The Collaborative Innovation Center of Production and Safety, Henan Province (hereinafter referred to as the "Center") is the sole provincial-level collaborative innovation center in the field of food in Henan. With Zhengzhou University of Light Industry as the initiator, and 17 organizations, including the Food Safety Commission Office of the People's Government of Henan Province, Jiangnan University, Henan University of Technology, Henan Agricultural University, Henan Food Industry Science Research Institute Co., Ltd., Sanquan Food Co., Ltd., Henan Zhongpin Food Co., Ltd., and Haoxiangni Health Food Co., Ltd. as collaborators, the Center was established in June 2012 and accredited as a provincial-level collaborative innovation center in June 2015. As an "unincorporated" entity, the Center implements the director responsibility system under the leadership of the council, and operates in accordance with the organizational system of the "council → director of the Center → innovation platform → innovation team".

Since its provincial-level accreditation in 2015, through seven years of dedicated construction, the Center has excelled in terms of the reform of systems and mechanisms, scientific and technological innovation, support for discipline construction, convergence of innovative resources, talent cultivation, and services for regional socio-economic development.

[I]The reform of systems and mechanisms has been steadily advanced. The Center has been conducting constant exploration and innovation in the task-oriented leadership, resource sharing, talent convergence, incentive drive, management innovation, performance assessment, talent training, and talent cultivation, amongst others. It enforces the scientific research assessment and evaluation mechanism featuring "contribution orientation, performance evaluation, and mutual recognition of results" and the scientific research organization and management mechanism featuring "guidance by demands, collaborative research, and industrial demonstration". On this basis, a collaborative research mode distinguished by the collaborative research modes of "fundamental research - technology R&D - industrial demonstration" and "industry demands - organization by the Center - collaborative research - promotion and demonstration" has taken shape.

[II]Scientific and technological innovation has achieved remarkable results.Since its provincial-level accreditation, the Center, guided by the major task requirements for food production and safety, empowered by the reform of systems and mechanisms, coupled with the national 13th Five-Year Plan for science and technology support, national key R&D programs, and Henan provincial food safety major projects and public welfare special projects, and catering to the demands of society and enterprises, has been conducting collaborative innovation in theories and technologies of food production and safety, with breakthroughs made in terms of significant theories and critical technologies. Over the past few years, the Center has undertaken a total of 62 national scientific research projects and tasks, including national major special projects, national key R&D programs, national science and technology support programs, key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and 423 projects commissioned by enterprises and industries, receiving a total scientific research fund of RMB 120 million.

[III]The level of discipline construction has been continuously enhanced.Since its provincial-level accreditation, the Center has optimized and integrated more than 20 national, ministerial, and provincial science and technology platforms, such as the State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Henan Key Laboratory of Cold Chain Food Quality and Safety Control, and Henan Pilot Test Base for Food Processing. The 49,000-square-meter Food Collaborative Innovation Building, which will be constructed with a planned investment of RMB 180 million, has been approved by the Development and Reform Commission of Henan Province. In 2018, the Center assisted the initiator in successfully renaming. In 2020, the initiator was approved as a featured key university in Henan, with Food Science and Engineering listed as Henan's featured backbone discipline group. In 2021, the initiator was approved as a doctoral degree awarding organization, Food Science and Engineering was approved as the first-level discipline authorized to grant the doctoral degree, and the Agricultural Science (with Food Science and Engineering as the mainstay) ranked among the top 1% of the ESI global rankings.

[IV]The role of talent aggregation has begun to emerge. Through gathering domestic and foreign innovation resources, the Center has set up eight collaborative innovation teams with academicians, who serve as chief scientists, as the leading force and high-level talents as the backbone force, effectively making up for the shortage of high-level talents in colleges and universities in Henan. The Center has introduced Zhu Beiwei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as the chief scientist. It takes pride in candidates under the National Thousand Talents Program and the National Ten Thousand Talents Program, Central Plains Scholars, and other experts. Through implementing a training model that integrates domestic and international resources, connects with collaborators, and caters to the urgent needs of Henan, the Center has improved the training quality of talents including undergraduates, postgraduates, and young teachers.

[V]The achievements in serving the economic and social development of the region have been prominent. Focusing on the implementation of the "Ten Strategies" of Henan and the needs of socio-economic development, the Center has proactively engaged in serving the socio-economic development of Henan, and made breakthroughs in an array of key industrial technologies involving the meat product precision processing and preservation, new energy-saving quick-frozen technologies, smart preservation and safety control of fruits and vegetables, and whole-process meat product processing safety traceability. Furthermore, the Center has yielded 30 landmark achievements represented by those winning the Second Prize of the National Award for Science and Technology Progress, thereby generating direct economic benefit of more than RMB 12 billion. Relevant outcomes have been transformed and applied in enterprises such as Sanquan and Zhongpin, forming a benign interaction with the regional socio-economic development. The Center has sustained the leading position of dominant food processing enterprises such as Zhongpin, Sanquan, Synear, and Haoxiangni, making significant contributions to the pioneering role of Henan that ranks first in China in terms of the scale of quick-frozen food and meat processing and the construction of Henan into a province with food safety guarantees.

In November 2019, the Education Department of Henan Province and the Department of Finance of Henan Province organized relevant experts to carry out the final acceptance of the Center, which was rated as excellent. The Center also received sustained support from the Education Department of Henan Province and the Department of Finance of Henan Province for the second-phase construction. In the midterm performance assessment of the second-phase construction in November 2021, the Center was once again rated as excellent.

During its late-stage construction, the Center laid more emphasis on the "Two Assurances" and "Ten Strategies" of Henan, closely concentrated on the major strategic needs of the food sector development at provincial and national levels, and gave priority to the correlation between the major tasks of the Center and the industry, the innovation in sci-tech research and development, and the contribution of scientific research output to the industry. Additionally, the Center fully leverages its advantages in disciplines, talents, and resources. Focusing on system reform and platform construction, and targeting at the significant improvement in talent training quality and innovation service capacity, the Center seeks to promote the deep integration of innovation elements, underpinning Henan and even the whole country with science and technology and talents.