Abstract: This article introduced the information of NSFC applications in the field of welding and joining in 2018, including the funding situation and the outcomes of the funded projects in the past three years, as well as the hot research directions in this field. The fundamental scientific problems in new methods, technologies and principles of welding, interface metallurgical behaviors and control mechanisms, welding structure design and reliability evaluation, and control mechanisms of wire arc additive manufacturing were also reviewed, based on which the main research directions in the future are discussed.