Publication of National Natural Science Foundation of China on the Release of the Guidelines for the Third Batch of Major Programs of the 14th Five-Year Plan and Notes for Application
I. Funding Orientation
The major projects are oriented to the scientific frontiers and major scientific problems in the national economy, society, scientific and technological development and national security, and are deployed ahead of time to carry out multidisciplinary cross-disciplinary and comprehensive research, giving full play to their supportive and leading roles, and enhancing China’s basic research source innovation capability.
II. Application conditions and requirements
1. Application conditions.
The applicant of a major project or the applicant of a major project subject shall have the following conditions:
1). experience in undertaking basic research projects;
2). have senior professional and technical positions (titles).
Postdoctoral researchers on station, those who are pursuing postgraduate degrees, and scientific and technological personnel without work units or whose units are not supporting units shall not be allowed to apply as applicants.
If some of the major projects have special requirements on application conditions, the guidelines of the relevant major projects shall prevail.
2. Application Requirements.
1). The funding period of major projects is 5 years, and the research period in the application should be filled in January 1, 2024 – December 31, 2028.
2). Each major project shall set up no more than five topics around the scientific objectives, and write the application form for the project and the application form for the topics respectively. Only the overall application will be accepted for major projects, and the project applicant shall be the applicant of one of the topics.
If the applicant and the participant of a major project are not in the same unit, the unit of the participant shall be regarded as a cooperative research unit (overseas units shall not be regarded as cooperative research units). The number of cooperative research units for each topic shall not exceed 2. The total number of supporting units and cooperative research units (including cooperative research units of each topic) for each major project shall not exceed 5.
III. Application Regulations for Limited Items
1. Applicants (excluding major participants) can only apply for one major project in the same year. The project chairperson and the person in charge of the project who received funding for the major project in the previous year shall not apply for the major project as the project applicant or the subject applicant in the current year.
2. According to the “Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the General Office of the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Natural Science Foundation Commission on Further Strengthening the Management of Integrated National Science and Technology Program Projects”, major projects of the Science Foundation (limited to project chairpersons and project leaders), projects of the Center for Basic Science (limited to academic leaders and key members), and projects for the development of national major scientific research instruments (limited to the project chairpersons of the departmental recommended projects and the key participants with senior titles) can only apply for one major project in the same year. (for project leaders and key participants with senior titles), National Key R&D Program projects (excluding young scientists’ projects, projects of science and technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and international cooperation projects; for project leaders and subject leaders only), and Science and Technology Innovation 2030 – Major Projects (excluding young scientists’ projects; for project leaders and subject leaders only), shall be implemented as joint projects, and researchers shall apply and undertake projects (subjects) during the same period. In principle, the number of projects (subjects) applied for and undertaken by researchers shall not exceed two. Projects (topics) whose funding period expires in the year of application will not be counted in the scope of statistics.
- Other requirements for application of limited projects shall be implemented in accordance with the “Regulations on Application of Limited Projects” in the “2023 NSF Program Guide”.
IV. Application considerations
- Receipt of project applications.
Paperless applications are implemented for major projects. Applications will be submitted from August 25, 2023 to August 31, 2023, 16:00.
2. Notes to Applicants.
When filling out the application form for major projects or the subject application form, applicants should select the attributes of the scientific questions based on the key scientific questions to be addressed and the content of the research. If the application project has multiple attributes of scientific issues, the applicant shall choose the attributes of one type of scientific issues that are most compatible, focused and can best reflect the characteristics of the application project.
The application form for a major project or an application form for a subject is written online, and the specific requirements for the applicant are as follows:
- Before filling in the application form, the applicant should carefully read the relevant contents of this program guide and the 2023 NSF Program Guide, and applications that do not comply with the program guide and relevant requirements will not be accepted.
- Applicants should log in the Science Foundation Network Information System http://grants.nsfc.gov.cn/ (hereinafter referred to as the information system, applicants who do not have an information system account should apply for an account with the fund management contact person of the relying unit), and then write the application form according to the requirements of the outline of the application form for a major project or an application form for a subject.
3. The project applicant of a major project should first fill out the “project application” in the information system, and then give the applicant of the major project subject to the subject of the application authority, the applicant will not be able to submit the application without the empowerment of the subject.
4. Select “Major Project” for the funding category of the application form, select “Project Application” or “Subject Application” for the subcategory description, and select the relevant Major Project Guidelines for the note description. Name, according to the specific research content of the application, select the corresponding application code (if some major projects have specific requirements, fill in the application code according to the relevant guidelines for major projects).
5. If the applicant has undertaken other science and technology projects related to the major project applied for, the applicant shall explain the difference and connection between this project application and other related projects in the “Research Basis and Working Conditions” part of the application form.
The main participants in the project application form should only fill in the relevant information of the applicant of each project; the main participants in the project application form should include the relevant information of all the main members of the project.
6. The applicant should prepare the project budget in strict accordance with the “Measures for the Administration of Funds for NSF-Subsidized Projects” and the “Application Requirements” in the “2023 NSF Project Guidelines”.
7. After the applicant has finished writing the application form, he/she shall submit the electronic application form and attached materials online. The applicant shall submit the application form for the project or the application form for the subject through the respective supporting unit. Among them, the applicant of the project shall submit the application form of the project first, and the applicant of the project shall submit the application form of the project after all the applications of the project have been submitted and the total budget table of the project has been generated without any error.