The general project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China aims to support scientific and technological workers to choose topics freely within the scope of fund support and carry out innovative scientific research. Its application is different from other bidding projects, requiring applicants to put forward their own research topics, and then compete with many applications from scientific research units and universities all over the country.
As basic research and applied basic research, a successful applicant should not only "state the facts" and explain the nature of his work, but also "make sense" and explain why his application project is important and what scientific or academic problems can be solved. This is something that most applicants have not yet done.
At present, the general projects are: a: free application; C: youth fund; D: This area is very golden. The funding period is generally 3 years.
A. Free application is the most extensive fund project. Like other general funds, it allows applicants to have the freedom of academic thinking and topic selection, instead of "free application means anyone can apply" proposed by some people. Up to now, some people inside and outside the foundation still misunderstand it as "since you can apply freely, what right does the unit have to stop others from applying?" It seems that applying for the National Natural Science Foundation project is like buying a lottery ticket. As long as you pay, you will have a chance to win prizes and possibly get funding. This direction is not correct.
C. Applicants for the Youth Science Fund are limited to 65438+ 10 1 at the end of June of the year when the application was accepted, and have not received such project funding. The main members of the project team are mainly young people. The person in charge of the Youth Science Fund project may not act as an agent or replace it. If he leaves his post for more than half a year but less than one year, the person in charge of the project shall file with the project supporting unit and the counterpart science department; For more than one year, the project supporting unit shall go through the suspension formalities with the counterpart science department. However, if the person in charge of the free application project goes abroad for a long time or cannot carry out research projects for other reasons, the person in charge may be replaced.
According to the new regulations, in-service graduate students can apply for general projects, but they must obtain the consent of their tutors. The members of the youth science fund project team should be mainly young people, but there may be some older members. However, as a former mentor, it is best not to be a member of the project team (unless the mentor has retired and can no longer be the project leader, which should be stated in the application). Otherwise, it is difficult for the reviewers to judge who is leading the research. Some people say that it is not appropriate for a tutor to be a consultant of the research group unless the tutor has retired. You are the person in charge of the project, and the main academic ideas should be yours. Why do you have to have a consultant? If your tutor really wants to cultivate you, he will never write his own name, and he will also play the role of consultant.
There is no need to try to improve the possibility of winning the shenqing project through the celebrity effect. In fact, at present, young people have become the main force to undertake natural science fund projects. The proportion of young people under 35 who are engaged in fund projects has increased from10.3% in 1986 to 3L.7% in 1998, and the proportion of young and middle-aged scholars under 45 has exceeded 60% in 2000.
D. The target of the regional fund is the research institutions in the old, frontier and minority areas. At the same level, projects in old areas, marginal areas and ethnic minority areas can be submitted for trial first. After examination and approval, some areas also give matching funds. However, the number of regional fund projects is limited, and there are only one or two funded projects in an average discipline. In the past, many Shen Qingren felt that they were competitive, so they could still get financial aid if they applied for other types of general projects.
Regarding the qualifications of applicants, the regulations of the Foundation are quite loose. Although it is pointed out in the declaration announcement that "the funding targets are mainly scientific research institutions directly under the central government and key institutions of higher learning", in fact, as long as the applicant has a senior professional title or a doctorate, or a researcher with an intermediate professional title recommended by two peer experts with senior professional titles, he can also apply. This seems to be incomplete with the requirement that the National Natural Science Foundation should support the "national team" engaged in basic research, participate in international competition and occupy a place in the world. So the question of who can be selected for the "national team" has not been solved. Therefore, the current situation is that "junior sports schools, provincial and municipal teams, local teams and national teams participate together."
To ensure the quality of the application, we must first work hard on writing the application. The process of accepting and managing fund projects is actually a process of understanding the applicants and project implementers. For most applicants, as long as the unit mobilizes to apply for funds, everyone will "actively" apply, and applying for funds can also show "level". However, many applicants and their supporting units have limited knowledge of the Foundation so far.
In order to enable the applicant to write a good application, the following issues are introduced one by one according to the application outline of the new version of the application in 2002. As a fund manager's understanding of the application form and how to write it well, we put forward some suggestions and matters needing attention for the reference of the applicant and the fund manager of the supporting unit.