The China Spallation Neutron Source, located in Songshan Lake Science City, Dongguan, Guangdong Province, is a major national science and technology infrastructure and multidisciplinary application research platform. The picture shows researchers manipulating equipment in the RF Technology Laboratory of China Spallation Neutron Source Accelerator. Photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Dawei

◎ Intern reporter Shen Wei

At present, high-end scientific instruments are developing in the direction of high-precision, high-resolution, automation, intelligence, multi-mode, etc., reflecting the laws of technology driven, demand driven, discipline integration, high-frequency forward iteration, etc., and playing an increasingly prominent role in scientific research. In the new international situation, the demand for independent innovation of scientific research equipment in China is more urgent. Over the years, China's scientific instrument development has been dominated by integrated innovation, while the original innovation is lacking. To some extent, this has restricted China's development of basic research and output of innovative achievements.

From May 18 to 19, on the occasion of the third anniversary of the establishment of the Guangzhou Laboratory, experts in various fields gathered at the Guangzhou International Biological Island to hold the S71st academic symposium of the Xiangshan Scientific Conference. The experts at the meeting talked about the development strategy of high-end scientific instruments in the new era around the central issues of high-end scientific instruments promoting the development of new paradigm of basic research, key common technologies and core components of high-end scientific instruments, and ecological construction of independent innovation of high-end scientific instruments.

Support major frontier basic research

"'If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools.' Scientific instruments are indispensable tools for scientific research, an important support for promoting scientific and technological innovation, and the material and technical basis for breaking through the frontiers of science, solving economic and social development and national security science and technology problems." Bai Chunli, executive chairman of the meeting and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced.

After decades of continuous development, China's scientific instrument industry has gradually formed a relatively complete scientific and technological innovation system. In terms of discipline construction, China's scientific instrument education resources are very rich, and a perfect scientific instrument education system has been established. There are more than 200 colleges and universities across the country that have established measurement and control technology and instrument majors. In terms of innovation system, China has initially built a platform for large-scale scientific instrument collaboration and sharing, and high-end instrument opening and sharing, and explored a new mode of scientific instrument cooperation and innovation combining industry, university, research and use. In addition, China has cultivated and brought up a number of scientific instrument innovation enterprises.

Dou Xiankang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, said that over the years, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) has continuously improved its funding and management model, facing the frontiers of science and national needs, and taking scientific goals as the orientation, funding will help promote scientific development The development of original scientific instruments and core components that play an important role in exploring the laws of nature and opening up research fields. After years of practice, a number of scientific instruments have been successfully developed with the support of relevant special projects.

Scientific instruments play an important role in promoting the overall level of China's basic research, enhancing the international influence of China's basic research and the ability of independent scientific and technological innovation. For example, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly developed the world's first extreme ultraviolet free electron laser device. This scientific instrument is one of the powerful tools for studying physical and chemical problems related to atomic and molecular processes, and can help scientists in the fields of environment, materials, life science and other fields to reveal molecular dynamics processes and further reveal the mysteries of nature.

The research team of the University of Science and Technology of China has successfully developed the first multi band pulsed single spin magnetic resonance spectrometer in the world, which has realized the detection of single nuclear spin quantum states, can directly measure the composition, structure and dynamic properties of a single material unit on the atomic scale, and has obtained important applications in multi-disciplinary frontier fields such as physics, information, biology, etc. According to the introduction, the research team adopted the idea of "research while developing" to carry out scientific research while developing scientific instruments, and finally achieved a series of important achievements such as obtaining the world's first single protein molecule magnetic resonance spectrum under room temperature atmospheric conditions, creating a new paradigm for scientific instruments to promote basic research.

Urgent to break through key common technologies

In the era of big science, the performance requirements of scientific instruments are getting higher and higher, and the product iteration is getting faster and faster. Bai Chunli said that frontier breakthroughs in many fields rely on major scientific and technological infrastructure working under extreme conditions, and scientists' pursuit of higher performance of scientific instruments is endless.

