In order to better leverage the guiding role of signature programs, attract more excellent doctors to Jiangsu for postdoctoral research, and support postdoctoral talent in playing a leading role, Jiangsu improved its Excellent Postdoctoral Program which had been in place for nearly three years.

Implemented as a sub-project of the province’s Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, the Excellent Postdoctoral Program is a specialized postdoctoral sponsoring and nurturing program, focusing on the needs of national and provincial major projects, cutting-edge technologies, significant scientific research, and advanced manufacturing industrial clusters, and subsidizing about 900 outstanding doctors every year and allowing them to enter stations to carry out postdoctoral research. According to the new regulation jointly issued by the Talent Office of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, the Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, and the Provincial Department of Finance, the Excellent Postdoctoral Program will underscore economic contribution, highlighting the contributions of application projects and host institutions to employment and industrial development, and prioritizing postdoctoral researchers in industrial sectors.

The Excellent Postdoctoral Program adopts a categorized and tiered sponsorship system. The sponsorship is divided into three categories, i.e., A, B, and C, with a funding period of two years. Category A provides an annual sponsorship of RMB 250,000 per person for 200 individuals; Category B offers RMB 150,000 per person annually for 300 individuals; and Category C supplies RMB 100,000 per person each year for 400 individuals. The sponsorship will mainly be used as living allowances of the awardees, and will not offset wages given by host institutions. The Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security will allocate the sponsorship funds to the awardees’ respective institutions, which shall be used exclusively for their intended purpose and accounted for separately, and no administrative fees may be deducted from within.

According to the regulation, the main beneficiaries of the upgraded Excellent Postdoctoral Program are postdoctoral researchers engaged in research in key industries and future industries in Jiangsu trying to make breakthroughs in key and core technologies; those conducting research at major platforms supported by Jiangsu; those carrying out research in fields urgently needed for national and provincial innovation and development; and those involved in research in other fields and platforms with key support from the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government.