Topics:

1. the challenges and opportunities for Chinese and international systematists and evolutionary biologists at a time of rapid globalization and urbanization, increased use of internet for information dissemination, and application of molecular and computational tools in studying biodiversity

2. the prospect of initiating a Tree of Life program in China, and the way to coordinate this program with its international counterparts

3. strategies, methods, and techniques to reconstruct the Tree of Life using genomic, bioinformatic, and systematic biological information and tools

4. platforms for assembling resources, executing projects, and archiving and exchanging the data and information with other ToL research institutions