Public Sector, Education & Research

WUJIANG – November 01, 2026 -- Wujiang District inaugurated the Fei Xiaotong Social Survey Center on November 1, marking the 90th anniversary of the sociologist's Jiangcun field study in Kaixiangong Village, Qidu Town, Jiangsu Province.

Wujiang and Chinese universities co-organize anniversary event under a modernization theme

The event, themed "Understanding China's Modernization Through Jiangcun," was organized by Wujiang District in partnership with several Chinese universities. The new center will extend Fei's fieldwork method of understanding people's lives from their own perspective through in-depth research.

Beijing – November 01, 2026 -- Nearly 200 Chinese and foreign guests will convene in the port city of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, from November 2 to 5 for the 2026 Global Mayors Dialogue·Ningbo, themed "Openness and Connectivity for Shared Opportunities."

Attendees include mayors of Ningbo's international sister cities, foreign diplomats in China and representatives of international organizations. Organizers aim to build consensus on openness and cooperation and to foster a new ecosystem of city-to-city collaboration.

Organizers structure the event as a "1+2+3" program

The format comprises one main event, two scenario-based dialogues and three civilization exchange activities. Discussions will center on sustainable development and green transition.

NEW YORK – October 31, 2026 -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is offering a $1,500 top prize to college students and $1,000 to high school students in its 2027 Student Paper Competition, with entries due June 11, 2027.

ANSI and its Committee on Education launched the sixteenth annual contest under the theme "Would You Trust It? Exploring How Standards Build Confidence in Products, Services, and Emerging Technologies." Students must examine what makes something trustworthy and how standards contribute.

Three focus areas span consumer products, digital services and AI

Under products, students can cover sports equipment and wearables, autonomous and micromobility vehicles including e-bike and e-scooter battery fires, or food safety involving pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli and norovirus.

TOKYO – October 31, 2026 -- Happiness shows the strongest parent-child link among three well-being measures in Japan, with a rank-rank slope of 0.25, according to Keio University researchers. Self-reported general health followed at 0.22, and mental health was weakest at 0.13. All three associations were statistically significant.

The study by Kayoko Ishii, Zhi-xiao Jia and Isamu Yamamoto appeared in the journal Review of Economics of the Household. It uses data from the Japan Household Panel Survey, run in association with Keio's Panel Data Research Center.

Panel data tracks two generations within the same families

The survey began in 2004 and has followed the same individuals for more than 20 years. It was later extended to participants' adult children, including those no longer living with their parents, so the team could link parent and child records.

SHENZHEN, China – October 31, 2026 -- A previously disclosed hydrogen-production catalyst collaboration supported by Wenge AI's ScienceOra platform reported a 38% improvement in catalyst activity and cut the design stage from several months to 30 minutes. Wenge AI (1956.HK) demonstrated the platform's catalyst design workflow at the 2026 Tencent Global Digital Ecosystem Summit.

ScienceOra is Wenge AI's research decision platform, built on the ScienceOne Scientific Foundation Model. It combines scientific models, professional literature, research data and tools to support information access, research-plan development and scientific decision-making in specialist fields such as materials development.

Phoenix – October 31, 2026 -- Sixty-two percent of employers say their employees are developing AI skills faster than their organizations can adapt, according to findings cited in a new University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies white paper on rural workforce development.

The paper, "Bridging the Rural AI Skills Gap: Overcoming Informal Adoption, Resource Constraints, and Career Pathway Traps," was written by Stella Smith, Ph.D., associate university research chair at the Center for Educational and Instructional Technology Research (CEITR). It draws on the University of Phoenix Career Institute 2026 Career Optimism Index study and applies its national findings to rural labor markets.

Half of workers learn AI without employer training, and 48% of employers fear losing AI-fluent staff

The national figures cited in the paper:

Beijing – November 01, 2026 -- Scientists from China and Malaysia called for a shared regional early-warning system and cross-border data exchange at the China-Malaysia Youth Ocean Dialogue, held October 30 at China Media Group's Sanya Studio.

China Media Group's Chinese Language Programming Center organized the event, with Xiamen University as co-organizer. Scientists, artists, environmental organization representatives and students from both countries took part.

Xiamen University dean links El Niño damage to coastal erosion risk

Liu Zhiyu, dean of the College of Ocean and Earth Sciences at Xiamen University, outlined the adverse effects of El Niño on coral reef ecosystems. He said reef degradation could worsen coastal erosion, creating new risks for the livelihoods and safety of coastal communities.

DENVER – October 30, 2026 -- Eight Arkansas school districts will design outcomes based contracts (OBCs) in which at least 40% of a contract's value depends on agreed student results, for instructional interventions starting in the 2027-2028 school year. The Center for Outcomes Based Contracting and Forward Arkansas announced the cohort.

Contracts link at least 40% of provider payment to measurable outcomes

Under the Center's Standards of Excellence, each OBC sets clear learning goals, identifies the students to be served and defines how success is measured. Payment is tied to those outcomes rather than to service delivery alone. The first interventions covered include high-impact tutoring.

FONTAINEBLEAU, France – October 30, 2026 -- INSEAD has received US$3 million in funding from Google.org and Google DeepMind to establish the Research Lab for Human and Organisational Thriving (INSEAD Thrive Lab), a unit that will study how people and organisations function amid continuous technological change.

Thrive Lab sits within INSEAD's Human and Machine Intelligence Institute

The lab is housed under the Human and Machine Intelligence Institute (HUMII), a cross-disciplinary research body whose core academic team includes 2025 Nobel Laureate in Economics Philippe Aghion and 2025 Oskar Morgenstern Medallist Phanish Puranam. Its research covers three domains: Learning, Working and Relating.

Winnie Jiang, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, serves as Academic Director of the lab. Lily Fang, Dean of Research and Innovation at INSEAD, is Academic Director of HUMII.

BEIJING – October 30, 2026 -- The 11th Global Mazu Culture Forum opens October 31 in Putian, Fujian Province, with overseas guests from 47 countries and regions and the release of version 2.0 of China's open-source Mass Conservation Ocean Model (MaCOM).

MaCOM 2.0 goes open-source worldwide at the Putian forum

The forum runs through November 2. It comprises a main forum, 10 thematic forums and supporting events across 13 additional venues. MaCOM was developed independently by China and will be available globally as open-source software.

MAZU early warning solution reaches eight countries, with 50 more on cloud access

As of October 2026, the MAZU meteorological early warning solution is deployed in eight countries, including Pakistan, Ethiopia and the Solomon Islands, according to Chinese meteorological authorities. More than 50 other countries access it through a cloud platform.