Mathematics serves as a crucial foundation for scientific research and major technological advancements. The Several Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Basic Scientific Research issued by the State Council in 2018 emphasizes the need to enhance basic scientific research and provide greater support to fundamental disciplines such as mathematics. The establishment of the National Tianyuan Mathematics Center, as a platform-based project initiated and funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, represents a significant measure and strategic arrangement to comprehensively strengthen basic scientific research in China and promote the development of the mathematical discipline.
The Mathematics Tianyuan Fund was established in 1990 as a earmarked fund to promote China's mathematics to achieve the goal of becoming a strong mathematical nation as soon as possible, in order to achieve the goal proposed by the older generation of mathematicians that "Chinese mathematics should catch up with the world's advanced the first level in the 21st century". The Mathematics Tianyuan Fund is a mathematics special fund managed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, which originates from fiscal appropriations. This fund is a special scientific fund established to gather the collective wisdom of mathematicians, explore funding methods that are in line with the characteristics and development laws of mathematics, and promote the construction of a strong mathematics country. The Mathematics Tianyuan Fund project supports scientific and technological personnel to conduct scientific research, cultivate young talents, promote academic exchanges, optimize research environments, disseminate mathematical culture, and enhance China's mathematical innovation capabilities by combining the characteristics and demands of the mathematics discipline.
After developing for nearly 30 years, with the joint efforts of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, previous academic leadership groups, and national mathematics workers, the Mathematics Tianyuan Fund has played an important role in discipline development planning, discipline direction adjustment, discipline team construction, youth talent cultivation, improvement of research environment, and cultivation of excellent mathematicians, making significant contributions to promoting the rapid development of mathematics in China.
The leading group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China's Mathematics Tianyuan Fund established the Tianyuan Mathematics Center project in 2017 to promote the balanced development of regional mathematics disciplines better. The project aims to build a communication platform to promote cooperation and research. Through various forms of academic exchange and discussion activities, it focuses on mathematics and its interdisciplinary fields or topics, consolidates relevant research teams, focuses on scientific problems, deepens cooperation among experts in multiple fields at home and abroad, cultivates young academic backbones, guides young people to enter the forefront of the discipline, promotes the cross integration of mathematics with other disciplines and branches of mathematics, enhances the overall research level of related fields or topics in China, forms advantageous research directions, and promotes the development of mathematics disciplines.
The Tianyuan Mathematical Center in Central China was established in 2019 and is hosted by Wuhan University. It is jointly established by 27 universities and research institutions across seven provinces in central China (Anhui, Jiangsu, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, and Shandong). The center aims to create a regional academic exchange platform with distinct disciplinary characteristics.The Tianyuan Mathematical Center in Central China primarily focuses on six key fields: Analysis and PDEs, Geometric Topology, Algebra, Mathematical Physics, Information and Computation, and Probability and Statistics. It aims to promote the integration of various mathematical branches and their intersection with other disciplines by addressing several cutting-edge fields and important research directions.Guided by the principle of being academic committee-driven, the center will manage its operations, conduct activities, and carry out academic initiatives under the guidance of its academic committee. By drawing on the successful experiences and practices of international academic exchange institutions, the center will strive to build a distinctive academic exchange platform for mathematical sciences in the central region of China.
The Tianyuan Mathematical Center in Central China aims to address the shortcomings in basic scientific research in China by laying a solid foundation in basic research, reserving innovative forces, achieving forward-looking research, and leading major scientific breakthroughs. By strengthening communication among mathematicians and interdisciplinary experts and scholars, deepening cooperation, expanding research scope, creating a favorable academic environment, promoting cross disciplinary integration, fully utilizing the rich educational and teaching resources in the central region, and creating a high-end academic exchange platform, especially becoming a base for innovative talents in mathematics in the central region, it will play an important role in promoting the overall level of mathematics in the central region.