To further condense the major development tasks of the Laboratory and dovetail with the strategic needs of national healthcare, the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory held the annual strategic planning meeting for 2022 on February 15, to set the goals of the major tasks of the Laboratory for the next two and five years. Professor Lin Jianhua, Special Advisor of the Laboratory, Zhan Qimin, Strategic Advisor of the Laboratory, Wu Yun-Dong, Executive Vice Director of the Laboratory, Zhong Hai, Vice Director of the Municipal Science and Technology Innovation Commission, Hu Xiaojun, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Laboratory, Tu Huan, Vice Director of the Laboratory, Wu Feng, Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Committee and other leaders attended the meeting, and nearly 100 people attended the meeting online and offline, including all full-time Principal Investigator of the Laboratory, directors of various platforms/centers and heads of administration units. Wu Yun-Dong, Hu Xiaojun and Gao Yiqin presided over the meeting respectively.

At the beginning of the meeting, Lin Jianhua and Zhan Qimin gave high praise to the achievements of the Laboratory in the past three years. The Laboratory has laid a solid foundation for its development so far, and has made great progress in the construction of the human resources team, the layout of scientific research and translation, the improvement of the system and the creation of a research environment. They stressed that the refining of major tasks need to manifest the scientific research characteristics of the Laboratory, set out from the national science and technology development strategy, and to layout relevant researches for the major scientific frontier issues of people's life and health. The relevant research areas should be developed to create the label of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. It was important to give full play to the potential of scientists and produce scientific findings while allowing investigators to have better development; We must be bold and creative and dare to step into the gap area.

Zhong Hai expressed his recognition and congratulations on the achievements of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory and raised three expectations. Firstly, combining major research and capacity development, seeking to undertake more national and local projects; secondly, fully promoting and supporting the work related to the construction of national strategic science and technology force system; thirdly, combining demand and theory, and seeking to incorporate the refined major task projects into the national system.

Then, Wu Yun-Dong delivered a report on “Summary of the Progress of Laboratory Construction and Reflections on Future Development”. The report analyzed the current situation of biomedical research institutions in China and abroad, and summarized the introduction of talents, scientific research progress and highlight achievements; proposed the overall development layout of the Laboratory and the positioning objectives of the Laboratory with regard to basic research, scientific research layout, clinical and industrial needs and translational research, and made arrangements for the next step of work.

At the meeting, the Office for Research introduced the national science and technology planning system, and the Department of Platform introduced the progress and planning of platform construction. After that, the heads of the major projects reported on the progress of the projects over the past year. The institutes combined their key research directions to carry out major tasks refined with regard to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of major diseases such as cancer, neurological and infectious diseases to carry out research on disease mechanisms, life information and innovative drugs, and the centers also reported on their task planning. After the reports, all the Principal Investigators discussed in groups, sharing their views and ideas, reviewing the current situation in the field, sorting out important development issues and discussing strategic goals, offering their opinions and suggestions for the future of the Laboratory.

Wu Yun-Dong made the concluding remarks. He said that the development of the Laboratory was inseparable from the strong support of the state and local governments. Over the three years of construction, a series of important progresses had been made in platform construction, talent introduction and scientific research, which laid a solid foundation for the further development of the Laboratory. The strategic planning meeting was held to set clear goals for major tasks in the next two and five years. All scientists in the Laboratory have firmed the direction to work in unison, strengthen cooperation, give full play to the individual creativity and initiative of scientists, and to ensure that each plan falls into place solidly, thus developing the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory into a world-class academic research centre in the field of life sciences and biomedicine, gathering more outstanding talents and producing more original innovative achievements. It is believed that through this strategic planning, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory will advance to a higher stage and head for a new milestone.