In recent years, marked progress has been made in the overall comprehensive strength of the science and technology, the ability of serving the society with science and technology, academic influence and core competitiveness, which laid a solid foundation for the construction of regional high-level university and promoted our university to the advanced level in the scale and standard among the western normal universities. During the period of the twelfth Five-Year Plan, the following centers and laboratories were built: the National Solar Water Heater Quality Supervision and Inspection Center (Kunming), two China - Laos Joint Laboratories for Renewable Energy at the national level, key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for the Information-based Minority Education, Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education for Sustainable Development and Utilization of the Bio-energy, Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education for Energy Environment and Geographic Information Technology Application in Western China. There were 20 scientific research platforms and bases, such as Yunnan Key Laboratory and Yunnan Engineering Research Center, Yunnan Engineering Technology Research Center, Yunnan Philosophy and Social Science Research Base etc, and 13 ministerial and provincial innovation teams, such as Innovation Team of the Ministry of Education, Yunnan Science and Technology Innovation Team and Yunnan Philosophy and Social Science Innovation Team.

There were two newly-established collaborative innovation centers at provincial level： Collaborative Innovation Center for Geographical Environment in Southwest China and Borderland Development, Collaborative Innovative Center for Research and Development of Renewable Energy in Southwest Regions, and two new types of think tanks in Yunnan universities: Think Tanks for Yunnan Education Policy Decision-making Consultation, and Think Tank for A Research on Periphery Geographical Environment of Southwest China and the “Belt and Road” Initiative.

During the period of the twelfth Five-Year Plan, the university got 1262 scientific research projects and 18 newly-established national key and major projects, which was a substantial growth compared with those in the eleventh Five-Year Plan. “A Research and Demonstration on Urban and Rural Ecological Construction and the Development of Ethnic Culture and Science and Technology Industry in Lincang” and  “Civilian Residence Building of Energy Conservation in Tibetan style and the Integration, Application and Demonstration of Community Information Service Technology in Shangri-La County” were respectively listed into National Science and Technology Supporting Plan and the Plan of Benefiting the People through Science and Technology by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The two projects: “A Research on Traditional Welfare Culture of Chinese Nation” and “A Study on the History of Communication and Development in Yunnan-Tibet-Burma-India Connection Area”, have been approved as the major projects of National Social Science Fund.

Publication of books and papers: 524 books were published, 114 of which were on the A level publishers, accounting for 21.76% of the total. 11074 papers were published, 1187 of which were collected in three major searching systems (SCI, EI and ISTP) and 871 of which were included in CSSCI. All the books and papers made the significant breakthrough in mathematical science, biology and global changes, environmental ecology and many other fields. These research achievements have been published on the world mainstream journals such as Nature Communications and Scientific Reports, marking that the researches of our university in these fields have already had great international influence. The numbers of collection and reprint of Social Science Research Papers were greatly increased, compared with those in the previous time. Three papers were reprinted in full by Xinhua Digest; Eight by Chinese Social Science Digest and ten by China University Academic Abstracts. The university has taken pride in 171 scientific research achievement awards of all levels, among which the second prize in outstanding achievement award for scientific researches in institutions of higher learning (Humanities and Social Sciences) was the highest honor the university had gained in the Outstanding Achievements of Philosophy and Social Sciences in recent years.

Great breakthrough has been made in serving the society with science and technology. In the research and development of industrialization and achievement popularization of potatoes, our research group strengthened the cooperation with International Potato Center, selected and bred new varieties of potatoes which were suitable for being planted in the vast rural areas in Yunnan Province. Our research group was regarded as the model of international cooperation and research by China, International Potato Center, the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research and other organizations. In the utilization and development of biomass energy, our research group applied research achievements and patent technologies in biogas to developing the medium and large biogas engineering technology which was well suited to Chinese vast rural areas. Our research group has pursued a sustainable path with rich characteristics in energy recovery and resource utilization. In the industrialization of biological enzyme engineering, the related results made in microbiological enzyme preparation have reached the international leading level, especially in many Enzyme preparation products developed from feed additives. In the demonstration project of development and utilization of solar energy resources, our research group developed the portable photovoltaic water-taking equipment in accordance with the actual situation of part of the mountainous regions of Yunnan Province. Because of the great role it played in drought relief, this equipment was evaluated as one of Yunnan Top Ten Advances in science and technology.