The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) announced the results of the 2024 grant application review recently. Since the approval of EIT's qualification as a supporting institution of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), EIT applied for the first time for 17 NSFC programs, which were all approved, recording an increase of 142.8% compared with 2023, with total funding of nearly CNY 15 million. The number of approved programs and approved rate of multiple types of programs achieved a historic breakthrough this year.

The funding rate of EIT's programs hit a new high this year, with a program approval rating of 30.4%, higher than the national average of 11.4%. Specifically, the approval rating for NSFC Youth Fund programs reached 30.7%, that of General Programs reached 46.2%, that of Research Funds for Foreign Scholars reached 40.0%, and that of Research Funds for International Scientists programs reached 20.0%, all of which are higher than the average level of the NSFC.

Among the approved programs, the novel halide-based all-solid-state lithium battery research led by Sun Xueliang, foreign Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC), Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE), and Chair Professor of EIT, was approved as a Research Fund For International Scientists program, achieving a "zero" breakthrough in this program type in the Ningbo city. Sun Xueliang is currently the Dean of EIT's Institute of Materials and Energy. He is engaged in basic and applied research on solid-state batteries, lithium-ion batteries, and fuel cells, and has made original achievements in novel halide solid electrolytes and all-solid-state batteries in recent years. He once won the international authoritative battery technology award among other honors, and was selected as one of the "Global Highly Cited Researchers" and "World's Top 2% Scientists" rated by Clarivate.

Sun's team participated in the on-site defense session of the project. As the main supporter of basic research, NSFC sponsors the most influential and highest-level research projects in China's natural science research field, and its funding is also an important indicator for measuring the natural science research capacity of colleges and universities. The school attaches great importance to the application of NSFC programs and organized a mobilization meeting for application work in 2024. Zeng Wenjun, foreign Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE) and Vice President of EIT, attended the meeting and made a mobilization speech, embodying EIT's efforts in early planning, early mobilization, and early arrangements for this work, while staying targeted, clear in division of responsibilities, and focused during tracking to deliver fine-grained results in the application for NSFC programs. In the next step, the university will strengthen basic research, focus on frontier intercross and fusion, and augment organized scientific research efforts to produce high-level scientific and technological innovation results. Meanwhile, it will step up efforts in building a new type of research university to support high-quality economic and social development which contributes to the nation's high-level scientific and technological self-reliance.