Cuba’s “strong biotechnology industry” is an important foundation for progress in nanoscience, according to a source in the office of government scientific adviser Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, son of former President Fidel Castro.

The future center will be open to researchers from abroad, “besides being a training camp for the next generation of (Cuban) researchers,” officials said.

Since the 1959 revolution, Prensa Latina said, Cuba has created 120 research centers and invested heavily in the education of thousands of science graduates, resulting to “a high ratio of scientists and engineers per inhabitant.”