Abstract: The construction of national technology and innovation centres is an important measure for optimizing the layout of China's national scientific research bases(platforms) in the "13th five-year" period. According to empirical analysis and case study of the UK's network of catapult centres and high value manufacturing catapult centre, this paper finds that the UK's related experiences are defining catapult's functional positioning, selecting comprehensive and representative supporting institutions, and ensuring the materialization of operational institutions, the standardization of organizational structure and the professionalization of staff. China can obtain five important enlightenments on the construction of China's national technology and innovation centres from the UK. The first is to designate regulatory agency at the national level and strengthen the top design and co-ordination; the second is to reduce the management levels and reform management methods; the third is to clear centres' functional positioning and innovate operation mechanism; the fourth is to control the number of centres and increase the funding; the fifth is to strengthen the information construction and pay more attention to transparent and open communication.