Founded in 1933, the International Scientific Centre of Fertilizers (i.e. Centre International des Engrais Chimiques, CIEC) is the oldest non-profit international scientific association in the field of fertilizers.

From September 4 to 8, 2019, the 26th CIEC Symposium themed "Impact of anticipating research in the past on research in the future” was being held in Braunschweig, Germany. The symposium, sponsored by CIEC, was jointly organized by the German Federal Agricultural Research Center and the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

At the conference, the president of CIEC, Mr. Ewald Schnug, announced that the CIEC headquarter will be moved from Germany to China and will be affiliated with IAE from then on. Also, Prof. JI Lanzhu, researcher of IAE, party secretary and vice president of the CAS Shenyang Branch will be the new (the sixth) president of CIEC. Afterwards, Mr. Ewald Schnug passed a golden key, symbol of supreme honor of CIEC, and a certificate of appointment to Prof. JI.

Since its founding in 1933, this is the first time that CIEC has been chaired by an Asian. It indicates that China has become the new center of international scientific research of fertilizers, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been at the forefront in this field and will play a leading role in the future fertilizer research.