On the morning of November 6, the official website of the National Natural Science Foundation of China announced that the National Science Foundation for Outstanding Youth Program (referred to as the Outstanding Youth Program) that requires applicants under the age of 45 (females under the age of 48) will undergo major reforms: from 2024 Starting from 2019, we will highlight the project attributes and select and support outstanding projects among outstanding youth projects on a rolling basis. Through high-intensity support of nearly 30 million yuan over the past fifteen years , superior resources have been concentrated to cultivate high-level leading talents.

According to the news, the National Natural Science Foundation of China will carry out graded evaluations of outstanding projects that have expired at the end of the previous year starting from 2024, and select no more than 20% of outstanding projects to provide rolling support for the second five years. The amount will be doubled to 8 million yuan. After the funding period expires, no more than 50% of the outstanding projects will be selected and given a grant of 16 million yuan in the third five-year period.

The grading evaluation of outstanding youth projects will include the evaluation grades of "excellent", "good" and "average", and the feedback from the receiving unit will be used as a reference for the evaluation of the scientific research performance of the outstanding youth project leader.

According to the official website of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, its funding system currently has a total of 16 funding projects, and the Outstanding Youth Project is one of them. Since its establishment in 1994, the Outstanding Youth Program has played an important role in cultivating innovative talents. The Outstanding Youth Program supports young scholars who have made outstanding achievements in basic research to independently choose research directions to carry out innovative research, promote the growth of young scientific and technological talents, attract overseas talents, and cultivate and create a group of outstanding academic leaders who enter the world's scientific and technological frontiers.

The previously released National Natural Science Foundation of China's 2023 annual project guide states that applicants for outstanding youth projects should be under 45 years old and should be born after January 1, 1978 (inclusive); each outstanding youth project in 2023 will be funded with 4 million Yuan , each item of mathematics and management science is 2.8 million yuan, without distinguishing between direct costs and indirect costs; the funding period is 5 years .

In 2022, the outstanding youth project received 4,612 applications and funded 415 projects. The funding ratio was less than one-tenth, about 8.998%; the funding was 1.6288 billion yuan.

On July 6, the National Natural Science Foundation of China released information stating that the age limit for female scientific researchers to apply for "outstanding youth" is 48 years old.

The news said that recently, the National Natural Science Foundation of China Party Committee held a meeting to hear a report on the National Natural Science Foundation’s support for female researchers and reviewed and approved recommendations to further strengthen support for female researchers. The meeting made it clear that starting from 2024, the age limit for female researchers to apply for outstanding youth projects will be relaxed from 45 to 48 years old.