Of these factors, responses to the more open-ended questions suggested that, despite the rapid advances of recent years, lack of research capacity was foremost in the minds of our Chinese respondents. Six called for more concerted programmes of research into genomics and health in China, including measures to improve professional and academic development in this field. One respondent also emphasised the need to extend research initiatives from existing centres of excellence to include other parts of the country, with training and mentoring networks and measures to promote the kinds of “standard design, technical methods, work protocols for research” that would facilitate co-ordination and data-sharing between different centres.