BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on Thursday offered stable and consistent research grants to 408 scientists.
The scientists from 98 research institutes will enjoy the grants for five years or longer at a rate of up to 1 million yuan (145,000 U.S. dollars) per person per year.
CAS President Bai Chunli said the grants would support outstanding scientists in "free exploration" and meeting frontier scientific problems.
Research grants, in China, are usually granted to programs, rather than scientists. The short span and instability of these programs has held scientists back in achieving long-term progress.