On January 8-9, the project "Catalytic Science of Carbon-based Energy Conversion and Utilization" under NSFC Major Research Plan initiation meeting was held in DICP, Dalian. The expert group, leader group, and management group members of the NSFC Major Research Plan, 2015 winners for five major funding support projects and 31 nurture projects, and the leaders from Department of Chemistry of NSFC attended the meeting.

Oriented to national strategic need of optimal utilization of carbon resources, the project "Catalytic Science of Carbon-based Energy Conversion and Utilization" will focus on the key scientific issues related to catalysis and surface and interface chemistry, and promote the fundamental research and application development for important process of carbon chemical bonding activation and catalysis, efficient conversion of synthesis gas, and electro-catalytic conversion of carbon-based small molecules. The establishment of this research project has important significance for better promoting industrial revolution on carbon-based energy, creating a high level and reasonable research team, obtaining outstanding young talents in theoretical and experimental scientific research, and further enhancing China’s international reputation in this field. The iChEM researcher, Prof. Xinhe Bao is the expert group leader for this project, and two out of 7 expert group members are iChEM researchers.