Officials from Shanxi University’s collaborative innovation center for R&D on integrated bio-fertilizers for field crops took part in an expert appraisal meeting on Sept 29, 2016. [Photo/sxu.edu.cn]

Shanxi University’s collaborative innovation center for research and development on integrated bio-fertilizers for field crops received the backing of an expert panel from China’s most prominent research institutes and government agencies on Sept 29.

All seven members of the panel, which included experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Northeast Agricultural University and Shanxi Provincial Department of Agriculture, agreed that the center was eligible to apply for national collaborative innovation center status due to the center’s good work facilitating collaboration among experts and technicians from home and abroad and its success in making a string of major findings related to urgent issues facing the country.

During the meeting, Wang Mengliang, the head of the center, presented a report about the center’s development plan to the expert team, who then offered their feedback.

Shanxi University’s collaborative innovation center, stationed in the school’s applied chemistry institute, coordinated researchers from China’s top universities, research institutes and enterprises working in the agriculture industrialization field.

It is aimed at applying micro-organisms and functional molecular screening studies to explore brand new production models, which could potentially lead to increased yields and crop quality through greatly improved soil quality, nutrient levels and metabolism rates.