Article 17 The National Natural Science Foundation of China shall comply with the principles of openness, justice and impartiality and adopt the mechanism of macro-guidance, independent application, equal competition, evaluation by experts working in the same field and selecting the best for support to fund basic research and scientific frontier exploration carried out by scientific and technological researchers in the institutions of higher learning, scientific research organizations or any other public welfare institutions which are incorporated organizations and develop basic research within the territory of the People's Republic of China.

Exclusive funds shall be set up under the National Natural Science Fund for cultivating young scientific and technological talents.

Article 18 The National Natural Science Foundation of China shall formulate the development plan, funding plan and annual guide to programs of the National Natural Science Fund in light of the plan for national economic and social development, the plan for scientific and technological development as well as the circumstance of scientific and technological development, define priority areas for development and the scope of projects to be supported with precedence, and determine funding categories and funding methods.

Article 19 The principles for the National Natural Science Foundation of China to determine its funding categories and funding methods shall be:

1. Be conducive to achieving the national goals of scientific, technological, economic and social development;

2. Be conducive to supporting the free exploration and creative research of scientific and technological researchers;

3. Be conducive to training young scientific and technological talents;

4. Be conducive to promoting the combination of basic research with education;

5. Be conducive to promoting the cooperation between the institutions of higher learning, research organizations and enterprises;

6. Be conducive to promoting the coordinated development of regional scientific and technological undertakings.

Article 20 The formulation of the development plan and annual guide to programs by the National Natural Science Foundation of China shall widely heed the opinions from the institutions of higher learning, scientific research organizations, academic groups, as well as related state organs and enterprises, and related experts shall be organized for scientific demonstrations.

Article 21 The National Natural Science Foundation of China shall establish expert advisory committees for corresponding science departments, whose main responsibilities shall be to advise on major issues such as the development strategies for specific disciplines, priority funding areas, funding methods, talent training and the management of specific science departments.

The chairman of the expert advisory committee for a specific science department shall be the director-general of the same department. Members of the committee shall be scientists and management experts from the same discipline engaged by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Members of the committee shall serve a three-year term of office and shall not be allowed to serve for more than two consecutive terms.

Article 22 The National Natural Science Foundation of China shall work out criteria and management rules for evaluations and organize the reviews and evaluations of the applications in accordance with the evaluation principles of "relying on experts, promoting democracy, supporting the best and being impartial and reasonable".

Article 23 The National Natural Science Foundation of China shall in general select and determine the funding projects according to the following procedures:

1. Preliminary examination on applications;

2. Peer review by experts;

3. Evaluation by panel review committees;

4. Approval by the council meeting.

The National Natural Science Foundation of China shall timely examine and make a decision on a reexamination request submitted by an applicant on refusal to accept his (or her) application or to fund his (or her) project.

Article 24 The National Natural Science Foundation of China shall select experts that have a fairly high academic level and good professional ethics to establish a contingent of peer reviewers and panel review committees or special review committees in accordance with the principles of representation, diversification and dynamic adjustment and on the voluntary basis of the experts.

Article 25 Members of the panel review committees shall be nominated by the corresponding science departments, approved by the council meeting and appointed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

They shall serve a two-year term of office and shall not be allowed to serve for more than two consecutive terms. The time interval between the end of the second term and the ensuing reappointment shall be no less than two years.

The special review committees shall be formed according to the prescribed procedures.

Article 26 The National Natural Science Foundation of China shall organize evaluation experts to make judgment and evaluation independently on the research values, innovation, social influences as well as the feasibility of research schemes.

The panel review committees shall also focus their review on the non-consensus innovative projects and put forward funding suggestions in light of the overall funding strategy.

The special review committees shall examine or approve the funding projects in accordance with specific requirements.

Article 27 The review and evaluation work of the National Natural Science Fund shall observe the systems of withdrawal and confidentiality, protect the rights and interests of both applicants and reviewers, and safeguard the impartiality of the review and evaluation work.

The staff of the National Natural Science Foundation of China shall not be allowed to apply for or participate in applying for the National Natural Science Fund projects.

Article 28 The National Natural Science Foundation of China shall strengthen the management and supervision over the projects, with emphasis being placed on verifying the working plans and spending budgets of the funded projects, check annual progress report, verify project completion or organize project acceptance, manage the results achieved by the funded projects and promote their sharing.

Article 29 The National Natural Science Foundation of China shall observe an annual report system, publish funding information and publicize the results achieved by the funded projects.

Article 30 The National Natural Science Foundation of China shall establish an information publication system to develop information publication work on its funding and management.