Thousand Talents Plan - China Innovation Funding

The Thousand Talents Recruitment Programme (1,000 Talents Plan) is a programme established by China’s central government in 2008 for recruiting high-level scientists and talents from overseas.

Specifically, it offers significant financial support to high-level overseas scientists and experts who decide to relocate to China for conducting research in high-tech industries or in new fields at the frontiers of science, or to participate in the country’s major scientific programmes, key laboratories, state-owned enterprises, state-owned financial institutions, or high-tech development zones and industrial parks.

The programme consists of several categories targeting a different pool of experts, including one exclusively targeting foreign scientists.

Several lower-level administrations (e.g. Shanghai) also established local-level 1,000 Thousand Plans for recruiting overseas talents within their jurisdictions. These will be introduced in the “Local Funding Programmes” section of this website.

Note: the 1,000 Talents Plan has been replaced by the National High-end Foreign Expert Recruitment Plan (link to first call published in January 2019)

Introduction

The recruitment programmes mainly consits of the following categories:

Innovative Talents (Long Term): targeting scientists below 55 years of age from prestigious foreign universities, R&D structures, international companies or financial institutions, who are willing to return or come to China on a full-time basis
Innovative Talents (Short Term): similar to the long term category, but targeting scientists returning or coming to China for at least 2 months each year and for at least 3 consecutive years with stable employers and clear work objectives. Non-ethnic Chinese foreign citizens can also apply
Entrepreneurs: targeting entrepreneurs with overseas entrepreneurship brackground or holding mid/senior-level managing positions in renowned international enterprises, returning or coming to China for starting a business in national strategic industries
Young Talents: exclusively targeting scientists below 40 years of age and with a Ph.D. degree from prestigious overseas universities, and who are willing to return or come to China on a full-time basis. Outstanding Ph.D. students can also be recruited in exceptional cases
Foreign Experts: exclusively targeting foreign nationals (including non-ethnic Chinese) below 65 years of age who are willing to come to China to conduct research for at least 9 months per year for 3 consecutive years
Top-notch Talents and Teams: targeting, on a case-by-case basis, winners of major international awards, such as the Nobel Prize, the A.M. Turing Award, the Fields Medal, as well as academicians of science/engineering academies in major developed countries, who return or come to China on a full-time basis and for more than 5 years

Other specific categories also exist, for instance the Xinjiang and Tibet category targeting scientists to work in universities, research structures, enterprises or parks within the two autonomous regions; and the culture and arts category for related positions.

Over a decade, more than 6,000 talents have been attracted in China. The specific eligibility requirements, benefits and selection procedure will be introduced below in detail for each category.

The official website of the programme is: http://www.1000plan.org

Key policies and management framework

According to the Central Talent Coordination Group’s Opinions on the Implementation of the Overseas Talent Recruitment Programme published in December 2008, the overall responsibility and authority for the 1,000 Talents Plan lies in the Organisational Department of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee (CPCCC), where an ad hoc 1,000 Talents Plan office was established for daily management and operations. The implemention and coordination of the 1,000 Talents Plan is undertaken by the Central Talent Coordination Group, which is formed by representatives from several central government bodies such as MOHRSS, MOE, MOST, MOFA, NDRC, MIIT, MOF, CAS, CAE, etc.

The main legal framework are the Management Measures of the Overseas Talent Recruitment Programme issued in 2017 by the CPCCC Organisation Department, which replaced a previous 2008 version. The Measures mainly define what are the categories, requirements, selection procedures and benefits of the recruited talent (see below).

Factsheet: Innovative Talents (Long Term)

The Innovative Talents (Long Term) category targets scientists below 55 years of age from prestigious foreign universities, R&D structures, international companies or financial institutions, who are willing to return or come to China on a full-time basis. Basic qualification requirements include:

Under 55 years of age
Possession of a Ph.D. degree
Full professorship or an equivalent title in a prestigious foreign university or research institute; or senior technology or management position in a renowned international enterprise or financial institution
Not already employed and working full-time in China (or for less than one year)
After recruitment, work in the host institution full-time for at least 3 years

Note: age, academic and professional qualifications may be relaxed in case of extremely needed talents or in exceptional cases of outstanding performance.

The awardees will be conferred the title of “National Distinguished Expert”, and will be mainly granted the following benefits:

Support to working conditions: awardees will be strongly supported and prioritised when applying to local and national government-funded programmes, in particular NSFC, National Key R&D Programmes, Megaprojects, as well as other awards. They will also be actively involved in domestic academic organisations, and in the elections of new academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Support to living conditions: awardees will receive a one-off funding of 1 million RMB; permanent residence permit and/or multiple entry visas for themselves and their families for foreigners; and lifting of hukou restrictions for Chinese nationals; medical care, social insurance; children education allowance; housing and meal allowances, subsidies, and priority in purchasing one residential apartment.

Other benefits may also be additionally provided by relevant provincial- or municipal-level administrations.

Factsheet: Innovative Talents (Short Term)

The Innovative Talents (Short Term) category is similar to the long term one, but targets scientists returning or coming to China for at least 2 months each year and for at least 3 consecutive years with stable employers and clear work objectives. Non-ethnic Chinese foreign citizens can also apply

Basic qualification requirements include:

Under 55 years of age
Possession of a Ph.D. degree
Full professorship or an equivalent title in a prestigious foreign university or research institute; or senior technology or management position in a renowned international enterprise or financial institution
Not already employed and working full-time in China (or for less than one year)
After recruitment, work in the host institution for at least 2 months/year for at least 3 years

The awardees will be granted the following benefits:

Support to living conditions: awardees will receive a one-off funding of 500,000 RMB; procedures for entry-exit immigration, medical care and insurance will also be facilitated according to the awardees’ needs.
Priority in being awarded the Innovative Talents (Long Term) category directly after the end of the short term programme, upon application and request of the host institutions. Other 500,000 RMB of funding will be granted, together with all the other corresponding benefits.

