A multifunctional catalyst of ruthenium supported on NENU-3 [a hybrid of phosphotungstic acid (PTA) and HKUST-1] is developed. An ethylene glycol (EG) yield of 50.2 % can be directly obtained from cellulose with Ru/NENU-3 as catalyst under optimized conditions. As a multifunctional catalyst of Ru/NENU-3, the presence of both the active specie of PTA for cellulose hydrolysis and subsequent C-C bond cleavage of cellulose-derived sugars, and the active specie of Ru for glycolaldehyde hydrogenation is indispensible for the formation of EG from cellulose.