The Ordos Laboratory is a new type of research and development institution established under the leadership of the Ordos municipal government, with a primary focus on modern energy and coal chemical industries. It concentrates on scientific and technological innovation in areas such as the clean and efficient utilization of coal, green and low-carbon development, the modern coal chemical industry, new energy, and the digital and intelligent transformation of the energy sector. The laboratory aims to become a major national scientific innovation platform and an influential hub for technological innovation both domestically and internationally. On August 6, 2023, it was approved by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Government as the Inner Mongolia Laboratory.

To ensure high standards in building the Ordos Laboratory with strong foundations and quality, the Ordos municipal government signed a strategic cooperation agreement on technological innovation with Tsinghua University. By leveraging Tsinghua's advantages in research, talent, and innovation resources, the laboratory is supported in team building, project planning, major technological breakthroughs, and the transformation of research outcomes.

The Ordos Laboratory is establishing an industry-university-research collaboration platform focusing on four major directions and one central hub to promote the application and transformation of scientific achievements. The four directions include: New Coal Chemical Technologies, marked by the industrial demonstration of aromatic hydrocarbon production from coal-based syngas in fluidized beds at the 10,000-ton scale, aiming to create a new benchmark in Inner Mongolia’s modern coal chemical industry; Green Energy, focusing on synthetic green aviation fuel from renewable wind and solar energy and CO₂, proposing a profitable industrial process under the dual-carbon goal; Industrial Thermal Energy Storage, aiming to resolve the contradiction between the intermittency of renewable energy and the stability required by industrial processes, proposing a green, low-cost, long-duration energy storage solution; Mass Production of Advanced Materials, based on structural control and enhanced transfer in fluidized powder beds, enabling the mass production of high-value carbon-/silicon-based new materials. The One Central Hub is a high-end testing center supporting all four directions, featuring advanced high spatial and temporal resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy.

The Ordos Laboratory adopts a flexible system and mechanism, operating under a legal governance structure centered on the Board of Directors and managed by a director under its leadership. The laboratory is mainly funded by the Ordos municipal government, providing sufficient resources for construction, research, operations, and office space. Embracing an open and collaborative development model, the laboratory appoints leading experts from top domestic universities as directors and adopts a “1+N” construction model. This model enables cross-institutional and cross-regional cooperation with top universities, research institutes, and leading enterprises, creating a collaborative innovation ecosystem that is strong in capabilities and rich in high-end innovation resources.