The 2018 annual conference of the alliance of UNESCO Category 2 Centers in China was held in Suzhou on January29, 2018. The participants discussed the development of category 2 centers in China, the challenges faced by the centers and possible solutions. Liu Chang and Fang Ying from the Secretariat of the International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) attended the meeting upon invitation. Liu Chang reported on the main progress of IKCEST in 2017, explored the common challenges of category 2 centers and offered suggestions on the future work of the centers. She pointed out that IKCEST had made smooth progress and notable achievements in all areas of its work in 2017. However, like other category 2 centers, it also faces such challenges as the lack of independent legal person identity, unstable source of income, complicated administrative restrictions and limited opportunities of exchange with other category 2 centers in China. To address these challenges, she called on the alliance to seek more support for the category 2 centers, strengthen exchanges and communication between category 2 centers in China to build greater synergy, support the building of the information and knowledge sharing platform of the category 2 centers, explore the model of data cooperation and contribute Chinese wisdom to the realization of sustainable development goals.

Following the discussion, the participants reached consensus on 7 aspects such as the meeting mechanism of the alliance, innovation in the model of cooperation of category 2 centers, and the base for the activities of category 2 centers. Liu Chang, the representative of IKCEST, was elected the Deputy Secretary-General of the Alliance of UNESCO Category 2 Centers in the filed of the science service mechanism in China.