2026 NSFC Original Exploration Project
2026年度国家自然科学基金原创探索计划项目
March 5, 2026
The Official Announcement in Chinese
Sponsor:
National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
About:
The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) offers two types of open projects: expert-recommended and guideline-guided. These projects aim to select original exploratory projects characterized by non-consensus, disruptive, and high-risk features.
Project Types:
1. Expert Recommended Projects:
- No restriction on research direction
- Applicants may submit project applications at any time upon recommendation by a recommender.
2. Guideline-guided Projects:
- No recommender is required for application
- For the research directions and questions, please refer to the project guide.
Funding Amount and Period:
1. Expert Recommended Projects:
- The funding period is generally 1-3 years, and the funding amount generally does not exceed 1 million yuan per year.
2. Guideline-guided Projects:
- The funding period and amount are determined by the project guidelines.
Eligibility:
- The core research content of original projects must not overlap with National Natural Science Foundation of China projects or other national science and technology programs that are currently being implemented or are under review.
- For original research projects recommended by experts, each application requires recommendations from two peer experts with senior professional titles who have high influence in the domestic or international academic community, or from two staff members of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (including one permanent project director and one head of the science department). Except for the head of the Science Department of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, each recommender may only recommend one original project application per year.
- No expert recommendation is required for applications for original projects guided by guidelines.
- An applicant may only apply for one original project in the same year (including pre-applications).
- Original projects are not included in the total number of applications and projects undertaken at the time of application but will be included after funding is granted (except for projects with a funding period of 1 year or less).
Please refer to the official announcement for more details
Application Procedure:
- February 24, 2026: Pre-application is open. The application will be accepted on a rolling basis.
- Applicants who pass the pre-application review can submit a formal application. After February 24, 2026, applicants for original projects recommended by experts can submit their applications at any time. Applicants for original projects guided by the guidelines should submit their applications according to the time requirements outlined in the project guidelines.
If you are interested to apply, please email us at shanghai.researchgrants@nyu.edu.