The National Laboratory was established with a direct investment of 100 million yuan by the state (for example, the Wuhan Optoelectronic National Laboratory built on the campus of China University of Science and Technology invested 480 million yuan). At present, there are only nine national laboratories (including Beijing Positive and Negative Ion Collision Base and Huazhong University of Science and Technology Optoelectronic National Laboratory). The national laboratory represents the highest level of the country and is established in accordance with international first-class standards. Their scale is very large, covering almost all research directions in this field, and the staffing requirements require the recruitment of the best researchers at home and abroad.
The State Key Laboratory passed the national appraisal. After being identified, you can get more money from the country every year. There are hundreds of State Key Laboratories, and the research direction is relatively narrow.
The national laboratory and the national key laboratory are two completely different concepts, not a heavyweight, and five national key laboratories are not comparable to one national laboratory.