Seminar on the Groundwork of S&T, convened by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), was held on July 24 in Beijing. There were altogether 100-strong people present, including CAO Jianlin, Vice Minister of MOST, CHEN Yiyu, Director-General of Chinese National Natural Science Foundation, and relevant leaders from MOST, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, and Chinese Academy of Sciences. Besides, 18 academicians such as SUN Honglie, ZHAO Qiguo and some other experts also attended.

The seminar reviewed the groundwork of S&T, covering general plans, major achievements, organization and management, experiences and lessons, etc. Participants listened to reports on progress of projects like National 1:50000 Soil Atlas and Construction of High Accuracy Digital Soil, Survey on China’s Glacier and Its Changes, and Survey on Agricultural and Biological Resources in Yunnan and Surrounding Areas, and exchanged ideas on the future development of S&T groundwork, and the measures for improvement of management and so on.