The national natural science foundation project (hereinafter referred to as the national self-taught examination project) is one of the main funding channels for basic research in China. According to the statistics of the National Nature Foundation, in recent years, the funding rate of most self-taught examination projects is less than 20%, which is fierce competition. For colleges and universities, the number and funds of self-funded projects reflect the basic research level of colleges and universities to a certain extent, which is one of the important indicators to evaluate the performance of basic scientific research in colleges and universities.

Heavyweight projects in the national self-funded projects account for the highest proportion of the total funds. The average cost of each of these projects is more than one million, and even some projects can apply for tens of millions of yuan after approval. The approval of heavyweight projects shows the top scientific research strength of universities.

This paper counts the funds of heavyweight projects approved by NSFC in national universities during the five years from 2065438 to 2020, including the basic science center project of NSFC, the major scientific research instrument development project of NSFC, and the major and key projects of NSFC.

Judging from the approved amount of these heavyweight projects, colleges and universities above 100 million yuan are all "double-class", showing the trend of dominating the list. Among them, Peking University leads the country, and the total approved funds of four heavyweight projects exceed 654.38+03 billion yuan; Tsinghua University followed closely, with a total funding of nearly 654.38 billion yuan; Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Fudan University rank among the top 5 in China, with a total expenditure of over 500 million yuan. The top 10 universities are University of Science and Technology of China, Xi Jiaotong University, Nanjing University, Beijing Institute of Technology and Huazhong University of Science and Technology.