In recent years, Beijing has coordinated and promoted integrated reforms in education, science and technology, and talent development. The municipal education commission has optimized and consolidated research platform projects into five platform-based and three talent-based categories, and plans to introduce the "Several Measures for Capital Universities to Play a Mainstay Role in Fundamental Research" in 2025. Expenditure on fundamental research in Beijing's universities surged from 13.32 billion yuan in 2024 to 16.25 billion yuan in 2025, an increase of 21.99%. With comprehensive support spanning platform development, talent cultivation, and funding security, the role of capital universities as the main force in fundamental research is becoming increasingly prominent. In 2025, universities in Beijing secured 39 National Science and Technology Awards (general projects) as the primary completing institutions, accounting for nearly one-quarter of all awards won by universities nationwide. From the RNA Beijing Research Center led by a Peking University professor tackling frontiers in life sciences, to a Tsinghua University team gaining international influence in foundational internet technologies for the first time, and to a 33-year-old young scholar from Beijing University of Technology solving the high-energy-consumption challenge in wastewater treatment, a series of cutting-edge achievements are rapidly emerging. As noted by Liu Wei, Director of the Research Department of the Municipal Education Commission, by closely aligning with Beijing's "Four Centers" development goals, efforts are being intensified to nurture talent and projects at the forefront of university research, driving fundamental research to greater depth and solidity.

Forward-looking Planning: Academician-led Breakthroughs in RNA Field "Fundamental research has long cycles; it cannot be rushed and requires an 'investment' mindset." This was emphasized by Chen Xuemei, Director of the RNA Beijing Research Center, Dean of the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. At the end of 2023, with a forward-looking vision for the frontiers of life sciences, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission established the RNA Beijing Research Center, a new research institution based at Peking University. As a special zone for talent cultivation in the ribonucleic acid (RNA) field in Beijing, the center implements international recruitment and management systems, fosters close collaboration among multiple laboratories, and from its inception, has recruited high-level scientific experts globally. It focuses on fundamental and applied basic research, aiming to develop world-leading RNA technologies to serve national strategic needs in life health and advanced agriculture. Over two and a half years of operation, the RNA Beijing Research Center has formed about 30 research teams with a staff of 200-300, achieving a series of breakthroughs. For instance, in fundamental research, it discovered the key role of RNA modification in cancer cell proliferation, developed novel research tools for RNA capping modifications, and constructed a precise small-molecule AI virtual screening and experimental validation platform targeting RNA. In applied basic research, it successfully developed RNA editing technology to correct disease-causing mutations and validated its potential for treating hereditary deafness in mouse models. In agriculture, RNA editing increased alfalfa aboveground biomass by 15% and significantly enhanced nitrogen fixation capacity. The yield-enhancing technology from Jia Guifang's team is already undergoing field trials in multiple regions across the country. Academician Chen Xuemei stated that fundamental research involves long cycles and high uncertainty, making long-term, stable government support crucial. "Beijing has shown foresight, as the global RNA field is in a period of vigorous development, and our country urgently needs original theories and foundational technologies. Beijing's talent advantages and its strategic focus on vigorously developing the life health and biopharmaceutical industries determined that we could establish the RNA Beijing Research Center over two years ago. The strong support from Beijing has enabled us to bring together talents from different disciplines for collaborative research." According to Chen, artificial intelligence is currently accelerating the progress of RNA research. The RNA Beijing Research Center introduced AI experts early on, achieving significant progress in RNA large language models, RNA and protein design and modification, drug target discovery, and drug screening. The next step will focus on breaking through bottlenecks in RNA research agents and experimental automation, promoting efficient integration of AI with experiments.

Zhuoqing Program Helps Chinese Team Gain Influence Li Dan, a tenured professor in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University, is the project leader for the second batch of the Beijing "High-Level Talent Program" - Outstanding Young Scientist Program. His team's research focuses on computer networks and the internet, which are foundational technologies within the information technology field. Despite being a "niche" area, this research forms the core infrastructure supporting current network AI applications, enabling Chinese researchers to lead the establishment of a working group and set relevant international standards for the first time in the core routing area of the IETF (the most authoritative standardization organization in the international internet field). Li Dan's team's project, titled "Key Technologies for Secure, Fine-Grained, and Intelligent Next-Generation Internet Routing Control," is an achievement led by him and a group of young faculty members, master's, and doctoral students at Tsinghua University. It aims to address three core issues in next-generation internet routing control: security, fine-grained control, and intelligence. The project strives to tackle these from the fundamental technical level of networks, embedding key factors into network protocols and architectures through endogenous design, rather than merely patching existing frameworks. The aforementioned achievements were made possible with funding from the Zhuoqing Program. "International competition in this field is intense. The long-term, stable support provided by the Zhuoqing Program—five years with 3 million yuan in annual funding—is crucial for building a research team and ensuring all aspects required for fundamental research," Li Dan emphasized. He also highlighted the program's humanized approach in process management: "The future of fundamental research is hard to predict, and the Zhuoqing Program has given us considerable leeway during project execution: it doesn't frequently interrupt us or require us to spend excessive time and effort on forms, assessments, and reporting. Our current phased achievements are inseparable from this management style," he said.

Funding to Universities Enables Young Scholar to Tackle Wastewater Challenge Beijing's support for fundamental research extends not only "to individuals" but also "to universities." In June 2025, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission and the Municipal Finance Bureau jointly launched the "Basic Scientific Research Operating Expenses for Municipal Universities in Beijing" and its management measures. This initiative provides funding for young faculty in municipal universities to independently conduct frontier fundamental research, key technological breakthroughs, and philosophical and social science research, with a focus on supporting teachers under 35 years old and prioritizing newly hired doctoral graduates under 30. It includes two directions: supporting new faculty funding plan projects and supporting scientific research innovation capability building projects. Li Jialin, an associate researcher at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Beijing University of Technology, is among the first beneficiaries of the "Basic Scientific Research Operating Expenses." This 33-year-old young scholar has published 13 academic papers in the field of wastewater biological treatment since 2025, including four as first or corresponding author in top-tier environmental journals, and has obtained four national invention patents. His achievements are genuinely serving the capital's green and high-quality development: he participated in industry-university-research collaboration between Beijing University of Technology and the Beijing Drainage Group, effectively addressing the high-energy-consumption issue in Beijing's urban wastewater treatment plants. He also secured approval as the principal investigator for a sub-project under the National Major Science and Technology Project for Comprehensive Environmental Management in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. "My rapid growth is attributed to the support and incubation from Beijing's Basic Scientific Research Operating Expenses for Municipal Universities," Li Jialin stated. During the most challenging initial phase of his research career, when trial-and-error space was most needed, this funding provided him with the confidence to explore interdisciplinary frontiers and the courage to attempt fundamental research on new technologies and theories from scratch. A characteristic of the "Basic Scientific Research Operating Expenses" is that the funds are allocated to municipal universities, which then organize project selection internally, establish a university-level project database for basic scientific research operating expenses, and have each young faculty member participate as a project leader in application, review, and approval processes. Taking Beijing University of Technology as an example, the university has formulated detailed implementation rules emphasizing management principles of stable support, autonomous management, and performance orientation. It is understood that the university's first batch of "Basic Scientific Research Operating Expenses" has already funded over a hundred research projects by young faculty members, yielding a series of significant achievements.