The Ministry of Agriculture issued the

[Introduction] The Ministry of Agriculture has issued a notice regarding the "Management Measures for Key Laboratories of the Ministry of Agriculture" (hereinafter referred to as the "Management Measures"). The notice indicates that this document is a revised version of the "Management Measures for Key Laboratories of the Ministry of Agriculture" formulated in 2010, primarily aimed at further standardizing and strengthening the construction and operation management of key laboratories under the Ministry of Agriculture, and fully leveraging their important role in supporting and leading the development of modern agriculture through science and technology.

The Management Measures stipulate that key laboratories of the Ministry of Agriculture are planned and laid out according to disciplinary fields, industry needs, and regional characteristics, and are constructed using disciplinary clusters as units. They include three levels: comprehensive key laboratories, specialized (regional) key laboratories, and scientific observation and testing stations. The basic organizational approach is to use comprehensive key laboratories as the leading force, specialized (regional) key laboratories as the backbone, and scientific observation and testing stations as extensions.

Regarding responsibilities, the supervising units of key laboratories must ensure the implementation of relevant conditions for the construction of key laboratories and provide necessary support for their construction and operation; the supporting units of key laboratories must prioritize support for their work, providing corresponding funding and conditions, and resolving related issues in their construction and operation.

The management regulations also stipulate the main responsibilities of the three types of key laboratories. Comprehensive key laboratories primarily focus on the forefront of global agricultural science and technology development and the needs of national agricultural development, identifying major scientific and technological issues, organizing basic and cutting-edge research, and research on major key and common technologies to provide new theories, technologies, and methods for agricultural development. They also act as think tanks, providing decision-making consultation and comprehensive technical solutions for major agricultural industry problems. Furthermore, they are responsible for guiding the construction and operation of key laboratories and scientific observation and testing stations within their respective disciplines, strengthening division of labor and cooperation within the discipline cluster, organizing joint undertaking of major science and technology projects, and providing scientific and technological information services. Specialized (regional) key laboratories primarily focus on the needs of discipline construction and regional agricultural development, organizing applied basic research in agriculture and research on common key technologies according to the development positioning and division of labor requirements of the discipline cluster, providing theoretical and technical support for the development of related agricultural fields or regions. Scientific observation stations mainly receive professional guidance from comprehensive and specialized (regional) key laboratories and provide services for the research activities of these key laboratories.

Furthermore, regarding the construction of key laboratories, comprehensive key laboratories are generally selected from national-level research institutions and universities, specialized (regional) key laboratories are generally selected from leading research and teaching units and enterprises, and scientific observation stations are generally selected from local research and teaching units and enterprises.

Regarding laboratory management, comprehensive key laboratories will formulate a five-year disciplinary cluster construction plan and conduct thorough evaluation; newly added key laboratories will undergo a two-year trial operation, and will be officially named after passing the evaluation; key laboratories should accelerate the open sharing of research facilities, instruments, equipment, and research data to improve the efficiency of scientific and technological resource utilization, and systematically implement the upgrading and independent development of research instruments and equipment; key laboratories should strengthen intellectual property protection, and all research results completed based on the key laboratory should be labeled with the key laboratory's name, with the ownership and distribution of related intellectual property rights handled in accordance with relevant national regulations.