To thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on scientific and technological innovation and basic research, and to actively implement and deepen the reform implementation plan of National Natural Science Foundation of China, the inorganic nonmetallic materials of the department of engineering and materials science piloted a series of reform measures on original projects. This paper deeply analyzes the applications and funding status of projects in the category of “Encourage exploration and highlight originality” on inorganic nonmetallic materials from 2019 to 2022 and in the original discovery program from 2020 to 2022. The innovative reform measures and initial results achieved are also introduced. Finally, based on the characteristics of the discipline and the connotation of the original project, some suggestions and thoughts are proposed to further optimize the funding mechanism and to continuously stimulate the original innovation.