Distribution of the population and health projects of the Joint Fund in China between 2006 and 2019.

Background: The Joint Fund has explored the cooperation mechanism between the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and local government, promoted the development of basic research, and created a new model system. The Joint Fund has had a huge influence on scientific and technological community, especially in the field of population and health.

Methods: Research materials and related data were drawn from the NSFC database. We used the search words "National Natural Science Foundation", "Joint Fund", population and health", and "medical codes" to obtain useful information and collect relevant data.

Results: From 2006 to 2019, the NSFC's Joint Fund awarded a total of 767.683 million Chinese Yuan to 590 projects, distributed in 9 local government Joint Funds and 1 enterprise Joint Fund within the field of population and health. And the NSFC-Guangdong Joint Fund has invested the most, followed by the NSFC-Yunnan Joint Fund. A total of 92 applicants' host institutions from 20 provinces and municipalities were funded by the Joint Fund in the field of population and health, of which Zhengzhou University received the largest number of projects (137), and Sun Yat-sen University received the largest amount of funding (CNY 76,230,000).

Conclusions: The Joint Fund has increased investment in the field of population and health in recent years. By analyzing the characteristics of population and health projects, we identified the NSFC-Guangdong Joint Fund and NSFC-Yunnan Joint Fund invested more, and Sun Yat-sen University and Zhengzhou University received more funding projects, which may help to guide future grant applications.