On November 16^th 2016, the Research Progress Conference of Center for International Agricultural Research(CIAR) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and the Establishment of the National Agricultural Big Data and Information Service Alliance （NABDISA） was held in Beijing. Yang Shaopin, a member of the Party Group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and Chen Mengshan, Secretary of the Party Group of the CAAS, attended the conference and gave speeches, jointly launched the public information service platform. The conference was chaired by Tang Huajun, Deputy Secretary of the Party Group and Vice President of CAAS.

In response to the country's major strategy of "the Belt and Road" and to accelerate the promotion of agriculture going global, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences gathered the advantageous scientific and technological resources of the whole academy, established CIAR at the beginning of the year to mainly to carry out overseas agricultural scientific research, provide overseas agricultural information services, and cultivate overseas agricultural talents, so as to provide scientific and technological support for China's agriculture going global, and better play the role of scientific research team and decision-making think tank. At the same time, in order to implement the national innovation driven development strategy and accelerate the pace of agricultural science and technology innovation, CAAS, together with relevant organization and enterprises, has initiated the establishment of the National Agricultural Big Data and Information Service Alliance, integrating and stimulating the vitality of existing scientific and technological resources, and solving major scientific problems.

At the conference, academician Wu Kongming, Vice President of the CAAS, officially released the work progress and gave a detailed introduction of CIAR in 2016, and introduced China’s working progress of agricultural technology going global, overseas agricultural information services, overseas agricultural talent cultivation, and leading national overseas agricultural research. According to statistics, 61 new technologies and products in the fields of breeding, plant protection, animal husbandry and medicine, and agricultural machinery have been introduced to more than 150 countries in Asia, Africa, the United States, and Europe, which providing strong supports for agricultural foreign cooperation in the new era.

Director Sun Tan announced the establishment the National Agricultural Big Data and Information Service Alliance. As of 2017, the platform has integrated more than 13 million agricultural and related discipline literature resources, more than 450 core agricultural science datasets, covering 12 major disciplines such as crop science, animal husbandry science, zoning science, grassland science, and agricultural biotechnology. It has achieved online resource downloading or 1-hour fast original text transmission services, covering more than 30 units in the national agricultural science academy system, and has registered by over 20000 users.

Chen Mengshan pointed out in his speech that the release of the work progress of the CIAR in 2016 and the establishment of the NABDISA are two major events of the CAAS, both involving the overall development of the country and of great significance. In the future, we should closely focus on the national "the Belt and Road" strategy and the needs of agricultural foreign cooperation, and also focus on the overall layout of the NABDISA, better gather the strength and resources of agricultural research institutes, agricultural colleges and universities, agricultural enterprises and other organization，further increase measures and cooperation in tackling key problems, innovation and developments, to make CIAR and the NABDISA more efficient, influential and effective.

Yang Shaopin fully affirmed the significant progress of CIAR's work in 2016 and the establishment of the alliance. He emphasized that agricultural foreign cooperation is currently in a new stage, CIAR gathered research institutes, universities, agricultural enterprises, etc. to form a global alliance for agricultural big data and information services, fully leveraging the intellectual resource advantages of various parties inside and outside CAAS, which is crucial for improving the public information service system. In the future, CIAR should fully leverage the role of alliances and continuously improve their service content and methods. Firstly, relying on platforms and alliances, CIAR should promote the establishment of information resource construction and sharing mechanisms, and the integration and utilization of information resources among member units and enterprises, and comprehensively serve national strategies; The second is to strengthen the targeted research and development of key technologies, countries and markets. Through collaborative innovation with relevant domestic and foreign scientific research forces, concentrate efforts on breaking through key technologies; Thirdly, CIAR should establish a long-term mechanism for scientific and technological cooperation, create a global technology service platform, and establish a technology consulting and transformation mechanism for agriculture going global; The fourth is to strengthen the construction of the public information service system. By fully utilizing modern information technology and taking the establishment of the alliance as an opportunity, CIAR could actively unit relevant overseas research forces, enrich platform content and achievements, and provide enterprises with better and more timely information services. At the meeting, CIAR signed cooperation agreements with more than 20 agricultural going-out enterprises, 3 international organizations, and 5 scientific research institutions on site.

About 160 representatives from relevant departments and directly affiliated institutions of the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Agricultural Science and Technology Data Sharing Center, local agricultural science academies, national agricultural system foreign affairs cooperation network units, key agricultural universities, and an agricultural going-out enterprises attended the meeting.