Chaired by Dr. Yongqing Zhang, Deputy Director-General of Bureau of Frontier Sciences and Education, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the annual board meeting of Novo Nordisk-CAS Research Fund was held in Beijing in the afternoon of January 16, 2017. Present were board members such as Mr. Dianwen Cao, Deputy Director-General of Bureau of International Cooperation, CAS (representing Mr. Jinghua Cao, Director-General), Drs. Tao Xu (Director of Institute of Biophysics, CAS), Ming-Wei Wang (Director, the National Center for Drug Screening), Boerge Diderichsen (Vice President, Novo Nordisk), Soeren Tullin (Vice President, Novo Nordisk, via internet) and Baoping Wang (President of Novo Nordisk China R&D Center). Following an introduction of the evaluation results of 2016 project applications, the participants discussed the proposition of holding a symposium to celebrate 10th anniversary of the fund and 2017 call for proposals. Madam Dongyao Wang (Deputy Chief of Division of European Affairs, Bureau of International Cooperation of CAS) attended the meeting.