On January 19, 2022, the research team of the National Key R&D Program, the Research on Key Techniques and Small Equipment for Environmental Remediation of Frozen Soil with Freeze-thaw Cycles in villages and township communities organized a symposium to evaluate its research outcomes in Shenyang. The Key R&D Program is being jointly undertaken by the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing University and the Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment of the Ministry of Water Resources. The symposium was held online and offline at IAE.

The project evaluation expert team was composed of five experts from Dalian University of Technology, Nankai University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Northeastern University and Shenyang Aerospace University. Professor Quan Xie of Dalian University of Technology served as the team leader of the expert team. More than 20 people, including Professor Guo Jinsong, chief scientist of the program, Professor Gong Zongqiang, leader of the program, and key members of the program attended the symposium.

The program and its sub-projects have been implemented in strict accordance with the program management plan, and all its research tasks and research objectives have been fully completed. A total of 13 high-efficiency microbial strains suitable for the remediation of heavy metal- and antibiotic-polluted soil in low temperature environments were screened, and 3 new remediation techniques for contaminated soil were developed.

At present, an integrated soil remediation system that is tailor-made for frozen soil with freeze-thaw cycles has been established, and one municipal-level "Technical Regulation for Environmental Remediation of Livestock and Poultry Manure Contaminated Soil in Villages and Township Communities" (DB2111/T 0020-2022) has been published in Panjin City, three core demonstration bases were established in Anshan and Panjin, a total of 7.2 mu of contaminated soil and more than 2 hectares of polluted water bodies have been remedied, and a total of 18 academic papers have been published. The researchers have applied for 16 patents, among which, two patents have been authorized.

The expert team fully affirmed that the whole program has a high degree of completion in terms of the project acceptance criteria, and the environmental remediation techniques generated and used in the program has good application prospects. The expert team then put forward constructive opinions and suggestions on the final evaluation and acceptance of the program.

Finally, Professor GUO Jinsong, the chief scientist of the program, made a concluding speech, emphasizing the need to focus on project acceptance criteria and highlight innovation of the research to ensure the smooth completion of all goals and tasks of the program.