IHB’s national 973 Program (National Basic Research Program) of the year, applied by IHB professor Jianfang GUI, head of the State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, was initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, with a budget estimate of 30 million RMB.  

This project, jointly recommended by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hubei Provincial Science and Technology Department, will be undertaken by the Institute of Hydrobiology (CAS), Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (CAS), Institute of Oceanology (CAS), Heilongjiang River Fishery Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Wuhan University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhejiang University.  

In view of the current status and the requirements of sustainable development of aquaculture, this 973 project will improve and strengthen the organic relationship between functional genome of cultured fishes and molecular design breeding, and hopefully, keep a worldwide leading place of China on functional genome of fish and lay theoretic and technical foundation for the cultivation of new fish species with high yield and quality, thus making new contribution to the sustainable development of aquaculture and fishery biotechnology in China. 

IHB successively boasts 4 professors who serve as chief scientists of the national 973 project. They are Prof. Yongding LIU (2002), Prof. Jianfang GUI (2004), Prof. Lirong SONG (2007), and Prof. Pin NIE (2008).