Based on its experience of involving in collaboration for year, Nanjing Agricultural University initiated in 2012, in collaboration with Peking University, Huazhong Agricultural University and CAAS Institute of Crop Science, the founding of the Collaborative Innovation Center of Biology in Soybean, Rapeseed and Cotton, and applied for inclusion in the "National 2011 Program". In February, 2013, based on the feedback comments by the assessment experts and in accordance with the government’s demand for the strategy of development of crop production, we changed the original name of the center into "the Collaborative Innovation Center of Research on Crop Gene Resources" which passed the preliminary assessment and entered the process of and passed expert assessment through challenge and defense. In 2014, The Collaborative Innovation Center of Modern Crop Production (hereafter referred to as the Center) was founded by Nanjing Agricultural University as the organizer, in collaboration with Nanjing University, Zhejiang University, Anhui Agricultural University, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and six of its research institutes, the Jiangsu Master Station of Agricultural Technology Extension, and nine related businesses, with focuses of research on crop germplasm improvement and new variety breeding, theories and techniques of high-quality seed production, modern theories and technologies of crop production and management, modes of agricultural technology extension, and so on. The Center was sponsored for construction by the Jiangsu Provincial Government and received a grade of excellence in the first stage examination. In 2018, following Ministry of Education’s  advocating of ministerial-provincial co-founding collaborative innovation centers, the Center included crop phenomics as another direction in its research work with the CAAS Institute of Crop Research invited again in collaboration, applied for  creation of the "Collaborative Innovation Center of Modern Crops Production (Co-founded)" (still briefly referred to as "the Center")on the basis of the original "Collaborative Innovation Center of Modern Crops Production". The Center focuses on the production safety of major crops in China, has gathered superior resources, organized collaborative researches on issues relating to modern crop production, has made evident achievements in improving the institutional framework, reforming rules and regulations, integrating resources, promoting innovation in science and technology, developing disciplines, cultivating talents, organizing research teams, and providing social services, all of which have enhanced the innovation capacity of China’s agricultural science and technology and effectively guaranteed the safety of grain  production and of food in the country. The Center has become an academic plateau of theories and technology of modern crops, a technological innovation center, a base for talent cultivation, and a platform of international academic exchange.