In the past decades, the field of wood science and technology (WST) in the world has experienced significant changes in response to changes in resources, environments, technologies, and other emerging issues. WST in China is becoming a strong scientific discipline and has had an obvious impact on the global WST research and development (R&D) activities. In this article, a comprehensive review of the recent WST R&D advances in China is presented. Among various contributing factors, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), a state funding agency for basic research, has played a critical role in helping to shape up the Chinese R&D activities in the field. NSFC funding information in the WST field from 1988 to 2014, including the number of approved projects, funding level, and supported program categories, was retrieved and analyzed. The positive roles of NSFC in supporting free exploration, cultivating research teams and youth talents, and promoting WST R&D are demonstrated. Hot spots in some focused research areas, key advances in the field, challenges, and future prospect of the Chinese WST development are outlined.

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