Joint Research Projects should combine the complementary expertise of the project partners; the project parts should be closely integrated so that one part could not be carried out without the other and there should be substantial scientific input from both sides.
Project applications must be submitted in parallel to RSF (Russian team) and to NSFC (Chinese team) in accordance with each agency’s application guidelines.
Project review will be carried out by the parties independently. Funding will be awarded for the proposals recommended for funding by the experts from both countries.
The size of one RSF grant is from 4 to 7 million Russian rubles per project per year, these research projects are planned for the implementation during 2026-2028.
The proposals should be submitted until 25 April with results announced in November 2025.
Detailed information about the call and the requirements for the participants are presented in the "Funding" section.
Since 2021, 200 jointly organised research projects have been funded under the RSF-NSFC cooperation.
Detailed information about the call and the list of winners are presented in the "Funding".
According to Nature Index 2024, China is now the Russia's biggest single-country partner for high-profile collaborative research, followed by the USA, Germany, UK and France.
***
The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) is a major funding source for basic research and frontier exploration in China. In 2023, it funded over 52,000 projects and programs with a total investment of more than 31.8 billion yuan (4.48 billion U.S. dollars). It is now the most important partner for the Russian Science Foundation in terms of both the number of active awards for bilateral projects and the value of investment.
