The Ministry of Education recently approved some 24 universities' plans for international cooperative labs and Yunnan University's project – the Yunnan Biological Evolution Events and Palaeoenvironment International Cooperation Joint Laboratory – is on the list. It will be the first of its kind in the province. 

China has rich paleontological fossil resources and in recent years paleontology has more and more become a spotlight for China's basic sciences internationally. Since the 1990s, the Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology has continually formed steady cooperative relations with its international counterparts which now have become its joint laboratory partners.

As their cooperation progresses, so does the need for an internationally coordinated platform in southwestern China to push the development of the paleontology discipline and talent cultivation in the region.

By integrating and optimizing Yunnan's fossil resources with research and education centers around the world, the Joint Laboratory will tighten the bonds between the Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology and its international partners, providing a platform for forging an outstanding international paleontology research team. The team may be expected to excel in newly-developing and cross disciplines such as micro computed tomography, Chengjiang fossil three-dimensional imaging and paleo neurobiology.