Recently, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) announced the results of its 2026 funding decisions for proposals submitted during the centralized application period. The China-ASEAN School of Economics / School of Economics / China-ASEAN Institute of Financial Cooperation at Guangxi University secured funding for five projects, including two General Program projects and three Regional Science Fund projects. The funded projects are as follows:

Profiles of Principal Investigators

Zeng Haijian is a Professor and PhD Supervisor at the China-ASEAN School of Economics / School of Economics / China-ASEAN Institute of Financial Cooperation, Guangxi University. He is a Bagui Scholar of Guangxi and a high-level talent of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. His research focuses on macro-finance, capital market liquidity, and corporate investment and financing behavior. He has served as principal investigator for four projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, including two Regional Science Fund projects and two General Program projects. He has published numerous papers in leading Chinese and international academic journals, including Economic Research Journal, Management World, Journal of Management Sciences in China, China Economic Quarterly, Journal of Financial Research, The Journal of World Economy, and Management Science (UTD24). He received the Third Prize of the 8th Outstanding Scientific Research Achievement Award of Higher Education Institutions (Humanities and Social Sciences) in 2020, two First Prizes for Outstanding Achievements in Philosophy and Social Sciences of Guangdong Province in 2011 and 2017, four Second Prizes for Outstanding Achievements in Social Sciences of Guangxi in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018, and two Third Prizes for Outstanding Achievements in Social Sciences of Guangxi in 2018 and 2025. He also serves as an anonymous reviewer for several leading Chinese and international academic journals.

Wang Han is a Professor and PhD Supervisor at the China-ASEAN School of Economics / School of Economics / China-ASEAN Institute of Financial Cooperation, Guangxi University, and Director of the Center for Land Resources and Public Policy Research at Guangxi University. She has been a visiting scholar at the China Center for Agricultural Policy at Peking University and the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions. She has been recognized as a young science and technology talent under the Ministry of Natural Resources’ High-Level Science and Technology Innovation Talent Program, one of the first “Bagui Young Top-notch Talents” of Guangxi, a high-level talent of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and a Guangxi March 8th Red-Banner Pacesetter. She has served as principal investigator for five national-level research projects, including projects funded by the National Social Science Fund of China and General Program projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, as well as five provincial- and ministerial-level projects, including projects funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi and subprojects under key R&D projects of Guangxi. She has published 54 papers as first or corresponding author in high-quality journals, including Nature portfolio journals, and has published four academic books. Among these, 22 papers have been published in leading international journals in the fields of commons governance and land policy, including one ESI Top 0.1% Hot Paper and four ESI Top 1% Highly Cited Papers. She has received one Second Prize and one Third Prize of the Guangxi Outstanding Achievement Award in Social Sciences. She also won the Second Prize in the Third Guangxi University Teaching Innovation Competition and the Bronze Award in the 18th National “Challenge Cup” Competition for College Students’ Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology Works.

Sheng Yuxue is an Associate Professor and Master’s Supervisor in the Department of Frontier Economics at the China-ASEAN School of Economics / School of Economics / China-ASEAN Institute of Financial Cooperation, Guangxi University. She has been selected as one of Guangxi’s “Bagui Young Top-notch Talents.” Her main research interests are regional economics, innovation and entrepreneurship. In recent years, she has completed three research projects as principal investigator: one Young Scientists Fund project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, one Youth Project under the Ministry of Education’s Humanities and Social Sciences Research Program, and one project under the Guangxi Education Science Planning Program. She has also participated in several research projects at the provincial and ministerial levels or above. She has published one academic monograph, one translated book, and two co-authored books, as well as numerous papers in journals including Papers in Regional Science, China Industrial Economics, and Nankai Economic Studies. One of her papers was reproduced in full on the digital platform of Xinhua Digest. She received a Second Prize in the Paper Category at the 16th Guangxi Outstanding Achievement Awards in Social Sciences.

Li Xiangrong is a Lecturer in the Department of Frontier Economics at the China-ASEAN School of Economics / School of Economics / China-ASEAN Institute of Financial Cooperation, Guangxi University. Her research has long focused on regional economics and border-region economies, with particular interests in green and low-carbon transition, population mobility, factor allocation, and coordinated regional development. She has served as principal investigator for six research projects, including projects under the Guangxi Philosophy and Social Sciences Research Project, Key Think Tank Projects of the Guangxi Social Sciences Community, and research projects of the Guangxi Department of Education. As a core team member, she has also participated in more than ten national-level and provincial- and ministerial-level projects, including major projects of the National Social Science Fund of China, projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Outstanding Young Scholars projects of the Guangxi Natural Science Foundation. She has published 18 academic papers in SSCI/SCI-indexed journals, including Emerging Markets Finance and Trade and Applied Economics, and four academic monographs. She has received a Second Prize of the Guangxi Natural Science Award and currently serves as a reviewer for several SSCI/SCI-indexed journals.

Ma Junfeng is an Assistant Professor and Master’s Supervisor at the China-ASEAN School of Economics / School of Economics / China-ASEAN Institute of Financial Cooperation, Guangxi University. His research is in applied microeconomics, with a particular focus on labor economics, regional economics, and institutional economics. His current research interests center on factor agglomeration and diffusion and the spatial allocation of production factors. He has served as principal investigator for one Regional Science Fund project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, one Youth Fund Project for Western and Border Areas under the Ministry of Education’s Humanities and Social Sciences Research Program, and one project under Guangxi’s 2025 National 1% Population Sample Survey. He has also participated in four projects funded by the National Social Science Fund of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Ministry of Education’s Humanities and Social Sciences Research Program. Over the past five years, he has published or had accepted more than 30 papers in CSSCI- and SSCI-indexed journals, including Finance & Trade Economics, Journal of Finance and Economics, World Economic Papers, Finance & Economics, Accounting and Economic Research, Journal of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Journal of Guangdong University of Finance & Economics, Journal of Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Cities, Research in International Business and Finance, North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Finance Research Letters, and Applied Economics. He serves as a reviewer for more than 20 CSSCI- and SSCI-indexed journals, including The Journal of World Economy, Finance & Trade Economics, Journal of Finance and Economics, Geographical Research, Economic Theory and Business Management, Research on Economics and Management, Accounting and Economic Research, Contemporary Finance & Economics, Population & Development, Journal of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, International Review of Financial Analysis, Spatial Economic Analysis, and Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy. He also serves on the young editorial boards of six journals, including Finance and Trade Research (CSSCI).

Source: Research Office, School of Economics

Translated by AI

Proofread by Yu Na, Fan Shi Qiongxiang  

Edited by Wei Jiali

Reviewed by Gong Zheng