Economic & Social Research Council / Research Grants Council Joint Research Scheme

Call for Fourth Round Exercise

• Introduction
  
  

  1.   The UK Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Research Grants Council (RGC) invite applications for the Fourth Round of the ESRC/ RGC Joint Research Scheme. Launched in 2007, the Scheme aims to foster collaboration between social scientists in the UK and Hong Kong.

• Eligibility
  
  

  2.   Full-time academic staff members of the University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded institutions who meet the prevailing eligibility requirements for the General Research Fund (GRF) of the RGC may apply. There is no quota on the number of applications to be submitted by each institution.

  3.   An applicant can only submit one application in the capacity of Principal Investigator (PI) in each exercise but may participate as a member of another project in the same exercise.

  4.   Research proposals for social sciences in the following subject areas are eligible for application: economics, economic and social history, political science, socio-legal studies, education, psychology, cognitive studies, linguistics, management and business studies, human geography, environmental planning, international studies, area and development studies, social statistics, demography, social science computing, sociology, social anthropology, social policy and social work.

  5.   Projects must involve integrated collaboration between the UK and Hong Kong partners; and must have well identified joint working relationship, demonstrating clearly the added value of the collaboration. They must demonstrate distinctive, cross-country aspects, where both sides of the research team provide necessary local expertise. Loosely connected projects in the two places, where there is no clear scientific value added from the collaboration, will not be eligible.

• Funding
  
  

  6.   The funding limit set for the UK and Hong Kong of each funded project is £99,999 and HK$350,000 (excluding 15% on-costs) respectively.

  7.   The RGC grant provides only:

  (a) the salary of research support staff hired by the Hong Kong researchers;

  (b) equipment;

  (c) general expenses, including consumables that are directly related to the research work, and passage and subsistence costs for Hong Kong researchers to visit collaborators in the UK; and

  (d) grants for Hong Kong researchers to attend international conference.

  8.   The 15% on-costs will be paid by the RGC directly to the institutional management to cover overhead expenditure.

  9.   The RGC funds are solely for use in Hong Kong.

• Duration
  
  

  10.  Maximum duration of each project is three years.

• How to apply
  
  

  11.  The ESRC is the coordinating and administering body for the exercise. All applications should be submitted by the UK partners on behalf of the joint project team to the ESRC. The Application Forms and Note for Guidance for Applicants will be available on the ESRC website http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/funding-opportunities/13953/esrc-hong-kong-bilateral.aspx. The deadline for application is 20 September 2011.

  12.  Parallel submissions of applications by the Hong Kong and the UK applicants are required. The UGC-funded institutions with applicants for this scheme are required to forward a list showing the project titles of the applications and names of the Hong Kong and UK applicants together with a soft copy of the application to the UGC Secretariat on or before 23 September 2011. Applications not on the list from the UGC-funded institutions will not be processed further.

  13.  The institutions concerned must obtain and provide all the necessary ethics / safety approvals to the RGC by 1 December 2011. If no confirmation of such approval is provided to the RGC by the stipulated deadline, the ESRC will regard that application as being withdrawn and will stop processing it.

  14.  The RGC will not be responsible for any expenditure incurred by the project in excess of the approved funding.

  15.  Neither the RGC nor the ESRC will provide any insurance cover in connection with the project or allow the use of the grant for insurance cover. Applicants should make their own arrangements. The RGC and the ESRC will not accept any responsibility arising in any way from the visits and the activities undertaken by the researchers.

  16.  While the RGC does not claim copyright or other intellectual property rights of the output produced, a suitable acknowledgement of the RGC funding should be included in any equipment/facilities purchased and any publication/publicity arising from the work done on the research project funded under this scheme.

• Monitoring and Assessment
  
  

  17.  Hong Kong PIs are required to submit progress reports through their institutions to the RGC for monitoring. The reporting period and the date of submission of the progress reports would be provided to the successful applicant in the announcement of funding results. The completion reports together with a soft copy of the "End of Award Report" submitted by the UK partners should be submitted to the RGC within 9 months after the approved completion date of the projects for assessment.

• Enquiry
  
  

  18.  Enquiries pertaining to this exercise may be addressed to the ESRC directly by e-mail at international@esrc.ac.uk.