On January 20, 2021, the Green Fertilizer Engineering Laboratory (GFEL) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) held the second academic committee meeting through a video conference. Chen Wenfu, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chairman of GFEL academic committee, Prof. Liu Zhaohui, vice chairman of the academic committee, other members of the committee (Prof. Sun Zhanxiang, Prof. Wang Lichun, Prof. Zhang Min, Prof. Zhou Wei, Prof. Zeng Xibai, Prof. Han Xiaori, Prof. Yu Lihong, and senior engineer Li Yonghua), Liu Li, deputy head of S&T Division of the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of CAS, as well as the researchers and graduate students from GFEL attended the meeting, which was chaired by Prof. Wu Zhijie, director of GFEL. 

At the beginning of the meeting, Liu Li, on behalf of IAE, reviewed the preparation process of the laboratory and expressed thanks to academic committee members. Wei Zhanbo, deputy director of GFEL, made an annual work report. In response to the common problems in the fields of agriculture and fertilizer industry as well as the new needs for developing green fertilizers, the GFEL has been engaging in the development of new materials, new products, key technics for production, personnel training and industrialization of green fertilizers, and has achieved good outcomes in 2020. 

Chen Wenfu fully affirmed GFEL's work in 2020 and put forward specific suggestions for GFEL's future work. The other members of the committee praised the achievements of GFEL in new material innovation, product development, technic updates and industrialization, and put forward their opinions and suggestions on GFEL's research direction, teamwork and future development. The researchers at GFEL were suggested to 1) focus on basic research and long-term development; 2) strengthen research on supporting production technics; 3) strengthen the engineering integration of various technologies; 4) strengthen international cooperation and optimize the strategic layout; and 5) strengthen talent training and research base construction to build GFEL into a national-level fertilizer R&D platform and a world-class fertilizer technology incubator and export training base. 

Wu Zhijie made a concluding speech at the end of the meeting. He expressed gratitude to members of the academic committee for their strong support to GFEL. According to their suggestions, the updated work arrangements were made as follows: 1) strengthen basic research with emphasis on the exploration of scientific mechanisms; 2) carry out fertilizer research with the consideration of regional adaptability; 3) enhance the application of new products and new technologies in different regions; and 4) implement the individual accountability system for research project management.