The inaugural meeting of the global engineering frontiers (agricultural field) was held at China Agricultural University on February 5, 2021. The project is led by CAE Member Zhang Fusuo. The meeting was organised for coordination of relevant disciplines, including crop science, resource ecology, forestry, aquatic products, animal science, plant protection, agricultural engineering and agricultural biological engineering. CAE Members in these disciplines have taken the lead in setting up strategic expert groups. Expert groups have been set up in each discipline, with the contact persons coordinating experts in library and information studies, strategy and relevant disciplines to drive the project.

Experts in library and information studies nominated a total of 168 articles of frontiers in the agricultural field. The project team welcomed experts’ nominations both online and offline, and collected 12 articles on research and development of frontiers in the agricultural field. After several expert seminars, 28 articles on engineering research, 28 on engineering development and 3 on engineering achievements were selected and submitted to the CAE. Ten articles each on research and development and one on engineering achievement were tentatively selected as candidates by the General Assembly of the Academic Division of Agriculture.