[The support of National Natural Science Foundation of China prompts the progress and development of basic research of dental and craniofacial research: a 25 years review].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) on the progress of dental research from 1986 to 2010.


METHODS
The data regarding the NSFC allocated to dental and craniofacial research from 1986 to 2010 were collected. Total expenses and numbers of the majority of programs and the situation of completed program finished in recent 7 years were provided.


RESULTS
From 1986 to 2010, a total of 922 projects and 204 401 thousands Chinese Yuan supported by NSFC were allocated to dental research. The detailed allocations were as follows: general program (564), young scientists fund (258), regional fund (40), key program (11), national science fund for distinguished young scholars (5), major international (regional) joint research program (1), others (43). The grants of talent training increased dramatically. Taking the projects (307) completed between 2003 and 2009 for example, 307 papers were published in Science Citation Index (SCI) included journals and 1049 papers were published on Chinese journals. By the time of completion of the projects, 39 post-doctoral students, 590 students for PhD degree and 670 students for Master degree had been trained.


CONCLUSIONS
Over the past 25 years, the continuous increase of NSF on dental research has led to substantial achievement, resulting in great progress of dental oral-cranio-facial research.
Department of Health Science, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Beijing 100085, China.
Mu
M
Xian
Qing-song
QS
Jiang
Wei
W
Hong
Yan-ying
YY
Xu
Er-dan
ED
Dong
D002681:China; D004468:Economics, Dental; D005378:Financial Support; D005381:Financing, Organized; D005582:Foundations / Q000191:economics; D019242:Oral Medicine / Q000191:economics; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000191:economics; D012189:Retrospective Studies