How a great national laboratory works

Since January 2016, as a postdoctoral fellow of Tsinghua University and Stanford University, I have entered the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) to conduct research work to closely observe the operation of this famous research institution. Here, my specific work is to use advanced light source equipment to study the mechanism of energy storage battery materials.
In the scientific world, LBL is almost synonymous with "excellence." As one of the national laboratories of the United States, the honor associated with it: 13 scientists won the Nobel Prize, 15 scientists won the National Medal of Science, 1 scientist won the National Medal of Technology Innovation, and 70 scientists are the American Academy of Sciences. academician……
My collaborator, Stanford University professor and academician of the American Academy of Sciences, Mr. Shen Zhixun, mentioned in a conversation with me that LBL's operating model is very representative in the US National Laboratory. His words made me pay special attention to the operation mode of the national laboratory.

Is the National Laboratory a "Golden Rice Bowl"?
As we all know, as a world-wide scientific research base, the National Laboratory has developed and developed around the Second World War. It conducts basic and strategic research tasks around the national mission, and solves national security issues through multidisciplinary cross-assisted assistance. Major scientific and technological issues in the overall economic and social development.
National laboratories are an important part of the national innovation system. The Chinese government approved the establishment of 15 national laboratories in 2003 and 2006, but the basics are still in the state of preparation.
Until the National Science and Technology Work Conference in January this year, the Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang proposed that in 2017, according to the principle of “mature one, start one”, the establishment of national laboratories in major innovation fields will be initiated. In my understanding, this means that China's national laboratories will be listed this year, and the hat of "funding" will be removed.
As a researcher, I am concerned about how our national laboratories operate. How much can I get every year? Can we use these national laboratories?
Coincidentally, in March, my Advanced Light Source (ALS) was evaluated by the US Department of Energy and disclosed the report materials submitted by ALS to the US Department of Energy to all laboratory personnel. 》. In combination with my knowledge, I want to talk about the national laboratory operating mechanism in my eyes.
Like many newcomers, I was confused about the relationship between LBL and the University of California at Berkeley. LBL is part of the US Department of Energy, but what's interesting is that the US Department of Energy does not actually participate in the operation of the laboratory, but is managed by the University of California. The director of LBL was appointed by the University of California Board of Directors and reported to the University of California, and more than 20 Department of Energy employees were stationed at LBL to exercise federal government oversight of LBL. This makes LBL management free from the excessive and even blind intervention of administrative power, and relatively independent to operate professionally according to academic norms.
This management model has enabled the university to form an effective and complementary relationship with the national laboratory. In the UC system, the closest link to LBL is Berkeley. Naturally close geographical location makes the two closely related: 2015 data shows that more than 200 LBL researchers are concurrently professors at Berkeley, and more than 500 Berkeley students are conducting research at LBL. LBL has effectively improved Berkeley's research level. Even some people say that LBL has made Berkeley today. Although this statement may seem exaggerated, I personally feel that it is not entirely unreasonable.
It is worth mentioning that although LBL seems to be "reasonable" by the University of California, the history of the founder, the founder of the laboratory, Nobel laureate Ernest Lawrence is Professor Berkeley, and geographically two The institutions are so close—but in terms of institutional design, there is a competitive elimination mechanism: The US Department of Energy conducts an assessment of the University of California every five years to assess the management level and quality of the LBL. To be precise, the reason why UC can manage LBL on its behalf is not only historical or geographical factors, but more importantly, effective management. Some national laboratories have had an "unfortunate" change of ownership in the past. For example, in 2006, Los Alamos National Laboratory was no longer managed by the University of California, and was replaced by Los Alamos National Security Company; In the same year, the management of Argonne National Laboratory was also changed from the University of Chicago to Zhida Agung Co., Ltd. This elimination mechanism has broken the illusion that third-party institutions permanently hold the “golden rice bowl” and is conducive to improving the management performance of national laboratories.

