NSTC Research Project Grant (General Research Project)

NSTC Research Project Grant — Seed

Funds Taiwanese biomedical researchers through general project support for life science discovery.

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Research Project Grant is Taiwan's foundational academic research funding mechanism, open to principal investigators at Taiwanese universities and public research organisations across all scientific disciplines. Operating under the NSTC Directions for Research Project Subsidization (2026 edition) and the NSTC Principles for Handling Research Project Grants (2023), the programme represents the primary channel through which NSTC — a ministry-level council under Taiwan's Executive Yuan established in its current form on 26 July 2022 — distributes its research budget, which in 2014 stood at NT$44.043 billion with approximately 79.6% dedicated to academic research support. The programme covers the full range of natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, humanities, and social sciences through NSTC's disciplinary departments.

Eligibility is limited to PIs at Taiwan-registered universities and research organisations; for-profit companies are excluded. The primary language of administration is Chinese, with English translations of key regulations provided for reference only — the Chinese version prevails in cases of discrepancy. Alongside the main annual cycle, NSTC runs special calls within the Research Project Grant stream, such as the 2025 Special Project to Encourage Women in Science and Technology Research, indicating that supplementary thematic priorities can create additional competitive pathways within the same administrative framework. Specific per-grant award amounts and the current cycle's submission deadline are not captured in the available sources and require verification against NSTC's live RFP pages.

Researchers applying to this programme must be affiliated with a Taiwan-based university or research institution and must comply with NSTC's research integrity requirements and review procedures as set out in the 2022 Directions for Research Project Review Mechanism. The broad disciplinary scope means competition is organised by field-specific review panels, making alignment between the proposed research and NSTC's stated departmental research areas a key success factor. International researchers are most commonly engaged as collaborators rather than PIs, as the programme is structured around Taiwan-based institutional affiliations.