Letter dated 31 May 2011 from Secretary, Research Grants
Council to Heads of UGC-funded Institutions

Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme 2011/12

I am writing to invite applications for the Strategic Public Policy Research (SPPR) Funding Scheme 2011/12 sponsored by the Central Policy Unit (CPU) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and to provide details of the procedures to be followed. This funding scheme runs once a year from 2008-09 to 2011-12.

Objectives and Assessment

The Strategic Public Policy Research (SPPR) Funding Scheme aims to facilitate more longer term public policy research and to focus efforts on specific areas. Inter-disciplinary or inter-institutional collaboration is encouraged but not a requirement.

All proposals will be reviewed by external reviewers through the RGC's existing peer review process and the research teams of shortlisted proposals will be invited to selection interviews. Applicants are encouraged to have a theoretical component embedded in the projects in addition to the application/policy implications of the grant. To provide information for the evaluation of the proposals on their policy implications, applicants are required to state clearly in the application forms the explicit policy relevance of the proposals to public policy development in Hong Kong. If the application is an inter-institutional collaboration, an effective project management mechanism should be established to oversee and coordinate collaborating research work, and to ensure prudent use of resources.

Quotas of Applications

Each institution may submit a maximum of three proposals in each SPPR exercise.

Deadline of Submissions

All applications must be submitted through the SPPR Electronic System (SPPRES) to the UGC Secretariat by 29 July 2011. The shortlisting results will be announced by November 2011 through the institutions. The project teams of shortlisted proposals will be invited to selection interviews which are tentatively scheduled for 13 / 14 December 2011. 10 hard copies for each shortlisted proposal will be required to be submitted to the Secretariat on or before 6 December 2011. The funding decision will be announced by end December 2011.

Application Procedures

Application Form

In completing the application forms, applicants should read the related explanatory notes (SPPR2). The form and the explanatory notes can be downloaded from the RGC website (http://www.ugc.edu.hk/rgc).

Research Themes

The applications must be related to the research themes as indicated by the CPU at Annex. Academic quality and the relevance of the proposal to the needs of Hong Kong are the primary considerations in evaluating research proposals.

Update of Proposals

Applicants may provide a brief update on or before 31 October 2011 should there be any significant changes to the applications after submission, including the eligibility of the PIs, modification of scope, budget proposals etc. It should be emphasized that applicants should not use the opportunity to revise their proposals substantially.

Access to Government Data and Records

If access to Government or official data and records is critical to the proposed project, the applicant concerned should provide evidence in the application that the government department(s) or official agency(ies) has/have been approached for approval of access to the related data/records and subsequently provide confirmation of such approval on or before 31 October 2011.

To help investigators in conducting the research, the CPU will perform a liaison role between the Government and PIs. Please contact Mr Desmond S L CHENG of the CPU (Tel.: 2810 2378) if such assistance is required in the course of conducting the research.

Research Ethics / Health and Safety Approval

Both the applicants and the institutions are required to indicate in the application forms that appropriate approvals have been or are being obtained for projects involving experiments on human or animal subjects or requiring ethics or health and safety clearance. Where such approval is required but has not yet been obtained, the institution should ensure that the approval is submitted to the RGC by 31 October 2011. Otherwise, the RGC will regard this SPPR application as being withdrawn and will stop the processing of the application.

Commencement and Completion of the Research projects

The maximum duration and funding for each funded SPPR project are five years and $5 million (including 15% on-costs) respectively and funded projects must commence work on or before 30 June 2012. Completion reports should be submitted within nine months of project completion. It is expected that, in general, some results of the research should already be available for access by the public as possible input to policy formulation before the submission of completion reports. Principal Investigators (PIs) of projects should also plan for early release of some results for access by the public midway through the projects.

Intellectual Property Right

The Government and the RGC does not claim copyright or other intellectual property right of the output produced. However, to ensure timely dissemination of the research results for the reference of the Government, PIs are encouraged to pass to the CPU a copy of any disseminable output, for instance, working paper, report, journal paper, conference paper, books etc. through the UGC Secretariat as soon as it is available. The CPU may circulate these outputs to relevant Bureaux / departments / statutory bodies of the Government for reference.

Enquiries

If your staff have any enquiries about the application procedures or other aspects of this circular, please call Mrs Alice Sham, Assistant Secretary- General (Research) 1 (Tel: 2844 9996 or email: asham@ugc.edu.hk) or Mr Brian Lip, Senior Research Administrator (2) (Tel: 2844 9959 or email: blip@ugc.edu.hk).