国家重点研发计划

NKPs are currently among the most active and standardised of the five funding pillars at the national level. A total of 42 NKPs were initially established in 2015 and 2016; 6 new NKPs followed in the second half of 2017, while 17 additional NKPs were created in 2018. A total of 65 NKPs therefore are currently existing (see full list in the “Full list of NKPs currently existing” at the end of this factsheet). Each NKP funds numerous projects in different areas.

Since their official launch, a total of 50.7 billion RMB (around 6.57 billion EUR) were allocated by the central government for 42 NKPs in the 2016 and 2017 annual calls.

Note: the cycle of 2018 NKP calls is still not completed at the time of writing and therefore budget figures for 2018 have not been included.

 

A total of 2,288 projects were funded under the 2016 and 2017 annuals calls for 42 NKPs. The majority was led by institutes of higher education and research structures (37.5% and 33%, respectively), followed by State-owned Enterprises (12%) and privately-held enterprises (9.5%). Almost eight thousand experts took part in the evaluation of proposals (a breakdown of the top 100 consortium leaders for NKPs in 2016 and 2017 is included in the Guide for EU stakeholders downloadable from this link).

The main legal framework governing NKPs are the Interim Measures for the Management of National Key R&D Programmes, released by MOST and MOF at the end of June 2017. These outline the NKPs’ management structure and the division of responsibilities among different government bodies (which is similar to that of Megaprojects as depicted in the table at this page, with the only difference being that the NDRC is not involved in NKPs); the tender cycle and methods for applications; the eligibility requirements applicants must possess; reporting and evaluation tasks during the project implementation phase, as well as the project conclusion procedures to undertake at the end of the project. It is noteworthy that the Interim Measures explicitly encourage China-based affiliates of overseas entities to participate and lead NKPs, and foreign experts to be invited to sit in evaluation. A detailed abstract in English of the Interim Measures is available at this link. Abstracts for the other main regulatory documents are also available – Fund Management Measures, Budget Preparation Guidelines, and Budget Evaluation Norms.

It should also be noted that calls under the EU-China Co-Funding Mechanism, from the Chinese side, are labelled as “National Key R&D Programmes”, together with other intergovernmental cooperation programmes (including bilateral programmes with 13 EU Member States, * or multilateral programmes with international institutions such as CERN, SKA, GIF, or BRICS countries, etc.).

The “Research on the Development of Magnetic Confinement Fusion Power” (link) and “Strategic International S&T Cooperation with One Belt, One Road countries” (link) also fall under this category of projects.

* These are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and United Kingdom.

There exist two categories of requirements that applicants must possess in order to apply to NKPs:

• General requirements outlined by the Interim Measures; and
• Additional requirements specified in the project guidelines for specific NKPs

The first category includes: the requirement for applicants to have been legally registered in mainland China for a minimum duration of around 1 year; age-related requirements for proposed PIs or sub-topic coordinators; limitations on the maximum number of central S&T funding projects simultaneously implementable by PIs or other team members (generally no more than one or two national-level projects at the same time); and instructions regarding which government agency the applicant should obtain official endorsement from. *  If the proposed PI is a foreign national (including from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau), then relevant employment certificates should be provided (by the Chinese employer if the PI is employed full-time in China, or by both the Chinese and foreign employer if not employed full-time in China). Central and local governmental agencies, government officials, and experts who have drafted the tenders are automatically non-eligible.

Additional requirements might also be required for specific NKPs, depending on the their field, directions (e.g. research- or commercialisation-oriented), or activities (e.g. experiments involving certain resources such as pathogens, animals, etc.). The most recurrent generally are: requirement for the project consortium to provide additional funds according to certain proportions specified in the tender (usually ranging from 1:1 to 4:1 in correlation with funds to be provided by the central government); encouragement of “industry-university-research” joint applications; obligation to promote the conversion and application of results generated under the project; ** mandatory or legally-binding data-sharing with MOST; ***  or requirement to launch certain project activities in specifically-indicated areas such as national sustainable development pilot areas. Some calls also encourage, or in some cases require, young scientists to participate or lead the projects as PIs.

