In late October, the revised draft of the Regulations on the National Natural Science Fund  was approved in the State Council executive meeting.

The original regulations were released 17 years ago. They were drawn up in accordance with the Law of the People's Republic of China on Progress of Science and Technology for the purpose of standardizing the use and management of the National Natural Science Fund, increasing the efficiency, promoting basic research, training talent in science and technology and enhancing the capability for indigenous innovation.

With the rapid development of science and technology and its impacts on a changing world, the original regulations can no longer fully meet current needs. Therefore, it is particularly important to make timely revisions.

Aimed at strengthening basic research and consolidating the foundation for scientific and technological development, the establishment of the new regulations will:

•Strengthen the forward-looking, strategic, and systematic development of basic research, enhance funding support for significant original and interdisciplinary innovation, and foster the development of young scientific and technical personnel.

•Encourage greater involvement of social forces in basic research. This can be achieved by encouraging enterprises and organizations to co-invest and establish a collaborative mechanism for sci-tech innovation.

The revised draft states that the fund will increase support for cross-disciplinary integration projects in the evaluation of various proposals. It emphasizes that priority will be given to projects with clear interdisciplinary characteristics that are expected to drive future scientific and technological advancements.

The revised draft also stresses the critical role of young talent in sci-tech development and suggests attracting and nurturing them through the establishment of various programs and targeted resource allocation.

The meeting emphasized that it is important to manage the National Natural Science Fund in accordance with the law, adhering to the principles of openness, fairness, and justice, and to improve performance evaluation mechanisms and strictly punish any misconduct related to scientific integrity.

In addition, the revised draft calls for improved budget performance management and allows for performance incentives. The reform will be implemented in an ongoing step-by-step basis. The rules and regulations for performance evaluation will be formulated and improved in a scientific and standardized manner, ensuring full coverage of performance management.