An unmanned intelligent delivery vehicle runs around a hotel for COVID-19 quarantine in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, March 22, 2022.Photo:Xinhua

To better promote regional scientific innovation and economic development in the Yangtze-River Delta, a major economic hub, the government of East China's Anhui Province has recently reaffirmed a commitment to building a platform that facilitates public use of large-scale scientific instruments.

In a draft regulation addressing the promotion of scientific and technological progress passed at the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth People's Congress of Anhui Province, there is a stipulation for colleges and universities in the province to include their large-scale scientific instruments in the national network management platform for major scientific research infrastructures and large-scale scientific research instruments for public use.

According to statistics, nearly 40 educational organizations have gathered 1,792 sets of scientific research instruments as part of the newly established platform, valued at more than 2.4 billion yuan ($358 million) and mainly covering electronic information, new materials and new energy, biological medicine and food and other categories.

Within the Biotechnology Center of Anhui Agricultural University, the existing 59 sets of large-scale instruments and equipment have been included in the open platform for the province. The instruments will be used to provide quality monitoring of agricultural products and analysis of soil organics structure for enterprises and scientific research institutions throughout the Yangtze River Delta region.

The shared service will enable the efficient use of resources, which can greatly improve the scientific, standardized and information-based management of large-scale scientific instruments and equipment in the Yangtze River Delta region, said Ye Hui, deputy director of the Biotechnology Center of Anhui Agricultural University, according to local media reports.

In the future, Anhui will rely on the co-construction and sharing of major scientific research infrastructure to promote joint implementation of major national scientific research projects in the Yangtze River Delta region.