National Laboratories Are Being Integrated and Optimized Through Methods Such as ''Withdrawal, Merger, And Transformation''

National laboratories are the "birthplace" of numerous scientific research achievements and a gathering place for outstanding talents. To address the current issues of overlap and duplication among research bases in my country, and the lack of clear positioning, and to further promote the construction of national scientific research and innovation bases, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Development and Reform Commission recently jointly released the "Optimization and Integration Plan for National Science and Technology Innovation Bases."

The plan proposes to conduct assessments and evaluations of existing pilot national laboratories, national key laboratories, and other national-level bases and platforms, and to optimize and integrate them through methods such as withdrawal, merger, and transformation. Those meeting the criteria will be included in the relevant base sequence management; following the principle of "few but excellent," a number of new high-level national bases will be established selectively based on merit and needs, with strict selection criteria and strict control over the scale of new construction.

In recent years, based on the increasing encouragement and support from the state for scientific and technological innovation, relevant policies have been successively introduced and implemented, providing strong support for the development of my country's scientific research. Scientific research cannot be carried out without the support of research bases, namely national laboratories and national key laboratories. To meet the needs of my country's scientific research and innovation work, my country has actively built research bases to meet the needs of research work in different fields. Through long-term practice, my country has achieved certain results in basic research, technological innovation, and technology transfer. However, problems of overlap and unclear positioning among research bases have also arisen, urgently requiring optimization and integration.

In response to the current situation, the three ministries proposed a "withdrawal, merger, and transformation" strategy. This involves improving management and resource allocation mechanisms, optimizing and adjusting national key laboratories, and coordinating the layout and deployment of existing laboratories. The implementation of this plan will effectively fill gaps in weak or blank disciplines, while rectifying laboratories with unclear positioning and overlap. This is of great significance for accelerating scientific research innovation and the transformation of research results.

By extension, the further development of my country's instrument industry also requires accelerated optimization and integration. Currently, domestically produced instruments are in a development stage, and the entire industry is developing well. However, the "homogenization" of the instrument market and the "numerous but not sophisticated" nature of instrument companies remain major drawbacks to the industry's development. Taking the sub-sector of testing instruments as an example, due to the increasing national focus on food, environment, and other fields in recent years, the number of testing instruments and related companies in these areas has gradually increased. However, problems such as insufficient technical precision and low accuracy have not improved, which is worrying.

Faced with this challenge in the development of the instrument industry, optimization and integration are crucial. Currently, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for the majority of the domestic instrument industry, while well-known companies like Juguang Technology, Tianrui Instruments, and Beifen Tianpu remain in the minority. Comparatively, most SMEs offer a wide variety of instruments, but face the predicament of "numerous but not specialized," with their product lines firmly positioned in the low-to-mid-end market. Furthermore, some companies lack a clear positioning for their development and have an unclear direction. Larger companies, on the other hand, often possess unique advantages in a specific field, with clear and well-defined positioning, and offer a "few but highly specialized" product range.

Therefore, for individual companies, some SMEs must accelerate their own optimization and integration, focusing on breakthroughs in specific areas to build their own advantages. For the instrument industry as a whole, mergers and acquisitions are also a significant strategic move for industry development.

In recent years, mergers and acquisitions in the instrument industry have become increasingly common. In 2016, Tianrui Instruments initiated three acquisitions, acquiring partial stakes in Besun Biotechnology, Guoce Testing, and Panhe Instruments; more recently, Agilent Technologies acquired Cobalt for £40 million to enter the Raman spectroscopy market. Acquisitions, through complementary strengths, can help companies achieve breakthroughs in specific fields. Simultaneously, they facilitate the research and development of new technologies and instruments, greatly benefiting the entire industry.

In conclusion, given the current state of the instrument industry, accelerating industry optimization and consolidation is an inevitable process for its future development. At the same time, relevant companies need to make timely deployments to maintain their market position.