(Yicai) Nov. 15 -- The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization said it will establish an International Institution for Science Technology Engineering and Management in Shanghai, the first global category one institute outside of Europe and the United States.

The resolution to establish the IISTEM in Shanghai was passed at the 42nd Session of the UNESCO General Conference in Paris, the UN agency said on Nov. 10. 

The institute’s chief aim is to promote education for everyone from early childhood to adulthood and serve as an information exchange, network, resource, and capacity-building center in STEM education.

The IISTEM in China will be the 10th category one institute that UNESCO has set up worldwide. It also established a Teach Education Center, a category two institute, in Shanghai in October 2021. 

The category one institute will speed up the construction of an important global talent center and innovation highland in China, Yao Kai, director of the Global Scientific and Innovation Talent Development Research Center at Fudan University, told Yicai. It will also make Shanghai more influential globally as a talent upland, Yao added.

The city enjoys a high reputation internationally for its achievements in basic education areas such as mathematics, and building the IISTEM will better promote the exchange of Chinese and foreign experience and learning from each other, Zhu Jiejin, deputy director of the Center for the Study of the United Nations and International Organizations at Fudan University, said to Yicai.

The IISTEM will open a new window for educational, technological, and talent exchange and give China more opportunities to play a role in global education, science and cultural cooperation, exchanges, and rule-making, Yao noted. It will also help build the most dynamic, innovative, and influential STEM element ecosystem through a deep integration of global STEM talent, education, industry, and innovation chains, Yao added.

China has one of the largest pools of scientific and technical human resources. It has 112 million scientific and technological talents, and the percentage of those with an engineering background has always been predominant, the annual report of the China Association for Science and Technology showed last year.

UNESCO aims to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science, and culture. Its most well-known category-one institute is the International Bureau of Education in Geneva, Switzerland.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev