In the era of “laboratory sharing economy”, a large number of scientific research instruments are op

[Introduction] Can we release the scientific research equipment resources of colleges and universities to the whole society through the construction of the platform, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises? The answer is yes.

Unlike shared cars and shared bicycles, scientific instruments are not shared by the majority of the public, but the “laboratory sharing economy” has arrived. It is reported that the Public Technical Service Center of the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has 965 sets of instruments and equipment, with a total value of over 100 million yuan (as of July 2017). Research and development personnel of universities, research institutes and enterprises can reserve the use time of the instruments through the equipment sharing network of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Shanghai R&D public service platform.

Using idle resources to serve enterprise innovation

In the tide of technological innovation and entrepreneurship, scientific research instruments are indispensable tools. However, for the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises, the cost of purchasing instruments and equipment is too high, which brings obstacles to their product development. On the other hand, many universities and research institutes have a large number of scientific instruments in their laboratories, but they are often idle. Can we release the scientific and technological resources of universities and research institutes to the whole society through the construction of platforms, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises? The answer is yes.

The China Life Science Public Platform Management and Development Seminar began in 2008 and is a high-end conference in  the field of domestic life science public  platforms. The 10th seminar attracted nearly 200 platform management and technical experts from more than 60 universities and research institutes across the country. The theme was “Building a Life Science and Technology Platform in the Age of Shared Economy”. At the meeting, Zhu Yue, deputy director of the Shanghai R&D Public Service Platform Management Center, said that after years of construction, the Shanghai R&D public service platform has gathered more than 1,200 affiliated institutions, providing more than 400,000 R&D services and gathering 544 management. The unit has more than 300,000 sets of large-scale scientific research instruments with a total value of more than 31.73 billion yuan.

Chinese Academy of Sciences professional team as experimental assistant

As an internationally renowned research institute, the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is one of the affiliated institutions. In order to give full play to the advantages of the Academy's equipment, talents and technology to better serve the society, the institute established a public technology service center whose operations are relatively independent of the various research groups.

Dr. Zhang Wenjuan, Executive Deputy Director of the Public Technical Service Center, told the Liberation Daily and Shangguan Journalists that the center currently has more than 140 sets of equipment worth more than 100,000 yuan, including nearly 40 large-scale instruments worth millions of yuan, which basically realized the life sciences. Full coverage of the study. In addition to high-end instruments, the center also has abundant model animal resources such as mice, fruit flies, and zebrafish, as well as cell banks/stem cell banks. “This creates a chain of scientific evidence that enables researchers in the life sciences to do a variety of topics and validate their research on model animals.”

In order to do a good job in technical service, the center has more than 70 full-time  staff. This is a highly educated and young team with an average age of 30 years old. Many of the backbones have doctoral, master's and study abroad experiences. The team of full-time staff worked hard to ensure stable and good operation of the  equipment,  and used the research advantages of the institute to promote the development of instrument technology and experimental technology. After using the central resources, the researchers inside and outside will get the team's great assistance and smoothly obtain the experimental results.