CAS launches initiatives for frontier breakthroughs

The Chinese Academy of Sciences plans to advance more than 10 extreme frontier projects and achieve international leadership in each field by 2030, the academy said at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

The announcement came as the CAS launched its science frontier extreme breakthrough program, a landmark initiative aligned with China's national emphasis on basic research and designed to support original and leading breakthroughs in major frontier scientific questions and core technologies.

Extreme frontier projects refer to research extending toward the extreme macroscale, extreme microscale, extreme conditions and interdisciplinary convergence.

The first batch of 10 projects was unveiled at the conference, focusing on challenges such as the synthesis of new elements and the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

The program aims to provide sustained and stable support for the projects and promote breakthroughs in frontier research.

Zhou Qi, deputy head of the CAS, said fundamental research has been central to the academy's mission since its establishment. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), the CAS recognized that human scientific and technological development had reached a new cognitive threshold, opening unprecedented possibilities to expand the boundaries of human knowledge.

Zhou said that in the era of big science, research paradigms are shifting from experiment — and theory-driven approaches toward facility-enabled and data-driven research, while organizational models are evolving from isolated, single-point exploration toward collaborative, cross-disciplinary platforms.

"The program is not a routine arrangement of research tasks, but an organized scientific expedition," Zhou said, adding that it builds on years of institutional reform and represents a culmination of the academy's efforts.

Wei Zhixiang, director-general of the CAS Bureau of Basic Science Research, said the program will leverage the CAS' major scientific facilities and comprehensive disciplinary strengths to focus on key areas of national strategic importance.

The CAS operates and oversees construction of more than half of China's major scientific facilities — 43 of 77 nationwide — providing world-class platforms for frontier exploration, Wei said. These facilities have supported more than 80,000 user projects over the past decade, with 350,000 hours of facility time allocated in 2025 alone.

A dedicated approval system will be established to ensure priority access to major scientific facilities for the projects, Wei said.

limenghan@chinadaily.com.cn