On December 26, Sichuan University held a work meeting in Mingde Building, Wangjiang Campus to investigate, discuss and plan the development of science disciplines. Present at the meeting were Chairman Jianguo Wang of the university council, President Yanrong Li, Academician Jie Gao, Academician Anmin Li, Executive Vice President Weilin Xu, Vice President Liangyin Chu and heads of relevant departments and colleges of science. Vice President Liangyin Chu presided over the meeting.

At the meeting, Zhong-ming Li, director of the World-Class University Construction Office, reported the current situation and problems in the construction of sciences in the university, and analyzed the situation of SCU sciences in comparison with that in other domestic universities. Weinian Zhang, Dean of the College of Mathematics; Hong Zhang, Dean of the College of Physics; Jinsong You, Dean of the College of Chemistry, and Hongning Wang, Dean of the School of Life Sciences reported the current situation and existing problems of the development of disciplines in their respective colleges. They also talked about plans for the development of disciplines in the next 3-5 years.

Weilin Xu introduced about the overall scheme to promote the development of sciences in the university. He reiterated the university’s guiding principle and development objective: to enhance the core competitiveness of science disciplines. We will enhance our ability to innovate by starting from scratch (i.e., from 0 to 1) and foster seminal research achievements in basic science. Specifically speaking, we need to do things well. The first is to bring up a group of excellent young talents with strong innovation ability; the second is to cultivate a number of new scientific teams and platforms based upon SCU strengths; the third is to substantively improve the international cooperation in scientific research. In order to achieve this objective, the university will adopt three measures. One. The university is to implement the incubation plan of original researches of science and support the colleges of science to carry out original research. Two. The university is to launch the high-end cooperation support program for colleges of science to carry out substantive scientific research cooperation with top international research teams. Third. The university is to carry out the plan to construct a platform of sciences with new characteristics and teams. At the same time, the university will encourage the interdisciplinary integration of sciences and other disciplines, build a national scientific research platform, publish high-level international academic journals, and hold high-level international academic forums, so as to further strengthen the system and mechanism for the development of sciences.

Academician Jie Gao and Academician Anmin Li respectively analyzed the problems in the discipline development and construction of the College of Physics and the College of Mathematics. They also spoke about how to further improve the discipline competitiveness, refine the discipline characteristics of Sichuan University, cultivate and bring in young and high-end talents.

In his speech, Yanrong Li expounded " the importance of the development of sciences in our university ", " the main problems in science disciplines in our university " and " how the university will help the construction of sciences next ". He said that science is the source of basic innovation research and the base for training top innovative talents, which is of great significance to the talent training and knowledge innovation of Sichuan University. With a good foundation and tradition, Sichuan University has a great prestige in terms of science disciplines. The university will amplify its support for the development of science disciplines. First, SCU will budget 100 million RMB for the development of science disciplines in the next five years. Second, SCU is to establish a science and engineering office, which is responsible for planning and coordinating the development of science and engineering. Third, SCU will run three major programs, i.e. the incubation of new creations, the high-end international cooperation support program, and the characteristic cultivation program, providing support for outstanding young talents to devote themselves to academic learning and research in Sichuan University.

In his speech, Jianguo Wang thanked, on behalf of the university, all academicians and faculties of the colleges of science and laid out plans for further development of sciences at SCU. He pointed out that the university would first of all make unremitting efforts doing innovations, and encourage everyone to carry out original research and do a good job in personnel training, especially in the training of top talents. Second, we should do a good job in the introduction and training of high-end talents, the construction of major scientific research platforms, interdisciplinary integration, discipline classification and evaluation. Third, we should strengthen the construction of the leading team of the college, build a leading team which is inclusive, united and dares to take initiative to achieve. Besides, the team ought to pool strengths in promoting the development of sciences. Fourth, all functional departments should strive to provide good service in order to create better conditions for the development of individual colleges. He stressed that 2020 is the year of the fifth round of discipline evaluation by the Ministry of Education as well as the last year of the first phase of the construction of double first-class status. Discipline construction is the top priority of all work at the university. He hoped that everyone would attach great importance to it and make joint efforts to improve the construction of SCU science disciplines.