In April 2020, the National University of Singapore ("NUS") and Chongqing Liangjiang New Area collaboratively established the NUS (Chongqing) Research Institute ("NUSRI-CQ"). 

As NUS's cooperation window in western China, the institute leverages NUS's strong scientific research and global resources, focusing on new materials and intelligent manufacturing, new energy, life and health, as well as other emerging technologies and fields. It aims to build a high-end research and development platform, a high-tech industry incubation base, and an education and training center, dedicated to constructing an internationally innovative research institute integrating industry, academia, and research with national influence.

Liangjiang New Area was formally established on June 18, 2010. It was the third national development and opening zone in China - and the first in the inland - approved by the State Council, after Shanghai Pudong New Area and Tianjin Binhai New Area. It is located in the main urban area of Chongqing, near the north of the Yangtze River, and borders Jialing River in the east. Liangjiang New Area includes three administrative districts - Jiangbei district, Beibei district and Yubei district - as well as the northward new district and the free trade port area - and covers an area of 1200 square kilometers, including 550 square kilometers of potential development area, and a permanent population of 2.24 million.Liangjiang New Area - one of the new focus zones for global industry transmission, a transportation hub of Eurasia international logistics, the area of strategic shift of China's development and the core area of the newly-established market in the inland.