国自然 z-bio 2026-01-05 2487

　　When you were writing the application for the National Natural Science Foundation of China, were you ever troubled by terms such as “research plan”, “technical route” and “research method”, or racked your brains about the essential difference between “research objectives” and “key scientific issues to be solved”?

　　For a long time, the overly rigid rules and regulations in application templates have become a constraint that restricts scientific researchers from expressing their research ideas independently. There are more and more applications that tend to be "routine" and "eight-part essay", and the applications are getting longer and longer...

　　The Natural Science Foundation of China has actively responded to the concerns and demands of the academic community and launched the "slimming and quality improvement" campaign for applications in 2026. We will optimize and adjust the application outlines for the two types of projects with the largest number of applications and the widest coverage - general projects and Youth Science Fund projects (Category C). The adjusted application text includes three parts: project establishment basis, research content and research basis.

　　In the project basis section, you only need to state clearly "why this research is to be carried out and what is the value of the research"; the research content section no longer has preset outline restrictions, and applicants can write independently according to their own research ideas and the logic of the research work; the research foundation section mainly displays the accumulation of previous work. In principle, the length of the application form for both types of projects should not exceed 30 pages, and concise expression is encouraged.

　　Writing an application in concise and concise language is a reflection of the applicant’s academic thinking and expression ability. Applicants should abandon the various "routines" and "talking skills" in application writing, correct the misconception that "it is easier to get funding if you write longer", return the content of the application to the essence of scientific research, and fully demonstrate your innovative ideas and academic perspectives.

　　The Natural Science Foundation of China looks forward to your high-quality project applications!