The State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture (SKLSS), affiliated with Zhejiang A&F University (ZAFU), is Zhejiang's first State Key Laboratory at a provincial university. Established in 2017, SKLSS serves as a multi-functional state-level open laboratory in the field of forest cultivation, focusing on basic and applied research with the task of training high-level scientists in the field.

The chair of the Science Advisory Committee is Professor Fuliang Cao, an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the director of SKLSS is Professor Guomo Zhou from ZAFU. SKLSS embraces the principal "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", announced by the central government, aiming to improve the quality of forest resources in subtropical areas as well as in maintaining regional ecological security. To meet the regional demands, SKLSS performs basic and applied research in the following four fields of subtropical forest: tree species germplasm invention and breeding; cultivation physiology and quality control; management and productivity improvement; service function of ecosystem and its utilization.

SKLSS is equipped with the state-of-the-art instruments and facilities for studying forest resources cultivation, utilization and its ecological service, suitable for cross-disciplinary, multi-level cooperative scientific research. There are 55 research fellows, 51 of them holding doctorate degrees and their accomplishments are recognized by numerous awards including; two Yangtze River scholars nominated by the Ministry of Education; a National Outstanding Youth Funding award; one “the Thousand Talents Plan” scientist, one “National Ten-thousand Talents Plan" leading scientist, three “National Million Talents” scientists, and several Zhejiang provincial talent awardees. With a well-structured professional team, SKLSS successfully applied for 103 grants (1 at international level, 18 national level, 20 provincial and/or ministerial level, and 64 linkage grants), with a total of 48.7 million RMB. It also received a National Science and Technology Progress Award (second prize) and three science and technology awards at provincial and/or ministerial level. Last year, SKLSS published 88 papers (including 51 and 9 in SCI and EI indexed journals, respectively), six book chapters (including two English monographs), and applied for four national patents. Professor Guomo Zhou, as the leading scientist, received the National Science and Technology Progress Award (second prize); Professor Yan Li was awarded the Key National Natural Science Foundation grant; the research team of Professor Shenkui Liu, a Yangtze River Scholar, was successfully awarded the “Innovation Team” title by the Ministry of Education. Overall, the laboratory is on a track to become the leading lab of forestry in China. With the support of various administrations, SKLSS is at the forefront of the discipline and focuses on the major strategic demands of the country. Striving to do world-class, original, scientific research, to gather a group of outstanding talent and to build a first-class open Silviculture research platform, SKLSS will benefit not only to China, but also the world.