On December 5, a discussion meeting on the construction plan of " Deep-time Digital Earth Frontier Science Center" (hereinafter referred to as "Center") was convened by experts from the Ministry of Education. The meeting was held through a combination of online and offline.

Mr. Lei Zhaozi, Director General of the Department of Science, Technology and Information Technology of Ministry of Education attended the meeting and delivered a speech. The panel of 11 experts for the Ministry of Education consists of Academician Hou Zengqian of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Deputy Director of the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Academician Chen Jun of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor of Nanjing University; Academician Wu Lixin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Vice President of Ocean University of China; Lv Qingtian, Vice president of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences; Chen Renyi, Director of the Institute of Mineral Resources of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences; Prof. Feng Zhiqiang, Executive Vice President of Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Sinopec; Prof. Hou Mingcai, Vice President of Chengdu University of Technology; Prof. Zhang Lifei, Dean of School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University; Prof. Wang Yuejun, Dean of School of Earth Sciences and Geological Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University; Prof. Zhang Shuichang, Distinguished Chief Expert of Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Petrochina; Prof. Zhao Yixin, President of the Institute of Science and Technology, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), with Academician Hou Zengqian as the panel leader.

More than 20 has attended the meeting, which includes Academician Sun Youhong of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of CUGB; Academician Wang Chengshan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Academician Cheng Qiuming of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chief Scientist and Director of the Center; Academician Zhou Chenghu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Center; Academician Deng Jun of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Prof. Liu Dameng, Vice President of CUGB, as well as heads of relevant departments of the University and heads of the research direction of the Center, the deans of relevant colleges.

Lei Zhaizi pointed out in his speech that the Frontier Science Center is the most important platform and carrier for the Ministry of Education to strengthen organized scientific research and build a national strategic scientific and technological force. He stressed that expert argumentation should be problem-oriented, focusing on major strategic needs of the country.  Argumentation should be carried out centering on issues of necessity, feasibility and prosperity of the center as well as full implementation of office space, target and task, staffing and facility. Lei hopes that the university, guided by the spirit of the Party's Twenty Great principles, will support the Center to focus on major frontier scientific issues by organizing interdisciplinary teams, adhere to, accumulating and tackling key problems in a long term. He also hoped that an advantage can be further formed in CUGB on the basis of "Double First-class" construction so as to deliver continuously major originality, leading outcome, and fulfill conscientiously the mission of high-level earth system science research.

Sun Youhong introduced the construction progress of the center. He said that as a national "double first-class" construction university, CUGB has two first-class disciplines, namely "Geology" and "Geological resources and geological engineering", and undertakes the important task of basic research on frontier scientific issues in the field of earth science. The Center gives full play to the university's advantages in Deep-time Earth system science research. Combined with the Deep-time Digital Earth International Grand Science Program led by Academician Wang Chengshan and Academician Cheng Qiuming, the center focuses its researches on the history of earth evolution, and other major frontier scientific issues such as life-environment-matter co-evolution and extreme geological events on deep-time Earth, as well as promotion of basic researches and applied basic researches and is striving to achieve major breakthroughs in basic research. The University will fully support the construction of the Center, by providing interdisciplinary strength and superior innovation resources, and striving to build the center into a world-class scientific research platform in the field of earth sciences as well as a model for strengthening organized scientific research and a model for implementing scientific and technological self-reliance.

Cheng Qiuming reported the construction plan of the center to the panel of experts in detail from the aspects of the center's construction background, construction foundation and advantages, research direction and contents, organizational structure and operation management, and expected results. 

The experts attended listened carefully to the report of the center's construction plan and early stage progress, and had a full discussion on the research direction, construction planning, facility support, talent introduction and other aspects. On the meeting, the panel decided that the center met the relevant requirements of the construction of Frontier Science Center of the Ministry of Education, and unanimously agreed and approved the construction plan of "Deep Time Digital Earth Frontier Science Center".