Since the 1990s, the governance pattern of the US national laboratories experienced a new round of adjustment. This paper outlines the problems and the countermeasures identified in the reviews of the US national laboratory, highlighting the governance issues in the strategic planning, the contracts, the assessments, and the budgets. Furthermore, the reform measures are summarized as defining the roles and the responsibility, focusing on the core mission, restoring the federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) model and ensuring a lasting change. Last but not least, based on the operational practice of China's national laboratories, suggestions are made for the construction of China's national laboratory as authorizing national laboratories with an appropriate legal person status, strengthening the support for national laboratories, optimizing the governance structure, and enhancing the strategic planning of national laboratories.

national laboratories  /  governance model  /  management system