In 2024, China approved the establishment of 1135 national standard substances.

       In 2024, the State Administration for Market Regulation approved the establishment of 1,135 new national standard substances, a 51.9% increase year-on-year. The total number exceeded 18,000 for the first time, providing strong support for ensuring that all sectors of the economy and society can 'measure and measure accurately'.

       From the perspective of distribution areas, primary standard substances in the food category and secondary standard substances in the environmental category account for a larger proportion. In 2024, 83 new national primary standard substances were approved, a 22.1% increase year-on-year. Among them, 45 were food-related standard substances, accounting for 54.2%; and 3 were environment-related standard substances, accounting for 3.6%. The distribution of application areas for newly established national primary standard substances is uneven, with the number of food-related standard substances being 15 times that of environment-related ones.

       In 2024, 1,052 new national secondary standard substances were approved, a 54.9% increase year-on-year. Among them, 578 were environment-related standard substances, accounting for 54.9%; and 1 was nuclear materials and radioactive-related standard substance, accounting for 0.1%. The distribution of application areas for newly established national secondary standard substances is affected by the market, with the number of environment-related standard substances accounting for over 50%, while there is only 1 nuclear materials and radioactive-related standard substance.

       National primary standard substances clearly serve national strategic needs. National primary standard substances represent the highest domestic level in their respective fields, and their research and development target the forefront of science and technology and basic applications. The newly established food-related national primary standard substances in 2024 are applied to veterinary drug residue detection, genetically modified corn detection, and heavy metal content detection in vegetables and grains, meeting the high-accuracy and technically challenging standard substance application needs in the food testing field to support China's food safety supervision work; chemical and environmental national primary standard substances are mainly oriented towards greenhouse gas emissions and environmental monitoring, among which gas standard substances that meet high-precision carbon monitoring requirements provide a high-precision 'ruler' for national carbon monitoring; physicochemical properties and engineering technology standard substances are mainly oriented towards precision manufacturing and energy performance-related testing, providing traceability-assured measurement standards for China's precision manufacturing and crude oil cetane number and viscosity.

       The division of labor among standard substance research institutions is becoming increasingly clear. National primary standard substances have high technical difficulty, high investment, long research and development cycles, and slow returns. Their applicant entities are mainly research institutions. Among the 83 approved national primary standard substances, 55 were developed by research institutions, accounting for 66.3%. The research and production of national secondary standard substances are mainly driven by market demand and economic benefits, with enterprises becoming the main providers, and the industrialization characteristics of standard substances becoming more prominent. Among the approved national secondary standard substances, research institutions developed 153, accounting for 14.5%; and enterprises developed 899, accounting for 85.5%. The research results of research institutions and enterprises have basically formed a complementarity, with research institutions focusing on tackling key scientific and technological problems at the forefront of science and technology to support national strategic basic needs, and enterprises facing the market to meet the personalized needs of specific fields.

       Private enterprises have become an important force in the research and development of standard substances. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council attach great importance to the development of the private economy and have introduced a series of significant policies to promote the development and growth of the private economy. In the field of standard substances, private enterprises closely follow the actual application needs of standard substances and dynamically adjust their research and development deployments, making significant progress in the research and development of standard substances. Among the newly established national standard substances in 2024, 847 were developed by private research institutions, accounting for 74.6%. Against the backdrop of accelerating the construction of a unified national market, research and development activities of private research institutions are active, ensuring the effective supply of national standard substances.