Abstract:Although public research institutes are very important for the national innovation development, the theoretical and empirical research on the institutions has been neglected for a long time. Today, under the background that the United States, Germany, and other countries rethinking the development orientation and mode of their national laboratories while the Chinese starting the construction of national laboratories, it is particularly urgent to carry out relevant theoretical research. Based on the understanding of the evolution of national scientific research institutions' mission, it is worth of trying to construct the classification model of national scientific research institutions by using institutional logic theory, providing decision-making reference for advancing classified management of national research institutions.