How to tag a research laboratory?

As someone who has worked in various research laboratories and an early (possibly the only) user of amenity=research_institution tag I would in general recommend use of a tag like this: amenity=research_institute is much more popular and clearly the two are synonyms, so the latter is to be preferred.

Most places describing themselves as laboratories will be of this type (e.g., Molecular Biology Laboratory, Cambridge), although some may be simply commercial service providers for healthcare or industrial testing. In general the latter may fit into office or landuse=industrial categories.

These remarks apply principally to scientific or engineering research, as humanties research bodies tend to be smaller and have a lower need for dedicated facilities. Research institutions may be academic, governmental or quasi-governmental , not-for-profit or commercial. Related things include the buildings occupied by learned societies and professional associations (in the UK mainly in London & Edinburgh). Some GLAMs are related: specialist research libraries, extensive parts of national museums etc.

Another key is office=research, but this is clearly an inappropriate extension of use of the office tag as many research institutions will contain a limited amount of office space, and the tag will not reflect things like hazards (e.g. ones I've encountered: explosions, noxious chemicals, radiation, biohazards), that most space is taken up with non-office things like animal houses, laboratories, fields (for agriculture research), workshops.

I would keep the specific tag laboratory for a room or series of rooms within either a research or higher education institution (where they may be designated for research or teaching).

Note that vivarium as a term does not or should not relate to laboratories. Usually these are places in zoos or similar institutions designed for exhibiting live terrestrial animals and is formed analogously to aquarium. Faculties for keeping experimental animals are completely different.

Note: thanks to Max Erickson for pointing out that research_institute is more widely used than my original suggestion of research_institution.