Attendees of the meeting pose for a photograph. [Photo/ynu.edu.cn]

A meeting was held to conclude the work of the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) conducted by a team led by Professor Liu Xiaowei, who works at the Southwest Institute of Astronomy at Yunnan University (YNU), in Beijing, from May 19 to 22.

During the meeting, leaders of the five research groups delivered reports on their work covering the period since the program was initially implemented five years ago. 

A special meeting involving experts in the field of astronomy was also arranged. The experts all gave positive feedback about the program. 

According to the research team, more than 120 papers had been published by the end of May.

The program is scheduled to conclude in August. 

Attendees of the meeting included Xue Suijian, vice-director of the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC); consultant experts for the 973 Program Huang Cheng, Cai Xu and Zhang Xinming from the Ministry of Science and Technology, and other members of the research team.