The National Natural Science Foundation of China decided to relax the age limit for women to apply for "Jieqing" from 45 to 48. (People's Vision/Photo)
On July 6, 2023, the National Natural Science Foundation of China clarified that from 2024, the age limit for female researchers to apply for "Jieqing" will be relaxed from 45 to 48.
"Jieqing" refers to the National Science Foundation for Outstanding Young Scholars, which is mainly used to support young scholars who have made outstanding achievements in basic research to carry out innovative research. Previously, the age limit for applying for "Jieqing" has been fixed at 45 years old, regardless of gender.
The National Natural Science Foundation of China has previously adopted preferential measures such as allowing pregnant women to extend the project cycle, increasing the participation of female experts in review, and relaxing the age limit for women to apply for the Youth Science Fund and Outstanding Youth Science Fund projects. The relaxation of the age limit for women to apply for "Jieqing" has provided further support for women to engage in scientific research to a certain extent.
"Scissor difference" distribution
In recent years, the NSFC has formed a funding pattern consisting of four series: exploration, talent, tools and integration, including a total of 17 different projects.
Among them, "Jieqing" belongs to the branch of the talent program. The talent program also includes the Youth Science Fund Project and the Outstanding Youth Science Fund Program (referred to as "Youqing"). The types of projects include general projects, key projects, major projects, etc.
The establishment of "Jieqing" has a special background of the times. In the early 90s of the 20th century, the national scientific research team had aging talents, and it was difficult to introduce talents. At that time, the leaders of front-line disciplines in scientific research were basically over 50 years old, and scientific and technological talents faced the situation of "green and yellow".
In order to solve the dilemma of scientific research talents, in March 1994, the State Council approved the establishment of the "National Science Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars", which is committed to cultivating a group of outstanding academic leaders. Since 1994, the number of "Jieqing" donors has increased from 50 per year at the beginning of its establishment to about 200 later, and then to about 300 in 2019, and the number of funding and disciplines covered has been increasing.
"Jieqing" and "Youqing" have become the two most important steps of China's scientific and technological talent echelon. Some scientific research institutes and universities take it as an important reference index in the evaluation and assessment, and directly link whether they can obtain the funding of the Jieqing Fund with salary and resource allocation.
"Jie Qing" also has the title of "Little Academician" in the academic community.
This stems from the close relationship between the two. According to the official website of the Natural Science Foundation of China, as of 2022, 86.41% of academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under the age of 60 have been funded by the "Jieqing" fund; All academicians under the age of 50 of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have received funding from the "Jieqing" fund. Among the academicians of the Academy of Sciences co-opted in each term, the proportion of "funders who have won the Jieqing Fund" is also increasing year by year, and among the academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences co-opted in 2017, the proportion of "funders who have won the Jieqing Fund" has reached 72.13%.
In addition, most of the representative achievements of the academicians who have been declared by the "Jieqing Fund" come from the funding period or the deepening of the research work of the "Jieqing" Fund.
"Jieqing" has such a heavy weight in academia, what is the proportion of women in it?
Southern Weekend reporters counted the list of applicants who won the "Jieqing" project from 2017 to 2020, with a total of 1,000 applicants, including 114 female researchers. Of the 300 applicants in 2020, only 29 were women, accounting for less than 10%.
Except for the "Jieqing" project, the proportion of female leaders in other projects funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China is lower than that of men.
Taking the funded projects in 2021 as an example, female leaders accounted for 40.5%, 26.4%, 23.7%, and 11.5% of the Youth Science Fund projects, general projects, outstanding youth science fund projects, and key projects, respectively.
It is not difficult to see that as the difficulty of the project increases, the proportion of female leaders gradually decreases.
Yu Xuan and Gao Ruiping of the National Natural Science Foundation of China analyzed in the article "Science Foundation Helps the Growth of Female Scientific Researchers" that gender differences show a "scissor difference" distribution with the improvement of project level, and there is a certain "glass ceiling" problem in the upward space of female researchers.
