China Selects First Young Researchers for 15-Year Science Grants

The National Natural Science Foundation of China has chosen 44 young scientists for long-term funding designed to support higher-risk, potentially groundbreaking research.

China has selected its first group of young researchers to receive funding for up to 15 years, making the programme one of the longest research grants offered to scientists worldwide.

Nicole White, a statistician at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, said most research funding is awarded through grants lasting five years or less. Short funding cycles can favour projects that produce results quickly, penalizing riskier but potentially groundbreaking research and ending promising work before its full impact can be realized, she said.

“Some of the most impactful scientific discoveries have taken decades, not years, to achieve,” White added.

China’s 15-year research funding programme

Dou Xiankang, president of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), explained the agency’s latest efforts at the New Cornerstone Science Foundation’s Aforum in Shenzhen on 19 September. He said 44 researchers under the age of 35, including women under 38, had been selected for the National Outstanding Young Scientist Fund. Nine of the recipients are from outside China. Their names and projects have not been made public.

Dou said at the forum that the 15-year subsidy would follow a “five-plus-five-plus-five arrangement”. Recipients whose first five-year grant is about to end will be considered for a second five-year grant. Another portion will be selected for a third five-year grant 10 years later.

“For those 15 years, we don’t do any short-term goal evaluation. The only thing we evaluate is whether you’re in the lab or not,” Dou said at the forum.

Funding increases over three five-year periods

The NSFC first announced plans to create a 15-year subsidy in 2023. It said the funding would be worth 4 million yuan (US$596,000) for the first five years, rising to 8 million yuan for the next five years and 16 million yuan for the final five years.

The NSFC is also increasing funding for young researchers. Earlier this year, the agency pledged to increase the number of grants offered to young scientists by 50% and add 12,000 projects through its Young Scientist Fund.

A longer-term outlook for scientific research

Supporters of longer research grants say that stable funding can give scientists more time to pursue ambitious questions and develop discoveries whose effects may take decades to emerge.