This session of meeting was organized for the purpose of pinpointing the positioning, reponsibilites of major posts and targets in the new work phase in line with work arrangement of the Party Organization of CAS on May 13. More than 70 IPSers including the leadership, PIs, associate research and chiefs of all administrative departments and staffs of DC.

JIANG Lubin, Deputy Director of the Institut, led all participants in the meeting to review the work report of HOU Jianguo, President of CAS, at the 2022 Annual Work Conference, and re-emphasized the situation and overall requirements for the Institut, as well as the key tasks in scientific and technological innovation. He pointed out that we should focus on the four requirements of "strengthening the foundation, working on the scientific research, recruiting talents and promoting reform" put forward by the Party Organization, closely combining the strength of IPS renowned for its international cooperation and for the disciplinary advantages in terms of infectious diseases, and urgently accelerating efforts for the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), seizing the opportunity of restructuring the State Key Laboratory, strengthening the construction of a elite talent team and promoting the development of scientific and technological innovation.

The participants discussed and made constructive suggestions on the Institut in this stage in terms of disciplinary directions, talent pool and support platform construction targeted to the current problems. Some foreign researchers proposed to strengthen international cooperation in terms of increasing support for short-term visiting scholar programmes, joint funding programmes, resuming more exchanges and mutual visits with foreign institutions and alliances, and leveraging the role of Pasteur International Network, ANSO and other organisations in international cooperation. Some Chinese PIs suggested that the Institut should focus on basic and applied research related to infectious diseases, adhering to the strategic layout in the research of pathogen, and series technologies and products of immunity and disease control and prevention, and step up the enrichment of the talents recruitment in related disciplines. The participants also put forward constructive comments and suggestions in the context of the restructuring of the State Key Labs, platform construction and operation, and optimisation of management and services.

ZHANG Fan, Secretary for Discipline Inspection, expressed her gratitude to the participants for their positive suggestions in her speech. She pointed out that in the process of promoting reform and development, the Institut would collect the opinions and suggestions of all researchers in various forms, and encouraged each IPSer to figure out and carry out possible work plans and measures by taking initative to make IPS a better research hub and make concerted efforts for the development of the Institut.

SI Shengli, Secretary of CPC and Deputy Director of the Institut, affirmed the effectiveness of the meeting in his speech. He said that this meeting was essential to raise awareness of each IPSer to rethink and shine light on the main responsibilities and role of IPS to carry out requirements of CAS on 4-Orientations and the like. He emphasized that the positioning and main responsibility of IPS is "to provide high-quality scientific and technological research for supporting control and prevention for infectious disease", which all staffs should keep in mind, and deeply understand the requirements of the Party Organization of CAS to the the development for IPS, and continue to revise the 14th Five-Year Plan of IPS (2021-2025). "The Institut should take into account the disciplinary characteristics of infectious disease research, think deeply and give full play to the advantages of Sino-French cooperation, and actively promote the reconstruction of the National Key Laboratories of the Institut’s part; pay full attention to the development of the talent team, enhance output and the ability to win over more major projects. With the support of all the staff, the Institut will strengthen communication with all walks of lives to seek more opportunities for better development of the Institut and to create an orderly and harmonious research atmosphere. He also expressed his gratitude to the staff and postgraduate students for their understanding and support of the Institut's epidemic prevention arrangements during citywide lockdown, and his condolences to IPSers who are working on the front line and holding on to their research positions. In the end, ZHANG Xiaoming, the member of Institut Council and principal investigator, shared details and called for registration for a major research project. 

This meeting was bilingually host by LIU Dongping, the member of the Institut’s Council and the chief of Division of Science & Technology Development and Cooperation (DC).