About Chinese Academy of Sciences

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Overview and Mandate

The Chinese Academy of Sciences, known in Chinese as Zhongguo Kexueyuan, is the national academy for the natural sciences of the People's Republic of China and the country's highest consultancy for science and technology. Headquartered at 52 Sanlihe Road in Beijing and operating under the State Council, the academy describes itself as China's highest academic institution and national think tank in science and technology, and as the national strategic force in basic research and integrated high-technology development. Few research organisations anywhere combine its three roles at once: it runs a nationwide network of research institutes, it houses an elected academy of leading scientists organised in academic divisions, and it operates universities that train much of China's research workforce.

As an information institution, the academy is also one of the most important publishers of science news and research information in China. Through its main portal at cas.cn and its English-language service at english.cas.cn, it disseminates research results, institutional news and science policy information to domestic and international audiences. Its scale is exceptional by global standards: official profiles describe more than 100 research institutes, three universities, six academic divisions and leadership of 47 national Large Research Infrastructures, together with a staff of about 71,300 people including roughly 61,700 professional researchers. That combination of research production and public information output is why the academy is profiled here among China's knowledge and information agencies.

Founding and Historical Development

The academy was established on 1 November 1949, only weeks after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It was built on two predecessor bodies: Academia Sinica, founded in 1928 during the Republican era, and the Beiping Academy. In its first phase, from 1949 to 1955, the new academy took over and reorganised existing research institutes on the mainland; the first institutes were inaugurated after a round of consolidations, and by 1955 the number of CAS research institutes had risen to 47. In June 1955 the academy created its Academic Divisions, initially four in number, which supervised research institutes and gave the academy its dual character as both a research operator and a learned society.

Later decades brought repeated reform. With the launch of reform and opening up in the late 1970s, CAS took a leading role in reforming China's science and technology system, encouraging academic openness, scientific collaboration and a multidisciplinary approach. From 1998 through 2010 it implemented the National Knowledge Innovation Program, and in 2014 it launched the Pioneer Initiative, responding to an instruction given by President Xi Jinping during his visit to the academy in 2013. Across these phases the academy remained headquartered in Beijing while its institutes spread across the whole country, organised through regional branches that coordinate work in their areas.

Organisational Structure

CAS integrates three components into a single system: a comprehensive research and development network of institutes, a merit-based academic society in the form of its Academic Divisions, and a system of higher education. Official profiles count more than 100 research institutes — recent English-language profiles give figures of 106 to 108 institutes — supported by 11 regional branches, overseas institutions, field stations, botanical gardens and herbaria. The institutes cover nearly all areas of the natural sciences, from mathematics, physics and chemistry to Earth sciences, life sciences, information technology and technological sciences.

The higher-education arm consists of the University of Science and Technology of China and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, which the academy operates directly, together with ShanghaiTech University, which it supports jointly with the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. Collectively the three universities enrol more than 100,000 undergraduate and graduate students, with doctoral candidates forming a large share of the graduate population. This structure makes CAS simultaneously a research funder and operator, an honours academy and one of China's largest graduate-education providers, a breadth matched by very few institutions worldwide.

Academic Divisions and Membership

The Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, founded in June 1955, form the academy's merit-based component and serve as an advanced national think tank advising the Chinese Government on major science and technology issues. There are six divisions: Mathematics and Physics; Chemistry; Life Sciences and Medicine (described in some profiles as Biological and Medical Sciences); Earth Sciences; Information Technical Sciences; and Technological Sciences. Membership of the academy, whose holders are known as CAS Members or academicians, is the highest academic title in science and technology in China and is a lifelong honour.

Members are elected through a rigorous and limited biennial process. Recent official profiles put the membership at around 888 to 908 CAS Members, together with roughly 169 to 173 Foreign Members drawn from more than 30 countries. Members older than 80 are designated senior members. Under the academy's bylaws, members are expected to advance science and technology, uphold scientific spirit, help develop the scientific workforce, attend member meetings, accept consultation and evaluation tasks, and promote international exchanges and cooperation. Through the divisions, the academy issues strategic advice that shapes national research priorities, which is a central part of its role as an information and advisory agency.

Research System and Major Infrastructure

CAS research covers nearly all fields of the natural sciences, and the academy states that it now ranks among the world leaders in chemistry, physics, materials science, environmental and ecological sciences and Earth sciences, among other disciplines. It is guided by what it calls the Four Strategic Orientations: advancing the frontiers of global science and technology, serving the main battlefield of the national economy, meeting the major needs of the nation, and safeguarding the health and well-being of the people. These orientations frame how institutes set programmes and how results are communicated to government and the public.

