The evaluation of the National Natural Science Foundation is basically in August and September every year.
The project evaluation of the National Natural Science Foundation of China strictly implements the evaluation principle of "relying on experts, promoting democracy, supporting the best, being fair and reasonable", and adopts a two-level evaluation system of peer expert exchange evaluation and meeting evaluation.
The evaluation experts shall independently judge and evaluate the application for funded projects from the aspects of scientific value, innovation, social impact and feasibility of the research scheme, and put forward evaluation opinions.
The evaluation experts should also consider the research experience of the applicant and the participants, the rationality of the plan for the use of funds funded by the fund, the situation of the research content receiving other funds, the situation of the applicant's implementation of the projects funded by the fund, and the necessity of continuing to grant funds.
According to Article 17 of the Regulations of the National Natural Science Foundation, the fund management institution decides the research projects to be funded according to the regulations and the evaluation opinions put forward by experts. The fund management institution shall not deny the evaluation opinions of experts on the grounds that they are different from the academic opinions of the evaluation experts.
If the fund management institution decides to grant funding, it shall promptly notify the applicant and the supporting unit in writing, and announce the basic information of the applicant, the name of the supporting unit, the name of the project to be funded and the amount to be funded. If it decides not to grant funding, it shall promptly notify the applicant and the supporting unit in writing and explain the reasons. The fund management institution shall sort out the expert review opinions and provide them to the applicant.
The relevant requirements of the National Natural Science Foundation stipulate that:
1. The Natural Science Foundation of China shall sort out the opinions exchanged by experts and provide them to the applicant. The applicant may submit written opinions or suggestions to the Natural Science Foundation of China on the expert review.
2. The Natural Science Foundation Committee shall establish an expert supervision system through the performance appraisal of the evaluation experts. The Natural Science Foundation of China shall publish special contact information, such as telephone number, e-mail address, etc., and accept reports from the scientific community and the public on the violation of the Regulations and these Measures by the evaluation experts.