The School of Life Sciences (SLS) of Inner Mongolia University(IMU) was established in December, 1995. Li Bo, ex-academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS), was the first honorary dean of SLS and Shorgan, former academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, the first dean of SLS. Now SLS consists of 4 departments including the Department of Biochemistry and Physiology, Department of Genetic Development and Cytobiology, Department of Microbiology and Bioengineering and Department of Biotechnology and Modern Agronomy, 1 National Demonstration Center for Undergraduate Experiment Teaching in Life Sciences and 1 public scientific research platform for life sciences.

The predecessor of SLS was the Department of Biology, which was established when IMU was founded. In 1957, Li Jitong, a well-known botanist and academician of CAS led a batch of experts and scholars from such prestigious universities at home as Peking University, Fudan University, Nanjing University and Nankai University to create the Department of Biology which offered two majors of Zoology and Botany that had a very high starting point and solid foundation. For over 60 years, the school has overcome all kinds of difficulties to forge ahead and strove forward generation after generation to form its own discipline advantages with its own distinctive characteristics, and become an important base to solve key scientific and technological problems of the country and the autonomous region in its discipline and field. In 2002, the discipline of Zoology was selected as national key discipline. In 2017, the discipline of Biology was selected as the candidate for the national development disciplines under “Double-First-Class” Initiative. In 2022, the discipline continued to be listed as the candidate for the national development disciplines under “Double-First-Class” Initiative.

The school has a staff of 139, of which 112 are teachers, 19 teaching assistants and 8 administrators. Of all the teachers, 41 are professors and 35 associate professors and they account for 67.9% of all the teachers. The school has 104 faculty members with doctor’s degree, accounting for 92.9% of the total of the teachers. The school has 1 faculty member with the title of Distinguished Professor with “Chang Jiang Scholars Program” of the Ministry of Education(MOE), 1 winning the support of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 2 entitled Leading Talents for Scientific and Technological Innovation with the National Program for Special Support of High-Level Talents, 1 with the Program for Introduction of Young Overseas High-Level Talents, 1 whose research project won the support of the National Program for Support of Young Top-notch Talents, 1 with the title of the National Middle-Aged and Young Leading Talent in Scientific and Technological Innovation, 4 with the National Program for One Hundred, One Thousand and Ten Thousand Talents in a New Century, 7 with the title of Experts who enjoy the special allowance of the State Council, 4 entitled the National Experts with Outstanding Contributions and 1 with the honorary title of the National Outstanding Professional Technological Talent. Besides, the school has 1 team winning the title of Team of Huang Danian-Style Teachers(Team of Modern Biological Breeding of Livestock), 1 team winning the honorary title of the National Advanced Collective for Outstanding Professional Technological Talents(Team of Genetic Improvement of Cattle and Biological Breeding Technology), 1 team winning the title of Scientific and Technological Innovation Team of “Reproductive Biology and Biotechnology for Mammals” of MOE, 1 Innovation Team of “Breeding of New Breed of Genetically-Modified High-Yield Beef Cattle ” of the Ministry of Science and Technology. In 2023, SLS won the honorary titles of “National May Day Woman Models” and “Regional Pioneer of Workers”.

SLS offers the doctor’s degree program, master’s degree program and post-doctoral program of the discipline of biology and professional master’s degree program of biology and medicine. It now offers 7 undergraduate majors including Bioscience, Biotechnology, Bioengineering, Food Science and Engineering, Food Quality and Security, Horticulture and Biomedical Engineering, of which Bioscience is selected as a national major with distinctive characteristics and Biotechnology the national pilot zone for innovation in talent cultivation mode. In 2019, Bioscience and Biotechnology were selected as the first batch of candidates for the development of the national first-class undergraduate majors. The school has 2 national-level bases for talent cultivation: the National Science Base for Research and Teaching Talent Cultivation in Basic Science of Life Sciences and National Base for Cultivation of Talents in Life Sciences and Technologies. In 2021, Biological Science of SLS was selected as the Base under the MOE Program 2.0 for Cultivation of Top-Notch Students in Basic Disciplines. Now the school has 1 national-level first-class undergraduate course and 1 national-level bilingual demonstration course. The students from the school have greatly improved themselves on their scientific and technological innovation. In recent years, the students from SLS have achieved much in "Challenge Cup" National College Student Extracurricular Academic and Technological Works Competition and China International College Students’ Internet+ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. They successively won 1 gold medal, 3 silver medals and 2 bronze medals in China International College Students’ Internet+ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. In 2021, they won the only Award of Rural Revitalization in the competition section of the Dream Pursuing of the Young in Yanan in the 3^rd China International College Students’ Internet+ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and the national-level 2^nd prize in the 8^th China University Students’ Life Sciences Competition. Since its establishment, SLS has graduated nearly 10,000 excellent students, some of which have played leading and major roles in different fields and made outstanding contributions to the economic and social development of the country and the autonomous region.

