2026 National Science and Technology Major Program on “Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence” (First Round)

2026 National Science and Technology Major Program on “Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence” (First Round)
新一代人工智能国家科技重大专项2026年度第一批公开项目

June 17, 2026

The Official Announcement in Chinese

Sponsor:

Office of the National Science and Technology Major Program on Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence

About:

The 2026 National Science and Technology Major Program on “Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence” (First Round) is now open for application.

Please log in to the online system or contact us at shanghai.researchgrants@nyu.edu, to view the full program guide

Application Eligibility:

1. PIs (including sub-projects) must have a senior professional title or a doctoral degree, be born on or after January 1, 1966, and work on the project for no less than 6 months each year.
2. The PIs (including sub-project PIs) should, in principle, be the person who proposed the main research concept for the project and is leading the research.
3. PI is limited to applying for one project in this cycle
4. The lead PI and sub-project PIs of an ongoing National Key R&D Plan, and National Science & Technology Major Program, CANNOT apply for this program as PI in the application.
5. The lead PI, sub-project PIs, and core team members may participate in no more than two projects (or sub-projects) in total, including both the proposed application and ongoing projects under the National Key R&D Program and National Science & Technology Major Program.
6. Lead PI and sub-project PIs of ongoing projects under the National Key R&D Program or National Major Science and Technology Projects shall not withdraw from their current projects to apply for new ones. Those who have withdrawn from a project’s research team may, in principle, not lead or participate in new National Key R&D Program projects during the original project’s implementation period.
7. When conducting cross-checks involving “Intergovernmental International Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation” and “Strategic Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation”, projects under these two programs with a central government budget not exceeding RMB 4 million are not subject to mutual project restrictions with major special projects (or their subprojects).
8. Joint project limitation checks will be conducted in coordination with relevant programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). PIs of major special projects (or sub-projects) are subject to joint restrictions with NSFC Major Programs (project and sub-project leaders), Basic Science Center Programs (academic leaders and key members), and National Major Scientific Research Instrument Development Projects (project leaders of department-recommended projects and major participants with senior professional titles). In principle, researchers may concurrently apply for or undertake no more than two projects (or subprojects) across these programs.
9. Foreign scientists and scientists from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan who are employed by institutions in mainland China may serve as project (or sub-project) leaders. Fully employed personnel must provide valid documentation of full-time employment issued by their mainland employing institution. Part-time employed personnel must provide valid employment certifications from both institutions. All such materials shall be submitted together with the project application.
10. Ongoing projects (including tasks or sub-projects) with a project implementation period — including any approved extensions — ending on or before May 31, 2026, are not subject to the project limitation requirements.

Please refer to the Eligibility Requirement in the funding announcement for more details.

Research Directions:

Please log in to the online system or contact us to view the full program guide.

The project should cover all evaluation indicators listed in the program. Each project has one lead PI, and each sub-project has one sub-project PI. The lead PI can lead one sub-project.  Each project can have up to 5 sub-projects, and the total number of institutions involved should not exceed 10. 

Important Dates: