Kick-off meeting of the National Key Research and Development Program Integrated and innovative key actions for mycotoxin management in the food and feed chain (Mycokey) was held successfully in Beijing on 6-7 June, 2017. Deputy Director General ZHANG Huijie of Department of International Cooperation of CAAS, Deputy Director General QIU Dewen of the Institute of Plant Protection of CAAS, President CHEN Wanquan of Chinese Society of Plant Protection, the coordinator of Mycokey, director Antonio LOGRIECO from the Institute of Sciences of Food Production of CNR, Italy, and Prof. FENG Jie of IPP, the Chinese Coordinator of Mycokey, were present at the meeting. Deputy Director WANG Lixia, the Department of International Cooperation and Graduate Student of IPP, chaired the opening ceremony.

DDG ZHANG Huijie addressed the ceremony on behalf of Department of International Cooperation of CAAS and congratulated the convening of the meeting in Beijing. DDG QIU Dewen spoke on behalf of the host institution, IPP. He thanked Department of International Cooperation of CAAS and the EU and Chinese partners for their strong support in the application of the project. President CHEN Wanquan briefly reviewed the history of EU-China cooperation on mycotoxin management at IPP. He pointed out that Mycokey was the continuation and extension of the previous three Sino-Dutch cooperation projects. As the coordinator of the previous projects, he shared experience in the former collaboration and provided suggestions for strengthen the EU-China cooperation in Mycokey.

The Mycokey coordinators Antonio LOGRIECO and FENG Jie introduced the implementation scheme, work packages and tasks setting and key points of cooperation in both sides, respectively. Mycokey aims to generate innovative and integrated solutions that will support stakeholders in effective and sustainable mycotoxin management along food and feed chains. The project will contribute to reduce mycotoxin contamination mainly in Europe and China. A total of 32 partners from 15 countries are involved in this project, 19 from Europe, 11 from China and 2 from Africa and America. European work packages leaders introduced the tasks and progress of 10 work packages. Chinese partners presented their tasks and research plans, respectively. The potential problems and risks during project execution and the solutions were also discussed.

After the presentations, group discussions were also conducted according to the work packages. The European and Chinese partners made detailed plans of cooperation and exchange of visits. Dr. FENG Jie and Dr. Antonio LOGRIECO made in-depth discussions on project management and communication mechanism and reached a consensus on the 2rd Mycokey conference in China, yearly general assembly, network video meeting and training of mycotoxin detection.
The success of the kick-off meeting indicated the National Key Research and Development Program Intergovernmental Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Project (Horizon 2020) was formally launched on Chinese side.