From October 29 to 30, 2018, the seventh Meeting of China-Canada Joint Committee (CCJC) on Science and Technology Cooperation was held in Beijing. The plenary session was co-chaired by Zhang Jianguo, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, and David McGovern, Associate Deputy Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development of Canada.

At the meeting, the two sides reviewed the implementation of the China-Canada Science, Technology and Innovation Action Plan (2016-2018) signed at the 6th Joint Committee Meeting and the progress of China-Canada intergovernmental projects and heard cooperation reports and suggestions for subsequent cooperation in six areas including agricultural-based food and bio-products, clean technologies, health and life sciences, environmental technologies and plastic pollution, sub-national collaboration, and researcher mobility. The two sides agreed to continue advancing joint laboratory on agricultural-based food and bio-products, strengthen clean technologies R&D and industrialization cooperation, push ahead with basic research in public health and vaccine R&D, and explore the establishment of a China-Canada young scientist exchange program.

The meeting saw the signing of Cooperative Arrangement between Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on China-Canada Joint Laboratory for Genetic Improvement and Utilization of Canola/Rapeseed, Cooperation Arrangements between Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on China-Canada Joint laboratory for Genetic Breeding and Integrated Utilization og Legumes and Memorandum of Understanding between Nankai University of China and the National Research Council of Canada Concerning Cooperation in Science and Technology Cooperation.

The meeting was attended by more than 80 representatives from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology, and some Chinese universities and research institutes, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Global Affairs Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Research Council of Canada, the Government of Quebec and some Canadian universities and companies.