School of Languages and Communication Studies Successfully Holds First Exchange Session for 2025 Research Project Applications

On the afternoon of January 3, 2025, the School of Languages and Communication Studies successfully held its first exchange session for 2025 research project applications in Room 816, Xiyuan West Building. The event featured Professor Liu Wei from the Department of English as the keynote speaker, was presided over by Vice Dean Hao Yunhui, and attended by over 20 mid-career and young faculty members.

Professor Liu Wei, who has long been dedicated to theoretical linguistics and has presided over three projects from the Ministry of Education and the National Social Science Fund, shared insights from multiple perspectives—as a project applicant, principal investigator, and project reviewer. She elaborated on how to successfully apply for high-level research projects, focusing on three key aspects: topic selection, project justification, and preliminary achievements. She emphasized that topic selection is crucial in project applications, where the theoretical foundation, depth, academic significance, and innovation reflected in the title serve as important evaluation criteria. Research topics should be determined through comprehensive consideration of disciplinary frontiers, personal expertise, and future research potential. Regarding project justification, she stressed the importance of clearly articulating core arguments, upon which discussions of research framework, content, key challenges, methodology, and innovative aspects can be effectively developed. Concerning preliminary achievements, she suggested demonstrating the strong support of one's research background by presenting the overall research profile and highlighting the relevance of published work to the proposed project.

At the session, Professor Su Linsen from the Department of Communication Studies shared his experience in research project application and implementation. He emphasized maintaining confidence throughout the application process and improving proposal quality through extensive academic exchange. Professor Su also discussed practical elements such as the effective use of charts and the presentation of different types of preliminary achievements in project proposals.

The presentations generated enthusiastic responses among young faculty members. They engaged in in-depth discussions with both professors on various topics, including the evaluation of research topics, distinguishing between key and challenging points in project justification, disciplinary categorization of proposed projects, strategic positioning between National Social Science Fund and Ministry of Education projects, as well as key concerns of project reviewers.

In his concluding remarks, Vice Dean Hao Yunhui expressed sincere gratitude to both professors for their generous sharing and long-standing support for young faculty development. He noted that since the implementation of the "14th Five-Year Plan", the School's research capabilities have developed steadily, though challenges remain such as high application numbers but low success rates. The School will enhance faculty's project application capabilities through strengthened research organization and specialized mentoring. This exchange session, focusing on linguistic studies, initiated the School's series of mentoring activities for 2025 research project applications. The School will subsequently provide targeted guidance across specialized fields and distinct research directions to better support faculty in their research project applications.