May.

This year, 1,532 units across the country applied for annual projects and youth projects of the National Social Science Fund, with a total of 28,186 applications, 492 less than last year. The main reason for the slight decrease in the total number of applications this year is that project leaders applying for the National Social Science Fund cannot apply for the Ministry of Education’s humanities and social sciences research general projects in the same year to avoid multiple applications and repeated project approvals.