Recently, Faculty of Science and Engineering (FoSE) has organized two Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) workshops to help staff and PhD students better prepare the NSFC applications in 2023.
On 21 September, the first workshop focused on introduction of the FoSE NSFC supporting schemes, the general introduction of the NSFC programmes and the NSFC experience sharing. In this session, four colleagues were invited to deliver the talks. They are Mr. Feng Xu from the FOSE Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Support team, Ms. Ada Qian from the UNNC RKE Office, Prof. Giampaolo Buticchi- FoSE Associate Dean for RKE and Dr. Bencan Tang from Department of CEE.
Feng introduced the FoSE NSFC supporting schemes and timelines, after which Ada gave a general introduction of NSFC programmes. Besides, Prof. Giampaolo Buticchi shared his success experience in NSFC RFIS programme application and then Dr. Bencan Tang shared her NSFC general/youth programmes application experience. Both of the two colleagues have given their precious suggestions to the audience.
The NSFC includes various categories, including General programme, Young scientists fund, Research fund for international young scientists , Regional science fund, Key programme, Major research programe, Excellent young scientists fund, and National outstanding young scientists fund, etc..
FoSE also focus on helping more international staff apply for NSFC and how to better cooperate with Chinese staff to prepare the applications. The second session had Dr. Daniele Garrisi from Math and Dr. Jian Yang from M3 as the speakers to share their experience in preparing Chinese proposals. Dr. Daniele Garrisi briefed his experience in international staff preparing Chinese proposals, which was of great value for international staff who want to prepare Chinese proposals and need to have their proposals translated. And then Dr. Jian Yang focused on how to write a Chinese proposal for NSFC and Chinese proposal writing skills.
Both seminars received a lot of positive feedback from students and staff in FoSE, who said that “They had benefited greatly from the seminars. The speakers analyzed the basic format, depth of content and focus of writing from the perspective of the applicants. and also analyzed the grading scale, grading points and other aspects from the reviewer's point of view. Some professional books are also recommended. I benefited from the multi-dimensional analysis of the NSFC in a comprehensive manner. "
In recent years, FoSE has seen an overall improvement in its scientific research strength, research output and ability to serve the local community, as well as an increase in the number of NSFC applications year on year, which benefits from the Faculty's continued emphasis and active support for young staff’s research development and career advancement. Since its establishment, FoSE has held many experience-sharing and exchange workshops on NSFC and other grant schemes, in order to provide an opportunity for staff and PhD students to learn and progress together through such an open, inclusive and shared platform. In the future, FoSE will continue to organize more workshops about grant applications to provide the strongest support for all staff, and strive to make the Faculty a benchmark for high-level international research development.