On March 22^nd 2016, Sun Tan, Director of the Agricultural Information Institute (AII) and Director of the Center for International Agricultural Research(CIAR) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), met with Dr. Fan Shenggen, Director of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Dr. Chen Zhigang, Director of the China Project of IFPRI, who visited CAAS. Both sides had in-depth exchanges on strengthening cooperative research and talent cultivation.

Director Sun Tan introduced the planning blueprint and work based on big data collection and analysis and application in the field of agriculture combined with the strategic positioning and tasks of CIAR. He suggested that both sides should strengthen cooperation in basic research and youth talent cultivation to address long-term, fundamental and strategic issues in agriculture, and better leverage the role of CIAR as "agricultural think tanks" to promote the foreign scientific and technological cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Director Fan Shenggen fully affirmed the collaborative research achievements of the AII and IFPRI. He believed that the establishment of the CIAR would provide new opportunities for cooperation between the two sides in the construction of big data platforms, research on food security and nutrition, and the impact of China's agricultural technology going global on overseas research topics. Both sides could jointly apply for project funding through various channels, and IFPRI is also willing to create conditions to accept more young scientists from the AII to conduct collaborative research in the United States.

Researcher Nie Fengying, Deputy Director of the CIAR, and Wang Chuan, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Management Department of AII,  attended the meeting.