A founding ceremony for the Rural Revitalization Research Institute of Shanxi University takes place at the university on May 30. [Photo/sxu.edu.cn] 

The Rural Revitalization Research Institute of Shanxi University was established on May 30 at the university in Taiyuan, the capital of North China's Shanxi province. 

It's another high-level scientific research platform for Shanxi University to boost local socioeconomic development. The institute's founding marked a solid step for the university to consolidate its achievements in poverty alleviation and help rural revitalization. 

At the founding meeting, Shanxi University, Shanxi Rural Revitalization Bureau, and Shanxi Radio and Television Station signed a trilateral cooperation agreement to jointly promote the newly established institute and develop it into the first rural revitalization think tank platform in Shanxi that integrates the advantages of the government, the media agency and the research institution. 

Huang Guitian, president of the university, said that the institute would carry out multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research on major issues. These issues include comprehensive rural reform and grassroots governance innovation, rural revitalization and urban-rural integration, agricultural industrialization and featured agricultural development. 

The institute should strengthen scientific research, social services and talent training concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and be committed to creating an example of rural revitalization research in resource-based areas, Huang added. 

Huang Guitian (left), president of the university, gives letters of appointment to the dean and executive dean of the institute at the meeting on May 30. [Photo/sxu.edu.cn]

Huang presented letters of appointment to the dean and executive dean of the institute at the meeting. Qiu Zeqi, the newly appointed dean, issued letters of appointment to eight directors of research centers at the institute. 

According to Ma Hua, executive dean of the institute, the institute has so far formed a core team of more than 50 professors with multidisciplinary backgrounds covering political science, sociology and economics. It has established eight research centers focusing on such themes as industrial and ecological revitalization, rural planning and development, as well as the integrated development of agriculture and tourism. It has also developed a big data system for urban and rural areas. 

After the founding meeting, government officials, entrepreneurs, experts and scholars from other universities and colleges shared opinions about the institute's innovative cooperation mechanisms concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers and its role in advancing rural revitalization. They also put forward suggestions on the development of Shanxi University's new institute.