On October 23rd, the National Office for Philosophy and Social Science made public the list of major projects of the National Social Science Fund of China (NSSFC) in 2018. As the chief expert, Tong Yufen turned in the project plan of Study on Population Aggregation and Spatial Pattern Optimization of Major Urban Agglomerations in China, which was greenlighted by the review panel. Tong is the national key discipline leader of Labor Economics with the School of Labor Economics, head of the Research Institute of Population and Economics of CUEB, editor-in-chief of the magazine Population & Economy.

It was reported that 342 major projects were approved, of which only two were related to demography. The study Prof. Tong presided over was one of the two projects.

Currently, the NSSFC Major Project is one of the highest-level scientific research projects in the studies of philosophy and social sciences. It is charged with the mission of strengthening the discipline system, academic system and discourse system of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics. It strives to pipeline achievements with both academic innovation and cultural significance, making contribution to the Party and the state.