On February 28, the kick-off meeting for national key R&D program “Basis and Regulation of Clone Variation and Propagation of Perennial Horticultural Crops” was held at the International Academic Exchange Center of HZAU. The program was led by Prof. Xu Qiang from College of Horticultural & Forestry Sciences of HZAU and the attendees were program-related experts, scholars and two government officials.
At the meeting, Yao Jianglin, vice president of HZAU, first expressed his gratitude to those attendees, saying that HZAU, where the program had launched, would spare no efforts to facilitate it. Then he proposed that the program should be problem-oriented, and combine innovation with service so as to generate good results. Mr. Chen Junyun, official from the local government, hoped that innovative achievements and new talents would both be brought out from the program, and he also promised a strong support for it. Mr.Yang Xiongnian, official from the central government, pointed out that participants of the program must be implemented immediately after the meeting. They should focus on major scientific problems and promote the industry-university-research cooperation to advance the development of technology and industry.
Xu gave an detailed introduction to the program, and then seven principal investigators of the program in turn reported their researches, including implementation plan, recent progress and expected results. Their efforts to connect scientific problems to industrial problems were thought highly of by the advisory panel of the program. Meanwhile, these advisers expressed their views and argued that the principal investigators should further highlight the research priorities and attach more importance to key agronomic traits and special biological problems. They also offered specific suggestions on their researches from the perspective of project management, collaborative innovation and emphasized academic morals so as to make the program a complete success.
In the afternoon, Liu Guangyao, member of Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS), and Zhang Shaoling, professor from Nanjing Agricultural University respectively gave reports titled “Gene Editing Technology and Its Application in Gene Function and Genetic Improvement” and “Molecular Basis and Application of Self-pollinated Pear”. After that, all participants of the program had discussions on how to push forward the program. Finally, Prof. Xu reviewed the meeting and made clear the implementation plan of this program.
Translator: Chen Xiao
Supervisor: Guo Haiyan
Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2019/0305/53650.shtm
