On November 25-27, 2014, the annual meeting of the National 973 Project “Basic research on breeding of herbaceous energy plants and synthesis of advanced liquid fuels by chemical catalysis” was held at Xi'an Jiaotong University. This project consists of 6 subprojects. More than 60 scientists include the expert team, leaders of subprojects, academic backbones, etc. of this project attended this meeting.

Prof. Longlong Ma, Chief Scientist of this project, presided over the meeting. Vice president of Xi'an Jiaotong University Prof. Tiejun Wang addressed the meeting.

Leaders of the subprojects reported on their research progresses in 2014. After that, Prof. Longlong Ma concluded the project’s overall progress in this stage.

Consultant expert, academician Xinhe Bao, put forward specific guidance to the overall research frame of this project, and stressed the importance of soil properties. Academician Tianwei Tan fully affirmed the achievements made by this project and also pointed out the existed problems. He emphasized that the cooperation among the subprojects must be closer, and the research object should be more concentrated. Other experts also put forward constructive comments and suggestions. They all extended their best wishes for the future success of the project.

Prof. Longlong Ma thanks for the experts’ valuable advice and made specific arrangement for the work in the following stage. He required each subproject group conduct their work closely around the research task, focus on the target and streamline the research direction. Leaders of the subprojects exchanged their research experiences around the project.

This meeting promoted the cooperation among 6 subprojects of the project and strengthened their association. The meeting also played a guiding role for the project’s further research direction.