On July 9-10, 2010, ESPREheld the discussion on the summarization of the newly finished appraisal andwork plan for the next five yearsin Miyun County at which 53 persons were present.

On the afternoon of July 9, ESPRE director, Prof. Shi Peijun summarized the appraisal and encapsulated ESPRE operation in the past five years from the following six aspects: the input and output, talent team construction, international academic exchange, equipment capacity construction, research breakthroughs, and innovative teams, pointing out that ESPRE had achieved some fruitful results in the past five years and passed the appraisal by Ministry of Science and Technology, yet there were still three points worthy of notice: (1) Despite the chair of high level projects and training of high-level talents, ESPRE should stepped up the introduction and cultivation of high-level talents, improve the quality and quantity of research papers, and reverse the downward trend in the number of research output. (2) ESPRE should continue to concentrate on institutional improvement. (3)ESPRE should pay more attention on the construction offield bases.

 

After the summarization, ESPRE held an award ceremony at which individual staff and teams that had made prominent contributions to the 2010 Appraisal of State Key Laboratories in the field of geosciences were given the Special Merit Awards. Ten teachers received the award for individual brilliance, including Liu Baoyuan, Wang Jing’ai, Pan Yaozhong, Jiang Yuan, Zhang Dayong, Lin Kui, Li Xiaoyan, Yu Deyong, Huang Chognfu, and ESPRE administration Center (as a collective body) while the award for team excellence went to four teams which were the Soil Erosion Mechanism and Model, the Mechanisms of Biodiversity Maintenance and Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Relationship, as well as Land Use/Cover Change and Its Impact on Ecosystem  plus Research on Bohai Sea Ice Resource Reservation Based on Low Temperature Process.

 

On July 10, ten research teams of ESPRE mapped out work plans for the next five years on the themes of key scientific research projects, high-level output, talent team construction, international status, and student training. The teams were respectively research tems on soil erosion, mechanism and engineering of desertification and blown-sand control, sea ice exploitation and utilization, biodiversity mechanism, landscape ecology, man-earth system dynamics, quantitative remote sensing for land surface parameters, earth system model, integrated risk management, and land use. To help the teams with better positioning of their research in the next five years, ESPRE director, Prof. Shi Peijun illustrated the overall positioning of ESPRE and the four major research themes. He pointed out that ESPRE research should mainly focus on four aspects, namely, the machanism of earth surface processes, ecological theories and methods on optimum utilization of renewable resources, and finally build regional sustainable development paradigms (integrated risk governance paradigms and ecology-production paradigms).

 

Listening to the reports by different teams, attendees put forward advices and suggestions, mainly concentrated on such aspects as the integration and specify of research themes, teamwork and cooperation, preparatory work before the submission of research breakthroughs, administration of scientific research, etc. The session also discussed the draft of ESPRE administrative system. The advices and suggestions drawn from the discussion would help futher improving the administrative regulations of ESPRE.

 

Finally, ESPRE Director, Prof. Shi Peijun pointed out that the teams should fulfill the commitment of “five outputs” including: advanced projects, high quality output (research paper, cultivation of students, and social services), high-level talents (training of teachers, introduction of talents), high reward, and outstanding graduates. To realize the goals, ESPRE would provide “five inputs” to support equipment, instruments, projects, field bases, and team construction.

 

By reviewing the past experience and looking forward to future development, the discussion timely analyzed and indentified shortcomings and challenges in the past, and provided advices and suggestions on the work plan for the next five years, it was of great importance to the construction of ESPRE.