Recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China announced the review results of the 2020 National Key R&D Program. Three project proposals submitted by the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) were approved for funding, with a total of 38.92 million yuan funded by the Central Government, which achieved IAE’s prior goal of striving for the “13th Five-Year” National Key R&D Program, and laid a solid foundation for the follow-up construction of IAE as a "Feature Institute" of CAS. The three research projects will effectively enhance the scientific and technological innovation capability of the Institute, and will be of great significance for solving major national needs in environmental governance and supporting the construction of the national ecological civilization. 

The approved projects are as follows: 

1. Integrated technology and engineering demonstration for the safe use of heavy metal pollution sites in Old Industrial Bases in Northeast China (PI: Zhu Tong) 

In response to the major needs for the prevention and control of heavy metal pollution in Old Industrial Bases in Northeast China, this project aims for developing pollution remediation materials and equipments, formulating pollution evaluation methods, and conducting large-scale engineering demonstration. The implementation of this project will further consolidate the research foundation for the environmental risk management and treatment of soil pollution in China, develop new methods, new technologies and new models for remediating the polluted sites in Old Industrial Bases in Northeast China, and contribute to the protection of the soil environment and the construction of a beautiful China.  

2. The acclimation mechanism of typical forest plantation ecosystems to global change (PI: Zhu Jiaojun) 

This project aims to solve the key problems of forest plantation ecosystems, e.g., low quality, poor stability, and unsustainable functions, under the background of global change. It will rely on the forest ecosystem field station network of China, clarify the multiple-scale impacts of global change on structure, function and stability of different aged forest plantations; explore the acclimation mechanisms of forest plantation to global change using physiological ecology and nutrient cycling approaches; comprehensive assess the status of plantation ecosystems (e.g., forest quality, stability/vulnerability, acclimation and ecological suitability) to identify the existing problems; simulate and predict the changing trend in quality and stability of forest plantations under different scenarios of global change; formulate countermeasures and plans to improve forest plantation quality and stability in response to global change; and serve the construction of national ecological civilization. 

3. Research and development of atmospheric heavy metal online monitoring system based on gaseous diffusion gathering & separation technology and ICP-MS (PI: Chen Xin) 

In response to the major needs for online monitoring and source-tracing of atmospheric heavy metal pollution, this project will use atmospheric heavy metal gathering technology and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to develop an atmospheric heavy metal online monitoring system and detection technology, and establish a dynamic method for pollution source tracing based on the analysis on atmospheric heavy metal spectrum. The project aims for solving the core technology R&D and equipment bottleneck problems of ICP-MS for real-time online monitoring and detection of atmospheric heavy metals. The implementation of this project will advance the development of atmospheric heavy metal online monitoring and pollution source tracing technology, and will make a strong contribution to the country's innovation capabilities in related science and technology fields. In addition, it will deepen the cooperation between Chinese scientists and Japan's first-class scientific research institutions, and will create new economic growth points for the country.