Abstract:
Recently, Feixue Gao and Junlin Yang from the Department of Chemical Sciences at the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) published a review article titled “Funding Strategies, Trends and Frontiers of Basic Research in Chemistry at the National Natural Science Foundation of China” in CCS Chemistry. This article systematically summarizes the funding strategies and layouts of NSFC’s chemistry discipline over the past five years. It outlines strategic frontiers and key funding areas and, through big data analysis of the NSFC project review system, reveals development trends, frontier directions, and interdisciplinary integration within the field of chemistry in China. It also identifies current weaknesses in basic chemical research and provides scientific evidence to inform future funding strategies.
Background:
Amid a new wave of scientific and industrial transformation, big data and artificial intelligence are reshaping research paradigms. Science and technology competition has become the main arena of international strategic rivalry and is increasingly shifting toward fundamental research frontiers. Countries worldwide now commonly emphasize integrating strategic planning with autonomy, boosting investment in basic research, and enhancing its application orientation.
As the main channel for basic research in China, the NSFC aligns with the national strategy of building a strong science and technology ecosystem. Adhering to the laws of innovation and basic research, NSFC has implemented a series of reforms. These reforms emphasize systematic, strategic, and forward-looking funding layouts, balancing free exploration with goal-oriented research, promoting original and disruptive innovation, and enhancing the effectiveness of science funding to underpin high-level self-reliance in science and technology.
Chemistry, as one of the core basic disciplines, has adapted to these trends. Since 2018, the NSFC has restructured its funding and discipline layout to prioritize fundamental research, promote interdisciplinary integration, emphasize theory and precision measurement methods, and align with chemical engineering and industrial demands. Based on funding data from the past five years, this paper summarizes the development trends and frontier areas in Chinese chemical research, identifies potential weaknesses, and offers scientific support for future funding strategies.
Highlights:
- Overview of Funding Layout and Strategy in the Department of Chemical Sciences
The article details the funding layout and strategies following adjustments to the disciplinary code system. A discipline structure map (Figure 1) was constructed, centering on synthetic chemistry, with catalysis and surface/interface chemistry as experimental foundations, theory/mechanism and measurement as methods and tools, and highlighting interdisciplinary trends in materials, energy, environmental chemistry, and chemical biology. Application-oriented funding strategies target chemical engineering.
By analyzing major funded projects over the past five years, the article identifies priority funding directions and strategic focal areas, emphasizing a dual focus on frontier and application-oriented research. Trends in research and talent funding projects are summarized using statistical analysis.
- Data-Driven Trends and Frontiers in Chemical Research
Using NSFC’s project review database, the authors performed in-depth analysis of project keywords and research direction correlations, presenting the results in keyword cloud maps (Figure 2). They identified key research directions and emerging hot topics.
Current major focus areas include structure–activity relationships, reaction mechanisms, photo(electro)catalysis, asymmetric catalysis and synthesis, and metal-organic frameworks. Emerging areas include AI, big data, and synthetic biology.
- Interdisciplinary Integration and Emerging Fields
Keyword correlation analysis highlights a clear trend toward interdisciplinary integration. Strong correlations were observed among catalysis/surface chemistry, chemical engineering, synthetic chemistry, materials chemistry, and energy chemistry. In contrast, chemical measurement and theoretical chemistry showed weaker links with other areas, while chemical biology displayed moderate correlation with measurement science (Figure 3).
These results suggest that theoretical and measurement chemistry need to play a stronger role in disciplinary development. Using sub-discipline B02 as a case study, the article analyzes internal and cross-disciplinary linkages, clarifies strengths and weaknesses, and identifies areas for improvement to support balanced development (Figure 4).
Summary and Outlook:
In the past decade, China’s basic research in chemistry has achieved remarkable progress, producing innovative results across various subfields. For three consecutive years, Chinese scholars have ranked among the top globally in both the number of published and highly cited papers in international journals.
Nevertheless, challenges remain. The originality of research outcomes and the capacity to develop scientific instruments need improvement. Homogenization of research remains a widespread issue. Furthermore, the guiding role of theoretical chemistry requires strengthening, and in situ characterization techniques for complex reactions are still underdeveloped. The application of big data and AI in chemistry is at an early stage, and paradigm shifts in research are ongoing.
From a funding management perspective, there is a need to optimize youth talent funding models, enhance training for innovative instrumentation, refine major project planning and review mechanisms, and promote high-quality development of NSFC-funded research.
This work was published as a Mini Review in CCS Chemistry, with Feixue Gao and Junlin Yang serving as corresponding authors on behalf of the NSFC’s Department of Chemical Sciences.
Article Details:
Funding Strategies, Trends and Frontiers of Basic Research in Chemistry at the National Natural Science Foundation of China
Feixue Gao*, Weili Dai, Chang Yao, Hua Wang, Junlin Yang*, and Jihong Yu
Cite This by DOI: 10.31635/ccschem.025.202405124
Article Link: https://doi.org/10.31635/ccschem.025.202405124