Abstract: The safety of university laboratories is fundamental to fostering high-quality talent and sustaining the production of high-impact research outcomes. To bolster the management capabilities for mitigating safety risks in university laboratory zones, a novel safety risk assessment framework was introduced based on an extensive risk profiling of 135 laboratories in Nanjing. This framework encompassed six primary indicators: fundamental safety conditions, hazardous materials management, equipment, facilities and processes, safety risk mitigation, emergency preparedness, as well as personnel safety competencies. These primary indicators were further refined into 29 secondary indicators and 67 objective evaluation criteria. Additionally, a scoring protocol and computational methodology was formulated to mitigate subjectivity in the assessment process. Through comprehensive evaluations and comparative analyses of results from three laboratories across two universities, the scientific rigor and applicability of the new framework were validated. The evaluation results underscored that the framework could effectively assign scientific ratings to laboratory safety risks and accurately reflect the risk status of laboratories across various dimensions. This new framework is adaptable to different types of laboratories, addressing the issues of previous assessment standards being vague and indicator sets being incomplete, thereby significantly enhancing the level of granular safety management in university laboratories.

Key words: 　university laboratory, safety risk, laboratory safety, risk assessment system