Experts from astronomy, earth science, life science and other fields proposed that the key common technologies and core components of high-end scientific instruments need to be broken through. Sensor technology, laser technology, mass spectrometry technology, electron microscopy technology, nuclear magnetic resonance technology, optical imaging technology, etc. are all key development directions of key common technologies in high-end scientific instrument development.

Some experts believe that the core key components of scientific instruments are also common and universal. The R&D cycle of core key components is long, involving multi-disciplinary and multidisciplinary cross cutting, and the iterative upgrading characteristics are obvious. Therefore, it is necessary to pay full attention to the innovative role of core key components, establish a good combination system of production, teaching and research, and give long-term support.

You Zheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, pointed out that while the scale of the industry continues to grow, the industrial chain and technical strength of China's scientific instrument industry have developed rapidly, forming a relatively complete industrial system and technological innovation system, and narrowing the gap with the international advanced level. At the same time, China's scientific instrument industry still has many problems, such as following the trend, weak overall independent innovation ability, unsmooth transformation path of scientific and technological achievements, and low reliability, stability, and ease of use of products.

You Zheng mentioned in particular that the establishment of a common technology platform is the key factor to solve the above problems. We should rely on the platform to carry out industry university research cooperation, help enterprises play an innovative role, realize localization of high-end scientific instruments, miniaturization, digitalization, networking and intelligence of general scientific instruments, and provide management and services throughout the product life cycle.

The quality infrastructure (QI) with measurement, standards, inspection and testing, certification and accreditation as the core elements is an important support to promote the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. The experts at the meeting proposed that the support model of "QI+finance" could be established to promote the cooperation of government departments, technical institutions and social capital, build a common technology service platform for QI, form an application verification mechanism and standards, and support the testing and evaluation of scientific instrument prototypes until commercial application. The combination of technology implicit benefits and market explicit benefits may promote high-end scientific instruments to cross the "valley of death" between basic research and commercial application.

Coordinate resources to promote all-round development

"At present, the gap between China's high-end scientific instruments and foreign advanced instruments is still obvious, and the independent development of scientific instruments still faces multiple challenges." In Bai Chunli's view, China's scientific instrument development has not yet formed a good innovation ecology. In terms of technology research and development, the lack of independent mastery of key core technologies has become an important factor affecting industrial development; In terms of talent team, high-end technical talents have been lacking for a long time, and the training system is not perfect; In terms of integration of industry, university and research, the innovation mechanism of close cooperation between industry, university and research is not perfect, the continuous cooperation mechanism is lacking after project acceptance, and the iteration and upgrading of instrument technology is weak.

In order to improve the ecological construction of independent innovation of scientific instruments in China, Xu Tao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and deputy director of Guangzhou Laboratory, called on us to give full play to the advantages of the new nationwide system from the perspective of new changes in artificial intelligence, the construction of domestic scientific instrument ecosystem, and the mining of application scenarios, and to unite with domestic top universities, industry leading enterprises, research hospitals, etc, Realize the full chain coordination of industry, university, research, government, enterprise and finance, and jointly promote the all-round high-quality development of China's high-end scientific instruments.

"To create a good innovation ecology, we should start from 'using it'." Bai Chunli believes that only by putting more domestic instruments and equipment into practical application, can scientific instruments be continuously upgraded through feedback.

Bai Chunli also suggested deepening the reform of science and technology evaluation, and establishing a mechanism for classified management, classified resource allocation, and classified evaluation. He proposed that we should focus on supporting the development of technical support personnel, reshaping the engineer culture, and also pay attention to training large country craftsmen, giving them special development space.

In terms of strengthening government guidance and enterprise leadership, Bai Chunli believes that the government should do a good job in top-level planning, highlight the key points, centralize the use of limited scientific research funds, and build a safe bottom line. As the innovation subject of scientific instruments, enterprises should take the lead in establishing an innovation team for production, teaching, research and application, strengthen the industrial chain and supply chain of scientific instruments, and open up the application and transformation channels of scientific instrument research achievements.

"We should adhere to resource planning and coordinated development, use social resources to cultivate industrial clusters, create first-class enterprises and famous brands, build a collaborative platform to gather high-end talents, improve the policy environment and create a good ecology," said Bai Chunli.

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