The Complete Dachuang Workflow: Application, Midterm Review, and Completion
Acadwrite Team · Last updated July 24, 2026
A Dachuang project usually includes an application, midterm review, and completion review. Dates and document formats vary by university, so follow your academic affairs office's notice. Applications, progress reports, and completion reports serve different purposes. This guide explains what each stage requires and how to present research objectives, methods, data, and outcomes.
Three Project Types, Funding, and Participation Limits
The authoritative policy is the National College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program Management Measures (Ministry of Education Letter [2019] No. 13). The three project types have different tasks and output formats. Choose a type according to its official definition.
An individual or team independently designs and conducts innovative research under an adviser, including preparing research conditions, implementing the project, writing the report, and sharing results.
Each team member takes one or more specific roles and completes a business plan, feasibility study, simulated company operations, and entrepreneurship report.
Students use results from innovation training or other innovative experiments to undertake entrepreneurial practice under both university and industry advisers.
- Funding:The measures set average funding of at least RMB 20,000 for innovation and entrepreneurship training projects and RMB 100,000 for entrepreneurial practice projects (Articles 9 and 14).
- Credits and participation limits:Universities may award credits under their own rules (Article 21). In principle, each student may join only one project in the same academic year (Article 9), so check whether teammates already have an active project.
- Platform:The National Innovation Training Platform, operated by Beijing Jiaotong University, provides public records of approved and completed projects and annual reports since 2012. Use it to check topic overlap and find benchmarks.
Terminology note:At the national level, the program was renamed the College Student Innovation Training Program in 2023. Both old and new names appear in policy searches and annual statistics; this guide uses the customary shorthand Dachuang.
Timeline: Four Milestones and Their Deliverables
The months below reflect a common schedule compiled from several university notices (see the application schedule from USTC's Academic Affairs Officeand the midterm schedule from Changsha University of Science and Technology). Cohorts and months vary by university, so always follow your own academic affairs office's notice。
University application
March–May (some universities also have a fall cohort)- What to submit
- Submit one application: basic information (lead, adviser, and member responsibilities), eight project-rationale sections (summary, objectives, content, domestic and international research, innovations, methods, problems and expected outputs, schedule, and existing foundation), followed by the budget. The public Changsha University of Science and Technology sample shows the column structure.
- Who reviews it
- Approval proceeds from adviser to school, university expert panel, and leadership group. The Changsha sample shows this chain. Advisers may return a submission for revision, so the version sent to your adviser should already be final-draft quality.
- Common mistakes
- Before submission, check word limits, attachments, the adviser's project cap, and members' active projects. Use your university notice and system prompts for exact restrictions.
National list announced
October–November- What to submit
- No new material is required at this stage. Projects approved by universities are nominated upward, and nationally approved project records enter the public platform, which includes projects since 2012.
- Who reviews it
- Provincial education authorities consolidate registrations and the Ministry of Education publishes the list. Search prior approved and completed projects in your field to determine whether the topic has been attempted and how far earlier teams progressed.
- Common mistakes
- Terminology errors: the national program adopted the name College Student Innovation Training Program in 2023. Using the older name is not fatal, but distinguish the statistical scope when citing annual data.
Midterm review
March–April of the following year- What to submit
- The midterm form usually restates the research objectives and content and adds a comparison between planned and actual progress. Follow your university's dates.
- Who reviews it
- The university academic affairs office organizes the review. Its notice determines whether the review is written, oral, or both.
- Common mistakes
- Every milestone in the application should have a verifiable output. Address completion status, causes of deviations, and next steps item by item.
Completion review
May–June- What to submit
- Submit a completion report, output list, and self-evaluation. Map actual outcomes to the expected outcomes.
- Who reviews it
- Under Article 18 of the measures, the university organizes expert acceptance and reports results to the provincial education authority.
- Common mistakes
- Check structure, content, innovation, and research value against your university's completion score sheet. A North China Electric Power University rubric is shown below as an example.
For a field-by-field application guide and sample score sheet, see the Dachuang application checklist.
What to Write in Applications, Progress Reports, and Completion Reports
Comparing the application's eight sectionswith midterm and completion materials clarifies their different purposes. The application describes the research plan. Midterm materials document completed work and interim data. Completion materials present the full methods, results, charts, output list, and self-evaluation. Schedules should correspond to verifiable interim outputs, and expected outcomes should form a checklist that can be reviewed item by item.
| Document module | Application (March–May) | Midterm review (following March–April) | Completion report (May–June) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research objectives | State the planned objectives | Explain whether objectives changed and why | State the objectives actually achieved |
| Research content | List the planned research | Report progress for each component | Connect each component to completed outputs |
| Current research | Explain existing work and the gap | Add literature relevant to project adjustments | Use results to explain the contribution |
| Technical route | Describe planned methods and steps | Describe completed steps and method changes | Describe the methods and workflow actually used |
| Schedule comparison | — (planned schedule only) | Add a plan-versus-actual comparison | Explain final completion and deviations |
| Outputs and self-evaluation | — (expected outputs only) | — | Add actual outputs, expected-output comparison, and self-evaluation |
Update the original plan with research, data, and outputs actually completed when writing progress and completion reports. Explain the cause and treatment of anything not completed.
Completion Criteria: Compliance Carries the Most Weight
To understand completion review, read the score sheet. Consider North China Electric Power University's public rubric. It assigns 40% to compliance for academic-paper projects, including 15 points for structure and 25 for content. This is one university's example; use your university's current rubric for the actual review.
| Academic paper | |
|---|---|
| Topic | 15% |
| Compliance (structure 15 + content 25) | 40% |
| Innovation | 30% |
| Research value | 15% |
| Entrepreneurship presentation | |
|---|---|
| Innovation (rubric says imitation is discouraged) | 40% |
| Team | 30% |
| Commercial merit (literature-only research discouraged; fieldwork emphasized) | 25% |
| Job creation | 5% |
The entrepreneurship rubric says imitation is discouraged under innovation and that literature-only research is discouraged while fieldwork is emphasized under commercial merit. Entrepreneurship completion materials therefore need evidence of real research and project operations.
Completion Outputs and the Expected-versus-Actual Table
Common outputs include papers, software copyrights, patents, physical products, and research reports. At completion, use these three checks to map actual outcomes to expected ones.
- 1List everything honestly: every promised output belongs in the comparison table, not only completed items—the reviewers have your original application.
- 2Explain deviations for incomplete items: describe objective changes or plan adjustments and any substitute outputs produced.
- 3Map outputs to research content: identify which application research component each output supports.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I extend a Dachuang project?
The national measures do not prescribe a uniform project length. The common one- or two-year cycle is university practice, and each university sets its own extension conditions and process. Consult your academic affairs office's project rules or project administrator instead of copying another university's procedure.
Can a project pass completion without a paper or patent?
Common outputs include papers, software copyrights, patents, physical products, and research reports. The North China Electric Power University example assigns 40%—the largest weight—to compliance for academic-paper projects. Keep the report structurally complete and honestly explain expected outputs, actual outputs, and deviations.
What happens if a project fails completion review?
Under the measures, the university organizes expert acceptance, and students may appeal the result under Article 19. Each university sets its own correction, extension, and termination process, so follow your academic affairs office's rules.
Continue Reading
Turn a Research Idea into Dachuang Materials
Search and read research literature, analyze experimental or survey data, create charts, and complete applications, progress reports, and completion materials using your university's required sections.