Note: in the last 2018 call, only applications from institutions based in China’s western and northeastern regions were accepted for the Short Term category (see link).

Factsheet: Entrepreneurs

The Entrepreneurs category targets entrepreneurs with overseas entrepreneurship brackground or holding mid/senior-level managing positions in renowned international enterprises, returning or coming to China for starting a business in national strategic industries. Basic qualification requirements include:

Under 55 years of age
Overseas university degree
Possession of technology results which are internationally-competitive, or which can fill domestic blanks and large commercialisation prospects
Overseas entrepreneurship background, or mid/senior-level management positions in renowned international enterprises, with strong management and operational capacities
In China for less than 6 years, with a start-up founded for at least 2 but less than 5 years and with core technologies already in the commercialisation stage
Founder of the start-up, and major shareholder. One start-up can only apply submit applications for one talent.

Note: the above qualifications may be relaxed in extremely outstanding cases.

The awardees will be conferred the title of “National Distinguished Expert”, and will be mainly granted the same benefits

Factsheet: Young Talents

The Young Talents category targets

on a case-by-case basis winners, of major international awards, such as the Nobel Prize, the A.M. Turing Award, the Fields Medal, as well as academicians of science/engineering academies in major developed countries, who return or come to China on a full-time basis and for more than 5 years

Basic qualification requirements generally include:

Under 40 years of age
D. degree in natural sciences, engineering or technology
At least three years of post-doc teaching or research professional experience in overseas renowned universities, research structures or enterprises;
Possession of scientific research results officially recognised by other expert colleagues, showing the potential of becoming a leading scientific research figure within the field.
Not already employed and working full-time in China (or for less than one year)
After recruitment, work in the host institution full-time for at least 3 years

Note: Outstanding Ph.D. students can also be recruited in exceptional cases if dinstinguished achievements were made during the Ph.D. studies. on-ethnic Chinese foreign nationals who come to China for post-doc research, can apply after one year to this category.

The awardees will be receive a one-off grant of 500,000 RMB, together with other research subsidies varying from 1 to 3 million RMB throughout the programme. Other working and living support will also be granted in line with the Innovative Talents (Long Term) category (see above).

Other benefits may also be additionally provided by relevant provincial- or municipal-level administrations, as well as from host institutions (e.g. accommodation benefits, establishment of research teams/laboratories, access to additional research grants, etc).

Factsheet: Foreign Experts

The Foreign Expert category exclusively targets foreign experts (including non-ethnic Chinese nationals) who are willing to return or come to China on a full-time basis. Basic qualification requirements include:

Under 65 years of age
After recruitment, work in the host institution full-time for at least 3 years
Other requirements of the Innovative Talents (Long Term) category (see above)

Note: age, academic and professional qualifications may be relaxed in case of extremely needed talents or in exceptional cases of outstanding performance.

The awardees will mainly be granted preferential policies in terms of entry-exit immigration (including for their families), residence, medical care, insurance, housing, tax and salary. A lump sum of 1 million RMB of research subsidies will also be granted to each awardee, together with 3 to 5 million RMB of additional research subsidies to awardees engaging in scientific research, particularly basic research.

It is also noteworthy that foreign awardees are often also encouraged to lead or to take part in other local or national government-funded programmes. The project team identified evidence of at least three European winners of this category of the 1,000 Talents Plan currently acting as team leaders or subtopic leaders for large National Key R&D Programmes.

Factsheet: Top-notch Talents and Teams

The Top-notch Talents and Teams category targets internationally-renowned leaders in specific fields, who return or come to China on a full-time basis and for more than 5 years. These are selected on a case-by-case basis, and generally should meet one the following basic qualifications:

Winner of major international awards such as Nobel Prize, the A.M. Turing Award, and the Fields Medal
Academicians of science/engineering academies in major developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia
Renowned scientist in a global top-notch university or research structure
Other urgently needed top talent
After recruitment, work in the host institution full-time for at least 5 years

Selection procedure

New calls for application are published on a yearly basis – usually in May/June – on the 1,000 Talents Programme’s official website, as well as on the websites of other ministries (e.g. MOST, MOE, etc). Each annual call will outline what specific categories of talents will be recruited that year, together with the general requirements as well as any ad hoc additional criterion for selection, and the deadline for applications.

Applications are not submitted directly by applicants, but from relevant Chinese institutions. This means that a key prerequisite for each interested applicant is to first have an employment agreement with the Chinese institution (“host institutions”). In many cases, host institutions will publish ad hoc job ads on their official channels for professorship or research positions specifically assigned through the 1,000 Talents Plan (usually at the beginning of the year), with earlier internal deadlines. Additional requirements relating to specific research fields, topics and specialisation may also be requested by single host institutions. The application materials will be then collected by the host institution; a contract including the specific terms of the 1,000 Talents Plan will also need to be signed and submitted.

The application process generally takes several months. In addition, some of the corresponding benefits of the programme may be granted only during the course or even at the end of the employment period (three or five years) upon final examination and acceptance by the national authorities.

Link to last 2018 annual call