciences, as well as key carriers for improving institutional and mechanistic innovation environments. The innovative development of philosophy and social sciences in the digital era must integrate with the new trends of rapid mobile internet and artificial intelligence development. He shared Hubei Province’s specific experiences in implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on cultural heritage protection, with a focus on innovative explorations in the research field of Yangtze River civilization.

Guohua Jiang summarized the basic work of the philosophy and social sciences laboratory alliance over the past year and outlined its future development philosophy as "shared ownership, joint construction, mutual sharing, and openness". He emphasized that the construction of liberal arts laboratories should bear the mission of responding to the needs of the times, adhere to collaborative cooperation as the development path, aim to serve Chinese-style modernization, and actively adapt to the requirements of new productive forces.

In her speech, Li Li highly praised the outstanding achievements of Wuhan University’s Cultural Heritage Intelligent Computing Laboratory and School of Information Management in talent cultivation. She expressed that the University of Exeter is willing to strengthen cooperation with Chinese universities to elevate Sino-UK exchanges and cooperation in philosophy and social sciences to a new height.

During the keynote session, Thomas Sargent delivered a report titled Open Source Computing and Learning focusing on the impact of artificial intelligence technology on economic research; Shanlin Yang discussed the macro-development of artificial intelligence and philosophy and social sciences; Zitang Fu shared his insights on strengthening artificial intelligence law education to promote legal education innovation; and Feicheng Ma delivered an experience-sharing speech titled Digital-Intelligent Empowerment for the Innovative Development of Humanities and Social Sciences. In the achievement release session, Xiaoguang Wang, Professor, Dean of the School of Information Management, and Director of the Cultural Heritage Intelligent Computing Laboratory at Wuhan University, introduced and released achievements related to the 3D Data Space for Cultural Heritage.

The meeting also featured five parallel forums focusing on themes such as Digital Humanities and the Inheritance of Human Civilization, Digital-Intelligent Innovation and High-Quality Development, Digital-Intelligent Public Governance and Sustainable Development, Digital-Intelligent Empowerment and the Comprehensive Advancement of Law-Based Governance, and Digital-Intelligent-Driven Development of Future Liberal Arts, where thematic reports and discussions were held. A working meeting of the laboratory alliance was convened during the meeting.