(Yicai Global) Sept. 7 -- Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. [NYSE:BABA], Zhejiang provincial government and Zhejiang University have collaborated to officially open Zhijiang Laboratory, a new scientific research institution, online media outlet The Paper reported on Sept. 6.

Alibaba and the university will play key roles in attracting quality sources of innovation from domestic colleges and enterprises, pooling some of the world's leading research and development teams and building an innovative industrial cluster with an international competitive edge.

The institution will conduct basic research and make key technological breakthroughs based on Big Data and cloud computing in such areas as network computation, artificial intelligence, data security and intelligent manufacturing.

Alibaba began a scientific program in March under the codename, NASA, with a focus on machine learning, chips, the Internet of Things and biological recognition, which resulted in the company starting Zhijiang Laboratory, said Alibaba CEO Zhang Yong.

Zhejiang University Committee's deputy secretary Prof. Zhu Shiqiang will act as director at the lab, while former president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lu Yongxiang, will be director of its advisory committee.