The Institute began implementing a medium-long term academic development plan in September 1997. The medium-long-term academic development plan has 3-5 years medium-term and 10 year long-term components and aims, using current manpower as the basis, and both fully respecting the research tradition of individual autonomy and positively creating a group consensus, to promote the development of “research group” team co-operation style- development, aiming for realistic achievements through concrete and feasible projects. The aim is that this Institute will develop into a center for the research of modern history of international importance.

The development of the research group at this Institute did not begin only in 1997. Of the achievements of earlier scholars, what was most eye-catching, apart from individual achievements, were the collective and long-term research achievements. The series of specialist publications about the late Qing dynasty Self- Strengthening Movement published in the 1960s, as well as the China modernization regional research series published in the 1980s, are both successful examples.

By means of two 5-year development plans, this Institute has drawn in a great deal of talent, forming a 40-strong modern historical research team possessed of outstanding material conditions, rarely seen in academic institutes worldwide. We cannot possibly do across the board research into the last four or five hundred years of history, but if we identify a few important points and research areas, form a research group, and concentrate manpower and resources, we should be able to accomplish excellent results.