The Chinese government will earmark 4.3 billion yuan for the National Natural Science Foundation this year, up 20 percent from 2006, the foundation president announced on Tuesday.

Along with other endowments, the foundation planned total investments of about five billion yuan in 2007, said Chen Yiyu.

Mostly government-funded, the foundation is the official body responsible for allocating research money to organization and individual applicants on critical research areas of natural science.

This year the foundation would strengthen financial support for research groups with innovative capability, said Chen.

The foundation received 67,800 applications in 2006 and assisted 13,700 projects.

Since its founding in 1981, the foundation has assisted nearly 100,000 research projects with 20 billion yuan.

(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2007)