Astronomy won't progress much without systematic multiwavelength surveys, and the star formation is one of the most fundamental processes linking essentially every aspect of the physical phenomena in the Universe. We have witnessed explosive growth in survey data in the last decade of both systematic ground-based "entire" sky surveys such as SDSS and 2MASS and dedicated surveys of both ground and space based, like SINGS, CFHT, SWIRE, COSMOS, GOODS, and AEGIS etc. Many surveys are  forthcoming, particularly with facilities coming online such as AKARI(Astro-F), SCUBA2, Herschel, WISE, LMT, to name a few, and eventually ALMA, JWST. Multi-wavelength studies of galaxies at high redshifts require knowledge of more detailed physics on star formation and AGN  from studies of local galaxies including our own. This meeting tries to establish a connection between people from both sides, to better understand star formation near and far, and examine progress that has been made so far. 

China is devoted to develop astronomical facilitites (LAMOST, FAST) for surveys as well. It is therefore timely to bring together many of the leading figures of the large survey programs and users of these survey data, to discuss how to best exploit these datasets, and pass the legacy to the new generations.

The meeting location Xining, gateway to Lhasa, Tibet by the Sky Train, is the capital city of Qinghai province. Xining is also the gateway to the 14-meter millimeter telescope of Purple Mountain Observatory  in Delingha.