On the morning of June 17, The HENU Academic Forum on Life Sciences & Inaugural Ceremony of New Crops was held in Kaifeng, Henan. The meeting was attended by leaders of the Department of Science and Technology of Henan Province, leaders of Henan University (HENU), and experts and scholars from more than 10 units including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as heads from relevant functional departments, colleges and laboratories.

Suojiang Zhang, president of HENU and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, expressed his hope that New Crops would attract more outstanding young editors at home and abroad and offer more high-quality articles to be more influential.

Qian Qian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that New Crops shall show its own characteristics and have a higher pursuit, with a focus on national food security and technological innovation in the seed industry, trying to be a first-class journal in the near future.

Weigang Xu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believed that the establishment of New Crops would provide a new platform for academic exchange for researchers in crop science around the world, and become an important platform for attracting talents.

Gang Pan, deputy director of the Department of Science and Technology of Henan Province, hoped that New Crops would carry forward the spirit of scientists, offer high-quality articles, and keep pace with the latest development of life agriculture technology, striving to become an international first-class scientific and technological journal in the near future.

Yonggang Wang, vice minister of Henan Association for Science and Technology, wished that New Crops could adhere to its academic and international positioning and show its own characteristics to become a flagship journal that is influential in the world.

Chunpeng Song, director of the State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Adaptation and Improvement and editor-in-chief of New Crops, expressed his gratitude to all leaders, experts, and KeAi Group for their support to the establishment of the journal. He promised that he would work with the editorial board to build New Crops into a respectable international first-class journal in the near future.

Guangliang Li, general manager of KeAi, said that HENU had a long history and showed strong strength, with key disciplines, key laboratories and a first-class editorial group. He believed that the journal New Crops would have a bright future through the joint efforts of both parties.

At the appointment ceremony, Zhen Tan, vice president of HENU, presented the appointment certificates to Academician Weigang Xu, Academician Qian Qian, honorary editor-in-chief of New Crops, and Chunpeng Song, the editor-in-chief of the journal. Chunpeng Song, the editor-in-chief of the journal, issued the appointment certificates to the deputy editors.

Subsequently, Weigang Xu, Gang Pan, Yonggang Wang, Guangliang Li, Chunpeng Song, Zhen Tan, Shenglei Fu, Lixin Zhang, and Yuchen Miao jointly announced the official launch of New Crops.

After the launch ceremony, the first meeting of the editorial board of New Crops in 2023 was held, which was attended by the honorary editor-in-chief Weigang Xu, the editor-in-chief Chunpeng Song and other editorial board members. At the meeting, Professor Zhubing Hu and Huan Guo, a publisher of KeAi Group, made reports respectively. After that, members of the editorial board put forward opinions on journal development planning, editorial team optimization, journal publicity and promotion, and journal manuscripts.

In the afternoon, members of the editorial board of New Crops, including Academician Weigang Xu, Researcher Fei Lu, Researcher Yongrui Wu, Professor Jihua Tang, Researcher Kejian Wang and Professor Guohua Xu, made academic reports related to cutting-edge crop science.