Recently, the exchange meeting of a national key project “Research and Application of Rice Functional Genome”, part of the national key research and development program “Seven Major Crops Breeding” led by Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU) was held in Lingshui County, Hainan Province. More than 70 heads, experts and scholars from 20 institutes attended the meeting, including the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); the Institute of Botany, CAS and the Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences(CAAS). All representatives took the opportunity to further promote the integrated implementation of the national key R&D programs and strengthen interaction and cooperation among projects. Professor Wu Changyin, chief scientist of the project, presided over the opening ceremony.
Ge Yiqiang, the Director of the Rural High Technology Division of the China Rural Technology Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, expressed congratulations on the huge scientific research progress achieved in the past year. He hoped that all units would discuss and formulate mid-term inspection plans and summarize their initial results. He emphasized that the heads and team members of the sub-divisions of each project should do research honestly and abide by the norms of fund using. Each unit must set up specifications and implement the new requirements and policies of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) down to earth.
Dr. Wei Xun, a project coordinator of China Rural Technology Development Center, focused on the specialized management of the “Seven Major Crops Breeding” project and interpreted the specifications for uniform implementation. He explained the new thoughts, new criteria and new measures of the implementation of the special project raised by MOST from four aspects: overall deployment, preliminary considerations, implementation plans, common difficulties and new requirements for new measures. He said that this year is the critical period of the mid-term inspection of key R&D projects, and all units should make their mid-term inspection plan, carry it out earnestly and submit their initial results to MOST.
Mr. Guan Huanda, executive deputy dean of the Institute of Science and Technology Development of HZAU, introduced the achievements of scientific research in the university since the beginning of the “13th Five-Year Plan”, and put forward three requirements for the implementation of the project: each team should use funds in accordance with laws and regulations and the new institutional mechanisms of national research will be implemented; the heads of the various projects and the personnel engaged in the research must abide by the academic norms and pay attention to the accumulation of achievements during the research; all projects should forge synergy to develop the entire scientific research into an unified and harmonious process. Chen Qianjiang, deputy director of Department of Financial Management of HZAU, introduced to the participants HZAU’s research fund management, the acceptance conditions for the key R&D project and its performance evaluation.
During the exchange symposium, four heads of the Project, academicians of CAS, Prof. Zhang Qifa and Zhong Kang and other experts exchanged ideas on the implementation of the project and their scientific research progress. The heads of the sub-projects reported their initial results obtained in the four aspects of rice yield, quality, stress resistance, information platform and genomic breeding since the project was initiated, and then discussed the problems in the implementation process.
It is reported that at the end of 2015, the MOST launched the special pilot project for the breeding of seven crops including rice, maize, wheat, soybeans, cotton, rape, and vegetables. Following the general principles of “enhancing basic research, gripping cutting-edge technology, creating major varieties and leading modern seed industry” and focusing on the seven staple crops, the pilot special projects have been deployed to fulfill five key research tasks, i.e. identifying and utilizing elite germplasm, genomic research on staple crops, innovation of breeding technology and materials, breeding important varieties, and elite variety reproduction and seed processing. The project of “Research and Application of Rice Functional Genome” led by HZAU is one of the first batch of 21 key projects approved.
Source：http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2018/0329/51615.shtml
Translated by Zhang Lei
Proofread by Zeng Wenhua
