To serve the national strategy of building China’s strength in transportation, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) has added the discipline of transportation and vehicle engineering, which has been independently operated since 2020. After nearly four years of discipline construction, a funding system covering transportation modes (systems) such as roads, railways, waterways, aviation, aerospace, pipeline transportation, operational transportation, and comprehensive and new transportation has been established. The connotation and extension of each secondary code and its subordinate research directions in the new application code system, as well as future research hotspots, have been sorted and demonstrated, forming an optimization plan for the application code architecture based on the classification of transportation modes. This article provides a systematic explanation of the disciplinary framework. Focusing on the reform of the NSFC, this article further strengthens the “demand-driven and problem-oriented” approach, accelerates the implementation of achievements, and elaborates on key measures to promote the transformation of scientific research paradigms and carry out organized scientific research in the transportation and vehicle engineering discipline.