* Official written endorsement from certain bodies is required to submit applications. Entities belonging to, or with direct business/operation relation with State Council’s bodies should seek endorsement by these; companies which are members of industry associations, or “A levels” S&T alliances should seek endorsement by these; the rest should seek endorsement from the S&T departments of the municipality or province where they are located. A full list of endorsing bodies is available at this link.

** No specific details or requirements on how such results shall be converted. This however suggests that any NKP proposals should include specific deliverables related to conversion of technology results and commercialisation into specific products or equipment.

*** Legally-binding agreement should be signed for the unconditional and timely delivery of all the scientific data produced under the project to a platform designed by MOST, which shall also be shared with other participants as well as other companies and the public. Applications missing such a written agreement will automatically be rejected. Failure to deliver relevant data will lead to the suspension and recovery of funds, and subsequent blacklisting. It is however not clear what it is referred to as “data”.

Some NKPs also feature the “directional application” (定向申报) methodology of application which characterises Megaprojects. These refer to NKPs for which consortium leaders are already decided and specified in the tender guidelines, and are entrusted to identify and recruit other consortium members. A detailed project implementation proposal will be then drafted by the consortium leader, before being submitted to the expert committee for evaluation and approval (can take several rounds).

This category of projects aims to strengthen top-down design and coordination. Any actors interested in this category of projects should contact and coordinate with consortium leaders.

Tender guidelines for NKPs are published on the National Science and Technology Information System, Public Service Platform on a yearly basis, usually in groups. The first cycle of 2016 annual calls was published between February and April 2016. The cycle of 2017 annual calls was published in October 2016. 2018 annual calls were published in October 2017 and December 2017.

The tender cycle usually lasts six months, and can be summarised as follows:

The application process is divided into two rounds of application:

• Pre-application, submitted online through the National Service Platform (hardcopy versions of the application materials must also be shipped as indicated in the tender guidelines)
• Official application of candidates who have passed the screening and first evaluation round

The application deadline is usually four to five weeks from the date of publishing of the final tender guidelines. Unlike in Europe, Chinese programmes do not follow the practice of pre-announcing new calls. In practice, the publication of previous calls for comments on a draft version of the tender might nonetheless be seen as such (although these do not specify the estimated date of publishing of the final tender guidelines), thus allowing potential applicants to start preparing proposals and consortiums in advance. From an analysis conducted on 2016 and 2017 cycles, it emerged that no substantial differences generally exist between draft tenders in calls for comments and final tenders published (generally related to revised deliverables, or to new added research topics).

Both NKPs’ tender guidelines and management regulations do not indicate the criteria according to which proposals are evaluated. However, two NKPs in 2017 published an attachment indicating a detailed scoring system on the basis of which proposals are evaluated during the final interview (link):

Nevertheless, it seems that the scoring results are not shared with the applicants after the evaluation.

All information related to any stage of the NKPs’ cycle, including calls for comments, official tender guidelines, are regularly published on the National Service Platform. The lists of experts who have drafted each tender guidelines, or who sit in the evaluation committees, are also openly published and accessible from the platform, together with the lists of final approved projects and winners (this information is however limited to consortium leaders and PIs, not to the entire consortium members). This contributes to a very high degree of transparency for NKPs – the highest among the five funding programmes at the national level. Substantial improvements are also being registered year-on-year in those areas which resulted less transparent in previous years.

Even though the legal framework of NKPs explicitly encourages the participation of international actors and experts in both the preparatory and implementation stages of the projects, in reality the situation seems to not meet these expectations.

From an analysis of the 2016 and 2017 annual tender cycles, it emerged that:

• Only 22 out of 2,288 (0.9%) NKPs assigned were led by international entities
• Only 2 out of 2,288 NKPs assigned were led by a foreign PI (note: a third one was assigned in 2018)
• Very few foreign experts sat in evaluation committees (all being ethnic Chinese foreign nationals, or Hong Kong / Macao / Taiwan citizens)
• No evidence of foreign experts among the expert committees drafting tender guidelines

No figures on international participation in wider project consortiums are available, but is expected that these should be higher.

As it was suggested throughout a series of interviews conducted with EU R&D industry stakeholders, the low degree of international participation might be attributable to a still narrow mind-set prevailing among many decision-makers and evaluators, who in the majority of cases belong to state-owned enterprises, shiye danwei or other governmental or quasi-governmental organisations. Their lack of understanding of the role and contributions that international enterprises and research institutions offer to the Chinese innovation ecosystem tend to divert their judgments towards safer (domestic) options, or to proposals from different departments belonging to the same organisation.

In addition, the relatively short application period is considered to represent a significant challenge to preparing effective proposals; however, this is mitigated by the publication of previous calls for comments on draft versions of the tender guidelines, usually published two or three months in advance (see “project cycle section” above).

At the same time, it has also emerged that some NKPs tend to appear appear more open and accessible compared to others; or appear open at the de jure level, but only showing opposing results at the de facto level. These different “degree of openness” of NKPs are depicted in a scatter diagram included at p.64 of the Guide for EU stakeholders (downloadable from this link).

The 2016 and 2017 tender cycles were completed for all NKPs. The 2018 tender cycle started in May 2017, with the publication of calls for comments, around six months before the official publication of final tender guidelines. The 2018 cycle is completed for most NKPs as of August 2018, while the first calls for comments for a few NKPs in 2019 have already been published. Each NKP is usually implemented for up to five years (five annual cycles), before being replaced by a new batch of programmes. The 42 NKPs established in 2015 will therefore end in 2020.

Similarly to the funding programmes under the Natural Science Fund, numerous articles and blogs providing tips and recommendations on different aspects of the application process to NKPs can easily be found online or on public Wechat accounts. Given the large number of projects funded under NKPs (2,288 in only two years), many experts have gained rich knowledge and applicable experience. Moreover, the entire tender cycles of 2016 and 2017 NKP calls have been strictly monitored and analysed by the project team.

On this basis, the most significant recommendations to European actors are summarised below according to different aspects of the application process:

Choose the right NKP:

• As mentioned before, some NKPs appear more open and accessible compared to others. This is mainly due to explicit encouragement of international cooperation, to less stringent eligibility requirements, or to higher concentration among both evaluators and winners of privately-held firms rather than State or military entities (these different “degree of openness” of NKPs are depicted in a scatter diagram included at p.64 of the Guide for EU stakeholders).
• Additionally, some NKPs might have slight overlaps in terms of R&D tasks to be funded: different aspects of the same product/technology might fall under different NKPs. It is therefore recommended to focus on the NKPs that appear to be most open, particularly at the de jure

Choose the right partner and consortium:

• Most NKP tasks are large and ambitious, and therefore require larger teams and consortiums to be implemented. A good idea would be to choose partners who already have previous experience in leading or participating in NKPs. Lists of winners and PIs for all NKPs approved in 2016 and 2017 are available and openly accessible from the National Service Platform (although information is limited to consortium leaders rather than wider consortium members).
• At the same time, NKPs have strict limits on the number of government-funded projects that can be implemented at the same time by the proposed PI or sub-topic leaders (including the EU-China Co-Funding Mechanism), as well as on the number of applications that can be submitted to the same NKP. Make sure that the proposed PI or sub-topic leader is eligible; otherwise the application will automatically be rejected.

Diversification of funds:

• One of the major changes brought by the 2014 reform of the Chinese STI funding system relates to the inclusion of additional funds in addition to those provided by the central government. A good proposal will therefore include diversified funds from local governments, as well as additional funds provided by the consortium itself; central government funds generally do not exceed one-third of the total project budget. Sometimes this is an explicit requirement in many NKPs, but it is also recommended to follow this approach even if not explicitly required. Certificates of origin of funds must also be submitted as part of the application materials.