Why don't scientists go to "apply for projects"?
How large is the LBL? It now has 3,304 employees. According to the US Department of Energy's plan, national laboratories should pay more attention to the intersection of science, rather than within each discipline; the value of national laboratories is that they can engage in cross-disciplinary research that is difficult for universities or private research institutions to carry out. To this end, LBL has built 5 sets of large scientific devices, and established corresponding research teams: Advanced Light Source Laboratory, Energy Science Network Center, Joint Genome Research Institute, Molecular Foundry Factory, and Energy Research Scientific Computing Center.
In my opinion, the large scientific device and the large scientific research team have formed a very obvious scale advantage of LBL: on the one hand, in the creation of science, LBL has formed a powerful impact on the expansion of human knowledge boundaries, with the Advanced Light Source Laboratory (ALS) as For example, in the newly disclosed data, during the three years from 2014 to 2016, ALS directly or indirectly contributed more than 3,000 research results (journal papers, conference papers, dissertations, patents, books, etc.), equivalent to 3 per day. On the other hand, LBL has made outstanding contributions to the development of the national economy. Taking the results of the 2010 assessment as an example, LBL’s annual financial expenditure was about 690 million US dollars, employing more than 3,200 employees. And its contribution to the US economy is as high as 1.6 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to the income of 2.3 US dollars for every dollar invested by the society. At the same time, it also creates 12,000 jobs for the United States, and each employee drives 3.3 jobs.
It can be seen that the scale advantage of the national laboratory cannot be underestimated. When constructing a national laboratory, China should fully consider the needs and advantages of universities and large industrial enterprises, effectively consolidate and integrate national financial resources and scientific and technological resources, and play the role of its national innovation platform and economic growth engine.
LBL is not bad money? I can't summarize the situation of all the labs or research teams in LBL, but my ALS, or more specifically, my research group is "not bad money." ALS is one of the major scientific devices owned by LBL, and its personnel management system is representative.
I joined the research team of Yang Wanli during the ALS visit. Interestingly, although we have our own research topics, he almost never applied for projects to get research funding. There is a system behind this "not bad money" situation. According to official statistics, there are currently 175 professional scientists working at ALS like Yang Wanli. The amount and practicality of the funds are very open and transparent.
In terms of funding, ALS enjoys a US$60 million financial allocation from the US Department of Energy each year, of which about one-third is for hardware and software, and the remaining two-thirds are for scientific research personnel. It is worth noting that ALS is very flexible for the performance appraisal of researchers. Their salary level is not directly dependent on their publication of articles, patents, and completion of the project every year. In addition, the research funding is relatively sufficient, and the researchers have little motivation. Going to apply for projects and funding research funding has circumvented many tedious stylizations. This continuous large investment and relatively loose management can enable researchers to choose the direction of the subject more than their mission and interest, and engage in scientific research without any problems. It can also enable the laboratory to attract a large number of outstanding scientific and technological talents on a global scale. It is conducive to the birth of major scientific discoveries and subversive innovations.

Who can use the national laboratory?
When working at LBL, we were often able to see some visitors visiting the lab under the leadership of the staff. Anyone can apply for this tour through the official website, the program is very simple and convenient. Of course, this is just a small epitome of the free and open style of the laboratory.
As the founder of the laboratory, Professor Lawrence himself admires the free and open academic research atmosphere. He believes that individuals with different fields of expertise can work together to conduct scientific research better.
At the same time, in ALS, thousands of researchers each year gather here from all over the world. As users, they use advanced light sources to carry out research work in various disciplines. The US Department of Energy conducted a three-year assessment of ALS. The report disclosed some basic information about the operation during the period from 2014 to 2016: During the three years from 2014 to 2016, ALS received a total of 7,320 light source users, which was more than the previous three years. Increase by 20%. This means that 60 to 120 users are used at the same time during the operation of the advanced light source; geographically, only 16% of the 7320 light source users are from within the LBL, and 34% are from other parts of California. 31% came from other parts of the United States, and the remaining 19% came from other countries. In terms of subject distribution, about 30% of the 7320 light source users are from life sciences, about 30% are from materials, about 15% are from physics, about 15% are from chemistry, and about 8% are from earth ecology. 2% are from other disciplines.
Through these data, we can intuitively feel the research atmosphere here. The situation that researchers from different regions and different disciplines work together is very important for academic innovation. This is also the platform advantage of national laboratories, promoting interdisciplinary research, and conducting comprehensive research. A big embodiment.
Advanced light source as a large scientific device, scientific research personnel in any discipline anywhere in the world can apply for ALS to conduct experiments in principle. With a half-year cycle, users can submit the application for light source use for the next half year in the last half year. According to ALS statistics, during the three years from 2014 to 2016, the average annual running time of ALS was 5,000 hours, and the average accepted application for use was as high as 1,600. In other words, an average of 3 hours of use per application is required, and the experimental time of the light source is extremely valuable.
Then, how to determine the time allocation becomes a topic worthy of attention. Who can use the lab? How to eliminate the impact of human factors on time allocation? For example, as a national laboratory in the United States, will ALS take care of its own research applications?
In fact, in order to distribute the light source time reasonably and reasonably, ALS has established a very large database of experts, and the application is randomly submitted to several experts in the database for review. Experts refer to the contents of the application and only score according to the scientific value of the research topic, and will not treat the geographical and institutional aspects of the application. This academic-based review system eliminates the influence of human factors in the distribution of light source time, ensuring that limited resources are used for the most valuable research. This highlights the social responsibility and value orientation of the American National Laboratory.
Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang said at the National Science and Technology Work Conference that this year the official establishment of the national laboratory will be officially launched. This indicates that the construction of China's national laboratories has entered a substantive operational stage; but at the same time, he also said that the key to building a national laboratory is to do a good job in the design of management mechanisms and the choice of fields.
In my opinion, any model or system is not omnipotent. We need to develop strengths and circumvent weaknesses according to our actual situation. We have the advantage of latecomer. We should establish confidence and determination and strive to achieve overtaking in corners. One thing that can be certain is that today, with the rapid development of global economic and social development, the power of scientific and technological innovation has become the core of the country's comprehensive strength. The construction of China's national laboratories has become increasingly important and urgent.

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