Statistics and Strategic Thoughts of the Original Exploration Projects in the Fields of Mathematical and Physical Sciences

The Original Exploration Project was established by the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2020. It aims to guide and encourage researchers to actively engage in original basic research and to continuously promote original and disruptive innovations. Currently the proposals are either nominated by domain experts or driven by the funding guidelines. Considering that the project initiation is still in the exploratory pilot phase due to the inherent uncertainty characteristic of original research，it is of great importance to summarize the management experiences in a timely manner for the future implementation of the Project. Through systematically reviewing the funding statistics of the Project in the fields of mathematical and physical sciences over the past five years，this article distills the management experiences and identifies the areas for improvement. Additionally，it puts forward some considerations on how to better implement the Project in the fields of mathematical and physical sciences moving forward. We hope to improve the management mechanisms of scientific funding，foster a world-class innovation ecosystem and research environment，and thereby facilitate the production of major original and disruptive scientific and technological achievements in China，accelerating the realization of greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology.