Guangzhou Branch, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS ) was established in December, 1958, after a preparation period began in 1956. Then, it was merged, together with Wuhan Branch, into Central-south China Branch of the CAS. However, Guangzhou Branch was reestablished in May 1978, after the dismissal of Central-South China Branch in 1969.
Guangzhou Branch is an agency of the headquarter of CAS. It is in charge of linking institutions of the CAS in Guangdong Province, i.e., South China Sea Institute of Oceanography, South China Botanical Garden, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, Guangzhou Chemistry Co. Limited, as well as Guangzhou Electronic Technology Co. Limited, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture in Hunan Province , and Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering in Hainan Province.
Besides, 3 unincorporated units are also affiliated to the Branch, namely, Guangzhou CAS Institute of Industrial Technology, CAS Innovation and Culture Centre for Cloud Computing Industry Technology, and Foshan CAS Institute of Industry Technology. And, 4 National major S&T infrastructure projects, e.g., China Spallation Neutron Source Project and Jiangmen Neutrinos Experiment Project, are under construction or preparation.
By the end of 2015, Guangzhou Branch had a total staff of 4657. Of the total , 3479 are scientists and technicians, including 1 CAS Academician, 3 CAE Academicians, 1 Foreign Academician of Russian Academy of Sciences, 4 Academicians of International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, 484 with professor-level titles and 677 with associate professor–level titles. Among them, 667 are with phD degree and 1441 are with master degree.
There are 31 key laboratories at various levels in the Branch, including 4 state key laboratories(1 of them is of a cooperation project),4 state engineering laboratories (2 of them are of cooperation projects) ,13 CAS key laboratories, 2 CAS regional center for large scale instruments, 14 province key laboratories and 2 province engineering laboratories. In addition, 8 State key field research stations, 4 oceanographic investigation vessels, as well as 13 popular science education bases of various characteristics at above-province-ministry levels are managed by the Branch.
38 PhD training points, 55 master training points, 20 professional master training points, 8 post-doctoralstudy centers and 2 post-doctoral research workstations are distributed in the Branch. There were 2373 post-graduates studying here in 2015.
During the period 2006-2015, scientists in Guangzhou Branch won 1 first-class as well as 2 second-class National Natural Science Prizes, 4 second-class National S&T Advance Prizes, 1 second-class National Technology Invention Prize, 31 first-class Provincial S&T Prizes and 6 National Excellent Patent Prize.
A number of long-term and stable S&T cooperation agreements were signed between the Branch and 30 local governments and S&T departments in Guangdong and Hainan Provinces, as well as in Guangxi Autonomous Region. Moreover, a number of industry innovation and culture centers have been setup in cities of Foshan, Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen, and other 8 technology transfer centers are distributed in eastern, western and northern areas in Guangdong Province. Since 2009, an Overall Strategy Cooperation Program between CAS and Guangdong Province has been implemented. As a result, 6073 coop projects were finished during the period 2009-2015, resulting in a newly increased production value of ￥296,090 million，and newly increased profit and tax ￥32,200 million.
