Analysis and perspective of the grants funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China in the field of laboratory medicine from 2010 to 2021 / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze and summarize the overall results of application and funded projects by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) in the field of laboratory medicine from 2010 to 2021.Methods:Application and granting data in the field of laboratory medicine during 2010 and 2021 were collected from NSFC. Amount of funded projects, geographical distribution, supporting institution, distribution of keywords and representative research results in the field of laboratory medicine were analyzed. The overall characteristics of funded project in the past decades were summarized.Results:From 2010 to 2021, NSFC received a total of 7 746 project applications, among which 1 152 projects and a total of 506.317 million RMB were funded in the field of laboratory medicine. Project applications increased from 228 in 2010 to 1 184 in 2021. Among them, the number of funded projects increased from 36 in 2010 to 137 in 2021, accompanied by an increase in the amount of project grants from 10.12 million RMB in 2010 to 65.38 million RMB in 2021, but there is still a gap compared with other disciplines. In the field of laboratory medicine (H26), the sub-disciplines H2605 (molecular biological examination) and H2606 (new technologies and methods for laboratory medicine research) were the two directions with the highest number of funded grants, with a total of 688 grants, accounting for 59.7% (688/1 152) of the total funded grants. Among the region of funding, Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Chongqing, Zhejiang and Jiangsu were the top six regions with the successful funding, accounting for 60.2% (695/1 152) funded projects. Thirty supporting institutions received 826 grants in the field of laboratory medicine, accounting for 71.7% (826/1 152) funded projects. Among all the funded projects tumors (37.1%, 427/1 152), infectious diseases (26.9%, 310/1 152), circulatory diseases (5.3%, 61/1 152), autoimmune diseases (4.3%, 49/1 152), and endocrine and metabolic diseases (2.8%, 32/1 152) ranked the top disease types of successful funding; proteins (33.4%, 385/1 152), DNA (19.4%, 224/1 152), RNA (17.3%, 199/1 152), exosomes (6.0%, 69/1 152), and cells (5.9%, 68/1 152) ranked the top targets of successful funding; nanotechnology (6.0%, 69/1 152), mass spectrometry (3.0%, 34/1 152), probe technology (1.82%, 21/1 152), electrochemical technology (1.6%, 19/1 152), and second-generation sequencing technology (1.6%, 18/1 152) ranked the top technologies of funded projects. Within the last decade, many breakthroughs have been made by many distinguished national research groups in developing reference ranges, identifying novel biomarkers, and inventing novel laboratory medicine technologies.Conclusions:The number of projects and the total funding amount are increasing annually in the past decade in the field of laboratory medicine granted by NSFC. The funding of different secondary codes, regions and supporting units varies remarkably, and the scope of funded projects is wide. Many research groups have achieved landmark progress in novel biomarker identification and technology development. The overall level of research in the laboratory medicine is expected to be significantly improved in the future.