Now SLS has the State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Regulation and Breeding of Grassland Livestock co-built by IMAR and MOE, MOE Key Biological Laboratory of Forage Grass and Featured Crops , MOE Engineering Research Center for Technologies of Large-Scale Breeding of Fine Livestock, 6 regional-level key laboratories and engineering research centers, 1 public research platform for life sciences including a sharing platform for instruments and facilities, a 2^nd-level biosafety laboratory, a biological germplasm resources bank, an animal and plant specimen museum, a SPF-level room for experiment animals and a greenhouse for smart growth of plants. In 2021, the school had a Base under the Program for Discipline Innovation and Talent Introduction at Universities approved. In the same year, the school had the Base for Germplasm Innovation and Breeding of Grassland Livestock approved and launched. The base is planned to cover 899 mu(about 599,633 square meters) and strives to be a national key scientific and technological infrastructure for genetics and germplasm innovation of grassland livestock with the continuous development.

Centering on such national key strategic needs as the revitalization of seed industry, biodiversity and biosecurity, the school has developed 4 research fields: reproductive biology of mammals, biology of forage grass and featured crops, biodiversity of steppe zone in northern China and pathogeny biology for diseases infected by both human beings and animals in northern steppe zone. Since the 13^th Five-Year-plan Period the school faculty members have 387 research projects supported by the National Key Program for Innovation in Science and Technology, the National Key Program for Research and Development and the Joint Fund for Regional Innovation and Development by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Local Governments. The grants of these research projects total RMB 510 million. The faculty members of the school have published 230 high-quality research articles in journals ranking in the first/second section of the Journal Indexing System of CAS, some of which are published in such top journals as Nature Protocols, Nature Communications, PNAS, GUT and Molecular Plant. The school has, jointly with its partners, won the 2^nd prize of the State Award for Technological Inventions for “Technology for Effective Cloning of Fine Breeds of Cattle, Sheep and Goats”. It also won MOE Award for Excellent Scientific Research Achievements by Institutions of Higher Learning(Science and Technology) and the 2^nd Prize of MOE Award for Scientific and Technological Progress for “Innovation and Application of Key Technology for Breeding Bulls and Sex-Regulated Reproduction”. The school also won 2 first prizes and 3 second prizes of Inner Mongolia Natural Science Award and 2 first prizes and 1 second prize of Inner Mongolia Award for Scientific and Technological Progress. The school has 3 research results get through the review and appraisal by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. And its new species of “Mon Chufa 3” has get through review and appraisal of Inner Mongolia Review and Examination Committee on Grass Species.

Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Though on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and with cultivation of students by moral education as the fundamental task, SLS will, according to the general requirement to build a world first-class university with Chinese characteristics, adhere, during the 14^th Five-Year-Plan period, to its education philosophy of “Targeting Demands, Aiming at Fontier Areas, Expanding Interdisciplinary Fields and Being First-Class with Distinctive Characteristics”, form an interactive development pattern of “Establishing Big Platforms, Gathering Big Research Teams, Producing Big Research Results and Cultivating First-Class Talents” and greatly improve the overall strength of its disciplines to make more contributions to building a first-class university with distinctive characteristics, which makes the party rest assured and satisfy the people.