According to the permission notice from  National Natural Science Foundation of China, 34 programs from Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics(IRSM) are supported by National Natural Science Foundation in 2012, including 3 Key Program Foundation, 17 General Program Foundation, 13 Distinguished Young Scholars Foundation, and 1 Joint Research Fund for Overseas Chinese, Hong Kong and Macao Young Scholars. IRSM wins financial aid of 26010,000yuan totally, increasing by 86% from last year.

National Natural Science Foundation of China is one of the main channel for basic national research, and the key source of basic research programs of IRSM. To improve the program quality proposed to national foundation, IRSM makes great efforts in researcher encouragement, experience exchange and research team coordination. In 2012, IRSM has proposed 96 programs, 34 of them are supported by National Natural Science Foundation, increasing the supporting rate to 35%. Meanwhile, 13 of the 30 proposed programs are supported by National Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars, with the supporting rate of 43.4%, which exceeds the average supporting rate of 24.3%.