The main research interests of the Institute of Herbaceous Plant Stress Physiology and Genetic Improvement (IHPSPGI) includes herbaceous plant abiotic stress physiology and molecular biology, forage crop genetic improvement for stress tolerance, plant-microbe interaction for plant growth promotion and stress tolerance. Currently, there are seven faculty members in IHPSPGI, including Dr. Suo-Min Wang (professor and director of the institute), Dr. Jin-Lin Zhang (professor), Dr. Ai-Ke Bao (associate professor), Dr. Qing Ma (associate professor), Dr. Hong-Ju Yin (lecturer), Dr. Qi Zhao (lecturer) and Mrs Li Wei (technician). Under the leadership of Professor Suo-Min Wang, IHPSPGI has completed or is undertaking over 30 research projects, including a key project, an excellent youth science fund project, nine general projects and three youth science fund projects from National Natural Science Foundation of China, four projects of the National Basic Research Program, a project of the National High-Tech Project and two projects of the National Agricultural Sci-Tech Transformation Program from Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and a project of the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education and two projects of the Program for New Century Excellent Talents from Ministry of Education of China etc.. IHPSPGI has published over 100 papers in international journals including Plant Physiology, The Plant Journal, Plant Biotechnology Journal, Plant Cell and Environment, Annals of Botany, Tree Physiology, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry and Plant and Soil etc., and been granted the first prize of Natural Science Award and second prizes of Science and Technology Progress Award by Gansu Provincial Government etc..