Introduction

International cooperation of Institute of Crop Science(ICS) focuses on the following areas: carrying out the research on germplasm resources, molecular biology, genetic breeding and crop cultivation and physiology, centering on significant demand of the country and closely integrating with the trend in crop science and cooperating with advanced countries or international organizations; establishing long-term and effective cooperation mechanism in order to broaden the platform for introduction and innovation of germplasm resources; molecular dissecting important traits; developing elite varieties; and establishing high efficient crop production and farming system. The mission is to provide support for establishing an internationalized crop science research institute, share resources, information and specialized talents, and promote China’s crop science. International cooperation involves the following major fields: (1) research on collection and preservation of crop germplasm resources; (2) basic researches or applied basic researches on crop genetic resources discovery; gene discovery, elite varieties development through utilization of research strategies and approaches provided by modern molecular biology; (3) introduction and innovative utilization of high yield, high quality and high efficient farming and cropping techniques.

International cooperation of ICS will be carried out with focus on competitive international cooperation projects, introduction of germplasm resources and intellectual asset. We will continuously expand both areas and channel for international cooperation through jointly establishing regional cooperation platform and implementing the “going out” strategy. So far, ICS has established cooperation with more than 60 countries and international organizations around the world. Several international cooperation platforms have been established, including CAAS-INRA Joint Lab on Cereal Crop Genomics, CAAS-CIMMYT Joint Wheat Quality Laboratory, CAAS-CIMMYT Joint Lab for Maize Molecular Breeding, CAAS-Bioversity Research Center, Sino-US Center for Wheat Quality and Pathology, and China-Australia Joint Center for Wheat Improvement. Meanwhile, ICS has led to establish crop science research network in East Asia with Japan and Korea, and organized a series of international conferences, including the 8^th World Soybean Research Conference, the 9^th International Oat Conference, China-Japan-Korea Crop Science Workshop, and International Gluten Workshop. ICS has also been authorized to organize the 7^th International Crop Science Congress in 2016. 

ICS has undertaken 128 international cooperation projects since the Eleventh Five Year Plan, 33 of which are now implementation. International cooperation projects enable ICS to introduce outstanding genetic resources to broaden genetic diversity of crops germplasm resources in China. After evaluation, a large number of fundamental materials have been provided to national key science &technology programs. Through cooperation and exchange with CIMMYT and other international scientific research institutions in United States, France and other countries, ICS has conducted genetic resources discovery and relevant researches in applied genomics for wheat, maize, rice, soybean and other crops; established genotyping and gene discovery technology platform; analyzed important traits to understand physiological and genetic mechanisms for high yield, disease resistance, drought tolerance and water use efficiency; mapped and cloned a set of important genes, thus facilitating the implementation of molecular breeding technology. Relevant research results and achievements have been published in well-known international journals including Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Biotech and the Plant Cell. Both academic status and impacts of ICS have been greatly improved along with the enhancement of international cooperation and academic exchange.

As for the future, ICS will focus its international cooperation on continuously expanding new cooperation channels and further improving the existing bilateral or multilateral relationships, thus finally to establish international cooperation system at a more comprehensive level to promote the research and development in crop science.