Since its establishment in 1995, the TEA-START research team has grown rapidly and has attained numerous research achievements on many aspects of global climate and environmental change. In the past five years, the regional center led seven key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), published over 400 peer-reviewed papers in global change sciences, and made major improvements to its innovative RIEMS (Regional Integrated Environment Modeling System) regional Earth system models. As a global change research pioneer in the East Asian region, TEA-START recently received extension of preferential support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as result of the evaluation of CAS key laboratories in May 2019.

TEA-START was recognized by the evaluation committee for its major achievements in developing East Asia regional Earth system models and in deepening understanding of interactive changes of climate and ecosystems in the region. The committee also recognized TEA-START’s great contribution to international and national programs and frameworks such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), the sixth Global Environment Outlook of the United Nations Environment Programme (GEO-6), the Digital Belt and Road (DBAR), the International Science Council (ISC), the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP CORDEX), and China’s national climate change assessment.