In addition, research shows that in some high-level talent programs, female grantees tend to pile up near the application age threshold, and it is more difficult for female talent to stand out than men.
Yu Xiulan and others of Nanjing University found that the age of 35 to 47 is the adjustment and reconstruction stage of female scholars' academic careers, in which female scholars shift the focus of their lives back to academic research as their children grow up, which also means that the academic peak period of female researchers is moving backward.
Cai Yingfeng, executive vice dean of the Graduate School of Jiangsu University, is a "post-80s" "Jieqing" (network data map/picture)
The "Women First Policy" has been introduced one after another
Since 2010, relevant national departments have successively issued a series of guidance documents to support female researchers.
On June 6, 2010, the State Council issued the Outline of the National Medium and Long-term Talent Plan (2010-2020), which proposed and improved the evaluation, use and incentive measures conducive to the innovation and entrepreneurship of scientific and technological talents, and laid a policy foundation for promoting the development of female talents in the field of science and technology.
On November 8, 2011, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the All-China Women's Federation jointly issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Female Scientific and Technological Talents", which proposed to support the scientific research activities of female scientific and technological talents during pregnancy, and give priority to supporting female scientific and technological talents under the same conditions, providing specific guidance for the development of female scientific researchers.
At the same time, the Natural Science Foundation of China has also taken relevant measures, mainly in the process of project application, review, conclusion and expert review team construction.
Specifically, it mainly includes four aspects: the "women's priority policy" under equal conditions, the preference and care measures for breastfeeding women, the inclusion of female researchers in management and decision-making consultation, and the continuous tracking and monitoring of the status of the science fund in promoting gender equality.
In the past two years, more specific support measures have been introduced and the relevant content has been more detailed.
On June 17, 2021, 14 departments, including the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Natural Science Foundation of China, and the All-China Women's Federation, jointly issued Several Measures to Support Female Scientific and Technological Talents to Play a Greater Role in Scientific and Technological Innovation, emphasizing that it is necessary to continue to implement the policy of relaxing the application age of female researchers in relevant talent projects, and further coordinate the research on the application age of female researchers in various talent projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
After the introduction of the measures, Shandong, Fujian and other places have also introduced relevant planning and detailed measures.
In the plan, Fujian Province emphasizes that the implementation of the policy of relaxing the age of Fujian Province's women to apply for the Provincial Natural Science Foundation Youth Innovation Program to 38 years old, so that female researchers can complete their fertility tasks with peace of mind without affecting the development of future scientific research.
What changes have these preferential policies brought to female researchers?
In general, the proportion of female researchers applying for and receiving funding in regional science funds, general projects and key projects has shown an overall trend of increasing year by year.
In 2021, the proportion of female researchers applying for the above three types of projects was 29.02%, 36.98% and 13.12%, respectively, an increase of 7.39%, 7.45% and 3.09% compared with ten years ago. The proportion of female researchers receiving funding for these three types of projects was 26.37%, 33.92% and 11.49%, respectively, an increase of 5.38%, 5.61% and 3.89% over 2011.
The measures to relax the age limit for female researchers to apply for "Jieqing" to 48 years old will be implemented in 2024, and it is still unknown what effect it will bring.
However, according to the youth science fund project and the outstanding young science fund project that have long relaxed the age limit, it is still expected to bring some changes.
In 2011, the Natural Science Foundation adjusted the upper age limit for women to apply for the Youth Science Fund to 40 years old and 35 years old for men.
The year after the relaxation, there were significant changes. The share of women in all applicants increased to 47.5% in 2011, up from 36.5% in 2010. From 2015 to 2019, the proportion of women among applicants increased year by year, and in 2018, it surpassed men for the first time, reaching 50.8%.
Southern Weekend Reporter Wei Cuicui Southern Weekend Intern Zhang Yejing