The Research Office is the academic department responsible for researching cultural relics and their history and the executive body of the Palace Museum Academy. The office is also an academic platform that facilitates major international cooperation and national social science projects.
The office’s major duties are as follows:
1. to undertake the routine work of the Palace Museum Academy; to organize and implement international cooperation projects and major national social science projects and provides comprehensive services for experts and scholars in the academy to complete research tasks at all levels; to coordinates business contact and communication with subordinate units of the academy, and handle work approved by the academy;
2. to carry out archaeological excavation work; to explore China’s early civilization and conduct archaeological investigations, exploration, and excavation work; based on the Palace museum’s archeological experience, to participate in royal relics archeology, local archeological projects, and international archeological exchanges and cooperation; to conduct multidisciplinary archeological studies on cultural relics in the collection of the Palace Museum, coordinate and pursue studies of excavated cultural relics handed down from generation to generation, and open up new channels for collecting cultural relics; to oversee the preservation and display of architectural relics across the Forbidden City, and develop archeological work with characteristics of the Palace Museum;
3. to organize academic publications; to study academic development related to the Palace Museum, compile and publish regular publications such as Palace Museum Journal (bi-monthly), Journal of Gugong Studies (semi-annual), and A Collection of Essays on the Ming and Qing Dynasties (annual); to organize the compilation of large-scale academic anthologies and reference books, collect and compile research results from experts and scholars at the museum; to organize the translation of academic development and the latest exploration of domestic and foreign museums;
4. to cultivate academic professionals and organize international academic exchange activities; to take charge of the museum’s Postdoctoral Research Center and recruit high-end talent from home and abroad to work together on research projects; to support post-graduate students through cooperation with universities and research institutes; to organize academic seminars of the Palace Museum Academy, publish academic information by the academy, and conduct high-level academic exchange activities with Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and international institutions;
5. to provide academic consulting services; to offer consulting services for the curation and content design of large exhibitions of cultural relics, important research projects, key publishing projects, and major business decisions; to provide the latest information and offer suggestions; and
6. to complete other tasks assigned by the superior units and the Palace Museum leadership.