Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences signed two cooperation agreements under the framework of the List of the first China-Central Asia Summit Outcomes this week in Xi'an at the Summit.

The Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) Program has stepped into the second phase which will last for another 10 years, according to a cooperative agreement signed on May 11 in Paris. In its new phase, the program will beef up efforts to mobilize science for the reduction of all types of disaster risk, and to build resilience and reduce vulnerability by integrating risk science with climate change adaptation and mitigation, and sustainable development.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has launched an Open Innovation initiative to create a better ecosystem for international collaboration, according to the Kick-Off Meeting of Pilot Program for Open Innovation (PPOI) held on May 6th. The first pilot program will be based in the city of Hefei, Anhui Province, with Nuclear Fusion Energy Research as its focus.

The International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (CBAS) held a side event to the eighth annual Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals ("STI forum") on May 2nd, 2023, in support of sustainable development in the post-epidemic era with big earth data at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Held in Beijing from April 26 to 28, the 13th China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC) placed its focus on promoting the high-quality construction, application, and development of China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS).

The English monograph Remote Sensing of Urban Green Space, authored by Prof. MENG Qingyan from the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was published by Springer Nature Group.This book presents a systematic study of urban green space remote sensing from multi-dimensional and multi-scale technologies.

Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), made a breakthrough with new plasma development of 403 seconds on April 12, breaking its own record made of 101 seconds in 2017. It marked an important milestone in fusion energy research and brought us one step closer to developing a clean, sustainable source of power for the future.

Dr. LIU Chenli of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences was awarded the Agilent Thought Leader Award on April 3, 2023, for his pioneering studies on synthetic biology and specifically research to develop a synthetic cell capable of reproducing by coordinating individual cell properties utilizing a bottom-up approach to understand biological circuits.

Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on March 17 with the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute of Laos (NAFRI), to further collaborate on mountain futures and mountain agriculture science and technology development. KIB will further leverage the technical expertise of its experienced staff in highland agriculture and sustainable mountain development to collaborate closely with NAFRI on the "Mountain Futures Action Plan" under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Gumarontinib, an oral highly selective mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) inhibitor and a Category 1 innovative new chemical drug, for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with MET exon 14 skipping mutation got conditionally approval on March 8, 2023, by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China.

A light loss assessment report was released by the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) to measure the scale of devastation of the cities in Türkiye hit by major earthquakes on 6 February 2022. The night-time light imagery collected by SDGSAT-1 and other satellites were adopted for the assessment.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has stressed the efforts towards self-reliance in science and technology, adding that international cooperation and sharing are needed "more than ever." Xi made the remarks when attending the third group study session of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee on Tuesday afternoon. The session was focused on boosting basic research.