InterPARES Trust (2013-2018), a multinational, multi-disciplinary cooperation in international cooperation projects, is the fourth phase of the famous international cooperation project “electronic file system to protect the authenticity of a permanent international collaborative research” (The International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems, InterPARES ). It focuses on digital files’ credibility in an increasingly networked environment. The project holds plenary session every February to exchange, share, and explore.

From February 15th to 17th, 2016, the plenary sessions of the international team of InterPARES Trust and their leaders were held in Vancouver, Canada. The persons in charge and part of the research staff, student assistants from Canada, the United States, China, Britain, Brazil, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa and other countries attended the meeting and had a lively discussion. Dr. Luciana Duranti, the leader of InterPARES Trust Project, professor at University of British Columbia, Canada, presented interim report at the meeting. The participating institutions who cooperate in the project covers thirty-five countries on six continents, including seventy-seven registered partner institutions, ninety-nine registered and alliance partners, forty-eight universities, eighteen government departments, twenty-one archives / library / information agencies, six organizations, ninety-seven researchers, one hundred and eight co-investigators, thirty-two consultants, one hundred and five student research assistants, and ninety research projects.  

Professor Jian Wang and Li Xie from School of Information Resource Management at Renmin University of China as the Asian team co-director, Professor Yuenan Liu as fellow delegates, PhD student Xiaoshuang Jia as a research assistant representatives reported the constitution and the management team in Asia, eight progresses of the project, and the focus of the next step at the meeting, and drew a new project which is Tianjin Archives’ “Archives preserve electronic data and case studies strategy”. Being similar with other reports, it stimulated discussion among presenting scholars, and submitted proposals and willingness to cooperate in the future.

During the meeting, the Round Table Meeting of all leaders is also held to summarize and reflect on the medium-term work and discuss the results of the project and future forms of cooperation. The meeting decided that the focus of the latter part will move to the team analysis about research, summaries and integration, and they would no longer fund new research program.

There are always confrontation and discussions among many well-known experts and scholars on every meeting. Thanks to the sharing and exchange of research findings from each team, they enjoyed a variety of cutting-edge theories and practices of truth and enlightenment. Perhaps this is not only the purpose of InterPARES Trust, but also its amazement and contribution.