Analysis of National Natural Science Foundation of China grant support for basic research of ophthalmology during the past ten years / 中华实验眼科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To review the detail data of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) grant support during past decade and to analyze the tendency of basic and applied science researches in ophthalmology and vision science.Methods:The detail data of grants supported by NSFC in the field of ophthalmology and vision science during 2010—2019 were collected.The project category, project name, principle investigator, amount of grant, supported institute and region distribution were analyzed.Cluster analysis of key words associated with the projects was performed with VOSviewer software.Results:During the past decade, the number of projects and the total amount of funding from NSFC were stable in ophthalmology and vision science, which accounted for about 2% of medicine field.The number of keywords representing advanced researches, hotspots areas and methodologies increased.Retinal and choroidal diseases, corneal and ocular surface diseases, glaucoma and optic nerve diseases ranked in the top three in the granted projects.Granted projects mainly went to the well-developed areas in economy and education.The high-level talent projects primarily were in the institutes and universities with solid and profound scientific research background.Conclusions:The sustained and stable support of NSFC plays a promoting role in the development of ophthalmology and vision science and talent cultivation.The new technology and its integration with interdisciplinary science promote the development of ophthalmology.Successfully granted projects appear to be related to the regional environment of economy, education and scientific research background.