Abstract
Global changes in both the current economic climate and political priorities have posed significant challenges concerning government spending on research, which undermines the survival and development of a number of academic disciplines, especially those in arts and humanities. This article reports on an inquiry that examines whether and how national research funding has supported the development of translation studies as an academic discipline in China, employing the example of the National Social Science Fund of China (NSSFC) subsidy, as allocated to the field of translation studies. Firstly, we accessed the NSSFC database for all programs featuring translation and translation studies between 2010 and 2019. Secondly, we coded, categorized, and processed the data in a quantitative manner. Our examination of the number of grants, research focuses, and frequently examined issues of these programs has led us to conclude the fact that NSSFC has facilitated the increase in translation studies as an academic discipline in China. Further investigation into the positive relationship between NSSFC funding policies and mechanism and the growth in academic translation studies has also identified the ways NSSFC boosts translation studies as an academic discipline in China: to promote and increase the market, interdisciplinary, and multimodal applicability of the research output. The findings also suggest that revisions may be needed to further refine the NSSFC mechanism so that translation studies will develop into a balanced, continuously innovative discipline.
Highlights
Public funding is an important element of research regulation across universities in a number of national, political, and cultural settings [1]
With the above inquiry exploring National Social Science Fund of China (NSSFC) subsidy allocated to translation-related programs, we have determined that national research funding contributes to the sustainable growth of translation studies as an academic discipline in China
This article explores current development of translation studies as an academic discipline supported by NSSFC, in order to answer whether national funding contributes to the sustainable growth of disciplines in the field of arts and humanities in China
Summary
Public funding is an important element of research regulation across universities in a number of national, political, and cultural settings [1]. Nordic countries (e.g., Sweden) and Australia have paid more attention to the market applicability of research output. As a result, they have raised the proportion of research funding allocated to non-collegial organizations, and simultaneously reduced subsidies for universities [2]. A consequence of this changed funding mechanism is that it hinders the sustainable development of research in the field of arts and humanities [2], which have less market applicability compared to science and engineering. Despite an annual total of nearly USD 10 billion for theoretical and applied research being allocated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) [7], some research disciplines in the USA have currently received disproportionally low funding, such as health research [8] and again, arts and humanities [7]
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