CIAR aims at establishing a "four in one" open center for collaborative innovation and services, namely the center for science and technology development, policy support, information service and personnel training. It provides science and technology support to agriculture and rural economic development, nurtures teams of excellence for overseas agricultural research and development, integrates research results along the supply chain and builds the brand of CAAS overseas. CIAR is the accelerator for the "going global" strategy of China in the agricultural sector, serving the innovation needs of disciplinary development of CAAS and the overall needs of science and technology diplomacy.

Science and Technology Development CIAR provides top-down design for the roadmap of "going global" strategy for the agricultural industry, which involves countries, sectors and products. This will be realized through the Public Information Service Platform for Agricultural International Cooperation that serves different stakeholders in agricultural business overseas as well as the combination of innovation teams of CAAS in different research areas and disciplinaries for resource-sharing and synergetic effects. These efforts finally enhance the agricultural research excellence of CAAS and China.

Policy Support CIAR makes the overall planning for the strategic research on the "going global" strategy for agriculture in a problem- and demand-driven approach, which includes overseas information collection and analysis, technology foresight, technological and economic studies. It provides evidence for the strategic decision-making and policy formulation for the government. CIAR also focuses on studies on theoretical and methodological innovation, and creative thinking, playing a leading and exemplary role in the formulation of overseas agricultural policies.

Information Service CIAR establishes the Public Information Service Platform for Agricultural International Cooperation through the concerted efforts of CAAS innovation teams. The platform consists of categories of agricultural science and technology, remote sensing data, resources information by country, risk evaluation and policy analysis. It supports the government decision-making and agribusiness overseas investments.

Personnel Training CIAR builds up a pool of talents for international agricultural research and agribusiness based on the multi-disciplinary advantage of CAAS. It is the incubator for talents with global strategic vision for agriculture "going global" in the new era.