Research topic:

• The more aligned the research proposal is with local or national needs, or the more international competitiveness it has, then the higher the chances of approval will be.
• Research results and deliverables should be clear, very well-defined, and measurable (e.g. patent filed; new technology developed; a certain market share reached by a newly-developed or commercialised product, etc.).
• As NKPs’ are aimed at supporting the creation of new technologies, products and equipment in areas for people’s livelihood, the proposed topic should feature strong application, commercialisation and industrialisation prospects. Particular emphasis should be put on matching downstream industries.
• Take advantage of the high degree of transparency of NKPs: extensively read past tender guidelines to identify trends and evolution of priorities; compare the list of proposals which have passed the first round of evaluation with those which were finally approved, so to identify what type of proposals were rejected and what projects were approved (lists are publicly available from the National Service Platform). Press releases on the implementation status or results achieved under approved projects are also frequently published on MOST’s website (examples here, and here).

Filling the application form:

• Make sure that the application form when submitting the second official application is in line with and matches the one previously submitted in the pre-application phase:
• Only minor adjustments are allowed, and generally are limited to increases in KPIs, deliverables, content, facilities or team members. No reductions of what had been originally proposed are allowed.
• The project budget cannot be higher than that originally proposed in the pre-application.
• Pay attention to budgetary calculations:
• Make sure that the scope of each item included the budget proposal is in line with its official definition as outlined in relevant measures, e.g. NKPs Fund Management Measures; and Complementing Implementation Rules.
• Keep in mind the criteria for the evaluation of budget proposals, as specified in the Complementing Implementation Rules: conformance of expenditure scope and standards with relevant financial regulations; relevance with the NKP’s R&D tasks, objectives and content; rational allocation and distribution
• Draft budget according to the criteria for evaluation specified in the Complementing Implementation Rules.
• Make sure that the amount for each item included in the budget proposal is in line with relevant expenditure standards and guidelines outlined by relevant national guidelines and regulations (for instance, travel and accommodation fees); other fees such as purchase of equipment or materials should be strictly in line with real market costs
• Include and emphasise budget dedicated to resource- and data-sharing.
• Several additional budget-related tips can be found online, for instance at this link.

Video interview:

• A concise PPT on the proposal should be submitted before the video interview takes place. Make sure that the PPT is concise and clearly outlines the research methodology, as well as potential risks and measures for their reduction and management

Be proactive:

• Positively respond to calls for comments on draft tender guidelines regularly published on the National Service Platform, show commitment.
• Trainings or various information sessions on specific NKPs, or on NKPs in general, are occasionally organised by MOST or professional management agencies. Although procedures for participation are unclear, one should try to attend these.

 

