The 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced yesterday in Beijing outlines breakthrough programs in areas such as particle physics; galactic structure; brain science; artificial intelligence; oceanology; ecology and the environment.

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Released by President Bai Chunli, the plan lays out CAS' goals and strategy for the five-year period ending 2020. CAS is China's driving force for exploring and harnessing high technology and the natural sciences.

"We will strive to achieve international prominence in strategically key fields and blaze the trail in cutting-edge and cross-disciplinary scientific areas, achieving a series of major original achievements, technologies and products," said Bai.

The plan calls for CAS to lead the China's key science and technology projects in fields like aviation, space and deep-sea exploration, quantum communication and computation, brain science and artificial intelligence, cyberspace security, the seed industry, clean energy, big data, intelligent manufacturing and robotics, new-generation materials development and applications, comprehensive environmental treatment and public health research.

CAS will heavily focus on fostering innovation as part of this effort. The five-year plan reveals 60 major science and technology breakthroughs CAS aims to achieve, as well as 80 key projects it will undertake.

Ongoing projects will also be a major focus of the Academy over the five-year period.

These include manned space exploration and lunar probe; high-resolution earth observation; nanotechnology; precision control of protein machinery and life processes; restoration and protection of fragile ecological areas; strategic advanced electronic materials; quantum control and information and deep sea research.

By the end of the five-year period, CAS plans to spend 40 percent of its research budget on basic research; 50 percent on applied research and 10 percent on R&D with the goal of making the Academy a top-ranked, globally influential and competitive research institution.

CAS hopes to attain world class levels in physics, chemistry, material science, mathematics, environment and ecology and geoscience by 2020.

The Academy will bring together resources from across China to build three to five large-scale international cooperative science projects and more national laboratories in support of China's development.

CAS aims to further develop independent intellectual property rights (IPR) and industrial technology standards, as well as practical applications for its S&T output in order to enhance social development.

During this period, CAS plans to establish about 10 overseas research institutions. In addition, it aims to set up five to 10 CAS-TWAS Centers of Excellence as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative.

TagsChinese Academy of Sciences, CAS, 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020), President Bai Chunli