International Research Center for Asia Cold-regions Environment and Engineering (IRC-ACEE), which is jointly built by Northwest Institute of Eco-environment and Resources (NIEER) and Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS), was founded in Lanzhou on Apr. 3, 2017.  

IRC-ACEE is a research institute engaged in regional permafrost research, cryogenic stratigraphy, freezing lithosphere, basic project of the Lena River Bridge in permafrost regions, system sciences of large river basins, roadbeds of the high-speed rail and expressway, bridge and tunnel and traffic engineering in cold regions, oil & gas storage and transportation, special and key engineering materials, etc. 

Lai Yuanming, who is a CAS Member and the Executive vice Director of NIEER, introduced the IRC-ACEE would strengthen the cooperation between China and Russia in the field of the frozen soil engineering, environment and energy. Besides, the IRC-ACEE would also play an important role in the talent cultivation, database construction and frozen soil map compilation. 

Lebedev Mikhail, who is the Presidium Chair of the Yakutian Scientific Center of SB, RAS, said the Yakutian Scientific Center has kept a long-term cooperation relationship with the State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, and he hoped that the Yakutian Scientific Center and NIEER would take the opportunity of the IRC-ACEE's establishment to further promote the development of the frozen soil engineering.