Years	List of National Key R&D Programmes (NKPs)
2015 - 2020	Research on stem cells and their conversion 干细胞及转化研究	Clean and efficient utilization of coal, and new energy saving technologies 煤炭清洁高效利用和新型节能技术	New Energy Vehicles 新能源汽车	Public security risk prevention and control and emergency response technologies and equipment 公共安全风险防控与应急技术装备
	Breeding of seven species (agriculture) 七大农作物育种	Cloud computing and big data 云计算和大数据	Industrialisation and technological upgrading of major basic materials 重点基础材料技术提升与产业化	Green building and industrialisation of construction 绿色建筑及建筑工业化
	Research on atmospheric pollution factors and control technologies 大气污染成因与控制技术研究	Additive and laser manufacturing 增材制造与激光制造	Strategic advanced electronic materials 战略性先进电子材料	Research on restoration and protection of typical endangered ecosystems 典型脆弱生态修复与保护
	Smart agricultural machinery equipment 智能农机装备	Advanced rail traffic 先进轨道交通	High-performance computing 高性能计算	High-efficient utilization and development of water resources 水资源高效开发利用
	Technology innovation for the cultivation and highly-efficient utilization of forestry resources 林业资源培育与高效利用技术创新	Development of major scientific instruments and equipment 重大科学仪器设备开发	Earth observation and navigation 地球观测与导航	S&T innovation for increased productivity of food grains 粮食丰产增效科技创新
	R&D of technologies for prevention and control of animal diseases, and efficient and safe breeding 畜禽重大疫病防控与高效安全养殖综合技术研发	Materials’ genetic engineering key technologies and support platforms 材料基因工程关键技术与支撑平台	Regulation and control of protein machines and life processes 蛋白质机器与生命过程调控	R&D of technologies for prevention and restoration of agricultural lands polluted by heavy metals or diffuse sources 农业面源和重金属污染农田综合防治与修复技术研发
	Technology and devices for modern food processing, grains storage and transportation 现代食品加工及粮食收储运技术与装备	Cybersecurity 网络空间安全	Global changes and response 全球变化及应对	Nanotechnologies 纳米科技
	R&D of biomedical materials, and tissue and organs restoration and transplant 生物医用材料研发与组织器官修复替代	Smart power grid technologies and equipment 智能电网技术与装备	R&D of digital diagnosis and treatment equipment 数字诊疗装备研发	Quantum control and quantum information 量子调控与量子信息
	Research and application of generic technologies for national quality infrastructure 国家质量基础的共性技术研究与应用	R&D of technologies for reducing the utilisation and increasing the efficiency of chemical fertilisers and pesticides 化学肥料和农药减施增效综合技术研发	Research on precision medicine 精准医学研究	Ocean environmental safety safeguarding 海洋环境安全保障
	Exploration and extraction of deep soil resources 深地资源勘查开采	R&D of biosafety key technologies 生物安全关键技术研发	Research on the prevention and control of major chronic non-communicable diseases 重大慢性非传染性疾病防控研究	Frontier research on large-scale scientific devices 大科学装置前沿
	Deep water key technologies and equipment 深海关键技术与装备	Research on reproductive health and the prevention and control of major birth defects 生殖健康及重大出生缺陷防控研究
2017 - 2022	Smart robotics 智能机器人	Monitoring, early warning, and prevention of major natural disasters 重大自然灾害监测预警与防范	R&D and application demonstration of modern service industry’s generic key technologies 现代服务业共性关键技术研发及应用示范	R&D of food safety key technologies 食品安全关键技术研发
	Research on the modernisation of traditional Chinese medicine 中医药现代化研究	Key scientific issues of disruptive technologies 变革性技术关键科学问题
2018 - 2023	S&T innovation in increasing the quality, yield, and industrial quality and efficiency of main cash crops 主要经济作物优质高产与产业提质增效科技创新	Formation mechanisms and treatment technologies of sites soil pollution 场地土壤污染成因与治理技术	Synthetic biology 合成生物学	Active health and aging technology solutions 绿色宜居村镇技术创新
	“Blue Granary” S&T innovation 蓝色粮仓科技创新	Renewable energy and hydrogen technologies 可再生能源与氢能技术	Nuclear safety and advanced nuclear energy technologies 核安全与先进核能技术	Comprehensive and smart transportation 综合交通运输与智能交通
	Solid waste recycling 固废资源化	Basic technologies and key components for manufacturing 制造基础技术与关键部件	Developmental programme and metabolic regulation 发育编程及其代谢调节	Network integrated manufacturing, and smart factory 网络协同制造和智能工厂
	Technology and innovation for green, livable towns and villages 绿色宜居村镇技术创新	Broadband communication and new networks 宽带通信和新型网络	Optoelectronics and microelectronic devices and integration 光电子与微电子器件及集成	Key technologies and demonstration of IoT and smart cities 物联网与智慧城市关键技术及示范
	S&T Winter Olympics 科技冬奥