A sharp increase in funding for the sciences this year is widely seen as an effort to jump-start the country's quest to be an "innovation nation."

The National Natural Science Foundation (NNSF) has received 3.4 billion yuan (US$425 million) from central government coffers for this year  a quarter more than last year  Zhu Zuoyan, its vice-president, told China Daily.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the foundation, one of the main funding agencies for basic research. The central government has set the goals of building China into an innovation nation by 2020; and a leading global scientific power by 2050.

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