Funders should look beyond strict age criteria

Nature作者:Xiaohui Xia2026年8月11日正文已收录本站
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  • Xiaohui Xia0
  1. Xiaohui Xia
    1. Hubei University, Wuhan, China.

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The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) plans to fund an extra 12,000 projects through its Young Scientists Fund (see Nature 655, 557–558; 2026). Under NSFC rules, male applicants must be under 35 years old and female applicants under 40. This raises a wider question for science funders: should early-career support be tied to birthdate?

Nature 656, 532 (2026)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02492-7

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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