A distinctive part of the system is its large research infrastructure. CAS leads the development and operation of 47 national Large Research Infrastructures, which together account for more than half of the national total; official profiles note that 29 were already in service and 18 more under construction in recent counts. The academy also maintains hundreds of field stations, botanical gardens and herbaria that generate long-term observational data. Historically, CAS institutes have also spun off hundreds of commercial enterprises, of which the computer company Lenovo is the most famous example, linking the academy's research information to industrial application.

Research Output and Publications

The academy's research output is among the largest of any single institution in the world. CAS has topped the Nature Index global ranking for high-quality natural-science research output for well over a decade — official profiles cite 13 to 14 consecutive years at the top, depending on the profile date — and it ranked first in the 2025 SCImago Institutions Rankings. Its institutes publish across the full range of international journals, while the academy itself coordinates national science communication through its websites, press releases and English-language news services.

For readers and researchers, the practical information channels are cas.cn in Chinese and english.cas.cn in English, which carry institute news, research highlights, membership announcements and policy-related material. The Academic Divisions publish strategic studies and consultation reports, and individual institutes issue their own journals, data products and annual reports. Because so much of China's basic-research information flows through CAS channels first, the academy functions in practice as a primary source agency for Chinese science news, and international media routinely treat its releases as the authoritative record of Chinese research developments.

Education and Talent Development

Education is a formal part of the academy's mission rather than an adjunct to it. The University of Science and Technology of China, founded under CAS auspices, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences together enrol nearly 10,000 undergraduate students and more than 98,000 graduate students in recent official counts, with doctoral candidates comprising approximately 45 percent of the graduate population. ShanghaiTech University, jointly supported with Shanghai, adds a third campus with a strong research orientation. Graduate training is delivered largely inside CAS research institutes, so students work directly within the laboratories and field stations that produce the academy's research.

This training pipeline sustains the wider Chinese research system: CAS graduates staff universities, government laboratories and technology companies across the country. The academy reports about 71,300 staff in total, including some 33,300 research professors and associate professors, making it the world's largest research organisation by several measures. Its membership honours, institute network and universities together give it an unmatched role in setting standards for Chinese scientific careers and in certifying expertise, which in turn underpins the authority of the information it publishes.

International Cooperation

CAS maintains an extensive international presence, including overseas institutions and partnerships with academies, universities and research funders in many countries. Its roughly 170 Foreign Members, elected from more than 30 countries for their contributions to science and to scientific progress in China, form a standing channel of international advice. The academy participates in global research infrastructures, joint laboratories and bilateral academy-to-academy agreements, and its English-language publishing is designed to make Chinese research results accessible to foreign scientists, journalists and policymakers.

International cooperation also shapes the academy's information role at home: joint programmes bring foreign research news into China, while CAS delegations and publications carry Chinese results abroad. Because the academy is a State Council institution, its international agreements often carry a governmental as well as a scientific character, and its strategic studies are read by foreign governments as signals of Chinese research direction. This dual scientific and representational role distinguishes CAS from a conventional university or research council in most other countries.

Leadership and Governance

The academy is governed by a presidium drawn from its membership, and its day-to-day leadership is headed by a president; reference sources list Hou Jianguo as president, with vice-presidents including Wu Zhaohui in recent listings. The academy's budget, reported at about 171 billion yuan for 2023 in reference sources, reflects its position as a directly funded national institution under the State Council. Its parent body is the State Council of China, and its founder is recorded as the Government Administration Council of the Central People's Government, the predecessor of the State Council.

Governance combines administrative direction of the institute network with the self-governing traditions of a learned academy: the Academic Divisions elect members and organise consultation independently of the institute management structure, while the headquarters coordinates strategy, infrastructure and education. For anyone using CAS as an information source, this structure matters because it explains the academy's two voices — the institutional voice of a national research operator announcing results, and the collegial voice of its divisions issuing considered advice on the direction of Chinese science as a whole.

Role as a Knowledge and Information Institution

Profiled as an information agency, the Chinese Academy of Sciences occupies a unique position: it does not merely report on Chinese science, it produces a large share of it and certifies the people who do the rest. Its websites function as wire services for research news, its divisions function as a national science advisory board, and its universities function as the training ground for the next generation of researchers. Government ministries, universities, companies and media organisations in China and abroad rely on CAS channels as a first source for verified scientific information.

That centrality also carries responsibility. Because CAS announcements are treated as authoritative, the academy maintains formal structures for research communication, from institute press offices to the English-language newsroom behind english.cas.cn. For the WorldNM directory, CAS is therefore listed not as a conventional news outlet but as a national knowledge institution whose publications, data infrastructures and advisory reports form a core part of China's scientific information system, headquartered in Beijing and active in every province of the country.