Construction has begun on the national major scientific infrastructure project “Offshore Floating Island.”

On March 28, 2024, the national major science and technology infrastructure "floating island in the open sea" (officially known as the all-weather floating research facility in the far-reaching sea) started construction in Shanghai. The project is undertaken by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and is the world's first super-large marine comprehensive scientific research platform. The main system of its core facility platform innovatively adopts the "semi-submersible double hull" ship type scheme, which enables it to have two key capabilities: one is to carry 100-ton large-scale deep-sea equipment for real-sea tests; The second is to support scientific exploration and experimental research at a depth of 10,000 meters. The whole large scientific device consists of three major systems: the main body of the facility platform, the ship-borne laboratory and the shore-based support. It is expected that after its completion in 2030, the "floating island in the open sea" will become a multi-functional national marine research base, which can carry the scientific research needs of marine equipment, marine resources and marine science at the same time. Specific applications include: providing a vital real sea test platform for deep-sea mining systems, key supporting equipment for ships and marine engineering, offshore oil and gas equipment, etc., and accelerating the commercial exploitation and utilization of marine resources; revealing marine ecosystems through long-term observation Seasonal evolution laws, exploring scientific mysteries such as the origin and evolution of life; in addition, its continuous marine environment monitoring data are also expected to further improve the accuracy of typhoon forecasting, so as to enhance the country's disaster prevention and mitigation capacity.