Delivered at the Press Conference on

The 13th Five-Year Development Plan of the National Natural Science Fund

（June 14, 2016）

Gao Wen, Vice President of NSFC

Ladies and gentlemen,

Friends from the press,

Good morning! It gives me great pleasure to address today’s press conference. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of National Natural Science Foundation of China (hereinafter as NSFC). At this occasion, on behalf of NSFC,I’d like to extend sincere gratitude to our friends from the press for your understanding, support and supervision on our work over years.

Under the leadership of the State Council, and with the concern and support of the S&T community and all sectors of society, we are able to draft the 13thFive-Year Development Plan (hereinafter as the Plan) of the National Natural Science Fund in line with the Guidelines of the National Innovation-Driven Development Plan and the 13th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development. The Plan is the demonstration of our work to strategize for original innovation of science in China.

In 2014, NSFC initiated a strategic study on developing the Plan, while specifying our targets, train of thought and tasks ahead. The Plan should not only stick to the growth pattern of science, but also indicate the characteristics of our era featuring innovation-driven development, we have opened our door to outside voice and conducted a series of in-depth surveys. Comments on the Plan have been invited from relevant State Council ministries, universities and research institutes as well as professionals from various fields. After approved by NSFC Plenary Committee on March 29, 2016, the plan was posted online for public comments and plenty of valuable suggestions were received and have enriched the its final version.

Now, I would like to brief you on the Plan from four points.

I．Development strategies.

First, the Plan has specified the general thought of five major concepts of development, namely innovation, coordination, green development, opening-up and sharing, to the development of basic research in China.

Second, guided by these concepts, the Plan has emphasized the strategic orientation of focusing onfrontier exploration, focusing on scientific breakthroughs and focusing on precise management. The three focuses, which attach great importance to originality incentives, represent the force to drive National Science Fund moving forward during the period covered by the 13th Five-Year Plan.

Third, the Plan has emphasized the overall approach of upholding goals, encouraging originality, coordinating support and upgrading quality. It encourages the coordination of relevant components of basic research and strives to set up the new development pattern for the National Science Fund during the 13th Five-Year Planperiod.

II. Deployment of strategies and goals.

The Plan has outlined a twofold goal system. The goal at the first level is to rise up to the same level with scientifically-developed countries in three aspects of basic research, which echoes with the three-step target of National Innovation-Driven Development Plan. According to the Plan, by the year of 2020, the total volume, namely resource input and scholarly output of basic research, would be comparable with scientifically-developed countries, thus laying a solid scientific foundation for China to become a innovation-driven country. By the year of 2030, Chinese scientists will be targeted to make equally amount of monumental contributions to the scientific development of the world, so China could further rise to the first tier of innovation-driven countries. By the year of 2050, China will be targeted to make equally amount of door-opening contributions inscience, hence to build China as a powerhouse in science and technology. The Plan also proposes targeted indices which are achievable through efforts.

The goal at the second level is to develop NSFC into an excellent science funding agency. NSFC’s mission is to be a ‘FRIEND’ of scientists: Fair in reviews; Rewarding in fostering research; International in global participation; Efficient in management; Numerous in grants; and Diversified in disciplinary coverage.

III. Priorities and implementation.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, NSFC will coordinate five strategic tasks for development:

first, explore the frontier of science and guide forward-searching deployment; second, strengthen intelligence support and foster young scientists; third, create new instrument and provide facility support; fourth, concentrate on key topics and promote interdisciplinary integration; and fifth, deepen collaboration and advance internationalization.

On the basis of a balanced discipline layout, scientists are encouraged to choose topics with consideration of scientific frontiers and national/global demand, 118 priority areas and 16 comprehensive interdisciplinary areas are identified by the Plan for the next five years.

IV. Management and support.

The Plan insists to deepen reform and innovation, improve management system, build excellent science funding agency and provide support for accomplishing the strategic tasks. It puts forward with 18 strategies and policy for eight aspects including enlarging the funding resource, strengthening strategic management, building the legal governance, intensifying financial inspection, improving funding management, providing information support, revitalizing organizational structure and optimizing academic ecology. Specific requirement have been made for responsibility division, improvement of supporting measures, increase of supervision assessment and thorough publicity campaign to guarantee the tasks stipulated in the Plan will be completed as expected.

Flourishing basic research, strengthening science foundation and intensifying original supply is crucial to the realization of the 13th Five-Year Plan. NSFC will focus our efforts on original innovation, facilitate the innovation-driven development goal, and make new and constant contribution to building a scientifically-innovative country and realizing the China dream of great rejuvenation of our nation.