Abstract:Different understandings of innovation, affect the smooth development of scientific and technological management work directly, such as the application and review of scientific research projects. For this reason, first of all, the meaning of "original", "innovative" and "characteristic" is analyzed from the perspective of etymology and etymology. Then, the original meaning of innovation is explained, and innovation is defined as the act of improving or creating new things, methods, elements, paths, and environments that can achieve certain beneficial results, the same as the focus of the scientific research projects established by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. At last, innovation is divided into seven categories: original originality, bionic originality, combinatorial innovation, alternative innovation, diversion innovation, characteristic innovation, and sequential innovation, in order to provide assistance for managers to formulate reasonable policy orientation, as well as the positioning and writing of scientific research projects, project qualitative review and social evaluation.