(Yicai) Sept. 13 -- The National Natural Science Foundation of China has kicked off a review of basic funding for undergraduate science projects, involving exceptional students from eight academic institutions, including Tsinghua University and Peking University.

The candidates were all selected from these pilot universities, Dou Xiankang, director of the NSFC and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Yicai. To make sure that all the candidates who do well in the process can get government funding, no limit has been set, he noted.

“The school notified me in early August and came for the review later that same month,” said Li Zixi, a Tsinghua University undergraduate who proposed a research project on mountain torrent disaster forecasting and warning. About 20 undergrads from the university are being assessed.

“The NSFC has given us a chance to further promote our scientific exploration during our undergraduate studies and access relevant scientific research projects earlier,” Li pointed out.

Providing scientific research grants to undergrads is part of the NSFC's shakeup of the funding system for young talent. It came up with the idea of picking a small number of excellent students for support in May and has since made much progress in selecting candidates.

“We plan to pick a few outstanding undergrads and provide them with financial support to carry out scientific research,” Dou said last month. “We won't focus on their achievements when selecting the candidates.

“Instead, we'll arrange interactive discussions to assess whether they have a solid basic knowledge of science and enthusiasm for the subject. We’ll also offer those selected undergrads the opportunity to attend high-end young scientists' forums,” he added.

How much funding the projects that pass muster can get remains unclear. The NSFC has set up various types of allowances, but the proportion between projects receiving fund and those applying for fund did not increase given the rising number of candidates each year, so support for young talent still needs beefing up. 

According to an NSFC report on last year's review published in early June, the amount of money and the number of research projects that received grants under the funding system for young talent have grown recently. But with the rapid increase in the ranks of young researchers, the project funding rate fell to 17 percent last year from 25 percent in 2013.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev