973 Program

Beginning in 1998, the National Key Basic Research Program (known as the "973 Program") was launched to promote comprehensive multi-disciplinary research in the domains of agriculture, energy resources, information, natural resources and the environment, population and health, and materials, to offer scientific and theoretical references for solving relevant problems. The Program encourages leading scientists to carry out basic research in frontier sciences and advanced technologies.

Collaborating with the National Natural Science Foundation of China and other departments concerned, the Ministry of Science and Technology, which takes the principal responsibility for the implementation of the Project, has adopted a “2 + 3” mode, which means, first evaluating the efficiency and potential of research in the first two years and then working out the overall research plan for the three years that followed. From 1998 to 2002, the number of research projects covered in the Program totaled 132 – 17 in agriculture, 15 in energy resources, 17 in information industry, 24 in resources and environment, 21 in population and health, 19 in materials, and 19 in important frontier sciences.