For many small and medium-sized enterprises and startup teams, research equipment costing millions of yuan was once an insurmountable barrier. Now, this barrier is being broken in Hunan Xiangjiang New Area.

According to the Science and Technology Innovation and Industry Promotion Bureau of Xiangjiang New Area, a total of 2,788 units (sets) of instruments and equipment available for public access and sharing have been identified, all integrated into the "Instrument and Equipment Shared Platform of Changsha High-tech Zone Entrepreneurship Service Center." Users can directly book shared instruments from universities, research institutes, and enterprises online, with each equipment labeled with the corresponding contact person for convenient and efficient coordination.

Breaking down barriers to research resources and bringing dormant instruments back to life are the core objectives of this large-scale open sharing initiative. Among the university resources in Xiangjiang New Area, Hunan University has shown particularly outstanding performance in resource sharing. The university's large-scale instrument sharing service platform has placed 565 major instruments under management, all of which are available for shared use by both on-campus and off-campus users. By the end of 2025, the university had a total of 234 large-scale research instruments with a unit price of 500,000 yuan and above available for sharing. In 2025, total machine hours for external services exceeded 7,300, nearly doubling from 2024, serving 178 external users including universities, research institutes, and enterprises.

To encourage more units to make their instruments available for public use and more users to utilize shared resources, Xiangjiang New Area has introduced incentive policies: management units that open and share resources can receive post-subsidies of up to 20% of shared revenue; college student startup teams using shared instruments may receive subsidies covering up to 85% of their testing and inspection costs. Xiangjiang New Area will also provide additional subsidies for construction and operation of the shared platforms, and open sharing of instruments.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn.  

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: Voice of Hunan