Applications for Allocations from
(I) the General Research Fund 2012/13 and
(II) the Early Career Scheme 2012/13

I am writing to invite applications for allocations from the General Research Fund (GRF) 2012/13 and the Early Career Scheme (ECS) 2012/13. The details of the procedures of the two schemes are provided below.

Electronic Submission

The GRF Electronic System and the ECS Electronic System are available for submission of GRF and ECS applications respectively in respect of all five subject panels - Biology & Medicine Panel, Business Studies Panel, Engineering Panel, Humanities & Social Sciences Panel and Physical Sciences Panel. All applications must be submitted through the electronic systems. Applicants can use the electronic systems to prepare their applications starting from today.

Deadline for Submissions

Applications should reach the UGC Secretariat through the electronic systems by 21 November 2011. With a view to avoiding overloading the electronic systems during the peak period, applicants are encouraged to submit their applications well before the submission deadline.

Quotas

The RGC does not impose any institutional quota on applications under both schemes. It is however important that institutions should satisfy themselves that the applications are of sufficient quality before they are submitted to the RGC for consideration.

New appointees within the first three years of his / her full time academic job as a substantiation track / tenure track Assistant Professor or career equivalent level are encouraged to apply under the ECS. They may choose to submit their applications under the GRF or the ECS but not both in each funding cycle. Institutions should check and confirm that the applicants meet the eligibility requirements.

Financial Thresholds on Applications

Under both the GRF and ECS, the thresholds for applications are $150,000 for projects in the fields of Biology & Medicine, Engineering and Physical Sciences, and $100,000 for projects in the fields of Business Studies and Humanities & Social Sciences. There are no upper limits, but the applicants / institutions would appreciate that given the considerable competition for the limited funds available, justification for individual research projects costing over $1 million will need to be particularly well argued and supported. The RGC believes that research in Hong Kong can be better served through greater funding support for high-quality projects.

Special Features of the Schemes

Enhancement of the Teaching Relief Grants

Under the GRF 2012/13, the scope of the teaching relief grants will be extended from the existing four disciplines (Anthropology; Humanities and Creative Arts; Literature, Languages and Linguistics; and Law) to all disciplines under the Humanities and Social Sciences Panel with a view to addressing the special needs of humanities and social sciences subjects which normally require the employment of relief teachers to free up the Principal Investigators' staff time for personal research and writing. The duration of the research leave will be from six to 12 months, for a 24 to 36-month project. Institutions are required to guarantee their full support for the Principal Investigators to take teaching relief upon the RGC's approval of the projects. This special funding template is also applicable to the applicants submitting their research proposals under the Humanities & Social Sciences Panel of the ECS 2012/13.

Two Levels of Awards under the ECS

Two levels of awards are provided under the ECS: (i) Early Career Grants - funding will be provided to the academics to undertake independent research work and in addition, an amount of about $50,000 per project will be provided for undertaking educational activities including the training of undergraduate students; and (ii) Early Career Awards - in addition to the funding of research and an additional amount of about $100,000 per project for undertaking educational activities including the training of undergraduate students, an honorary title will be awarded to recognize the outstanding awardees. Applicants are thus required to provide proposals for activities that will strengthen the training of undergraduate students in research in the application forms.

Explanatory Notes

Applicants must read the Explanatory Notes (GRF2 and ECS2) carefully before completing the application forms. A full set of the Explanatory Notes will be mounted on the RGC Homepage: (URL: http://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/form/form.htm).

May I highlight the following issues, which we will separately draw the attention of the applicants and the Research Offices:

1. It is the responsibility of both the Principal Investigators and Co-Investigators to ensure that no duplicate funding from all funding sources will be sought for the same / substantially similar research project. In the past few years, a number of GRF applications had been found by the RGC to have substantial overlapping with other on-going or completed work of the Principal Investigators, such as working papers, conference papers and journal papers etc. In some cases, the Principal Investigators had been debarred from applying for RGC funding for a certain period as a penalty for non-disclosure of similar or related work in their applications. In this connection, Principal Investigators will need to be reminded that they should not submit applications which have been substantially completed in their other research work. If they do so on the belief that the research work of the two items is not substantially overlapping, they should declare such research work in the applications. Breach of this rule or failure to declare similar / related proposals may result in disqualification of the application and debarring from applying for future UGC / RGC grants up to six years. It is always advisable for the Principal Investigators and Co-Investigators to make declaration when there is uncertainty about the extent of similarity.

2. The RGC encourages applicants to nominate external reviewers in their proposals for consideration by the subject panels, especially for very specialized disciplines. In nominating reviewers, Principal Investigators and all Co-Investigators are required to declare their full relationships with the nominated reviewers. Failure of Principal Investigators and / or Co-Investigators to disclose fully or accurately the relationship will result in disqualification of the application and debarring from applying for future UGC / RGC grants up to two years.

3. Applicants should provide detailed and sound justification for the items requested. Failure to provide justification will result in the budget items not being considered. For purchase of services / equipment costing over HK$200,000, the Principal Investigators should provide quotations to support the estimates. The Research Offices of the institutions should take an active role in ensuring that the applications conform with the requirements as set out in the Explanatory Notes, especially those on budget and allowable items.

Update of Proposals

Applicants are requested to provide a brief update setting out any essential changes to the applications, including the eligibility of the Principal Investigators, declaration of similar / related research work on which working papers, conference papers and journal papers etc. have recently been published, declaration of relationship with nominated reviewers, any significant change of scope, content, personnel, budget etc. through the electronic system by 30 April 2012. Hard copies of the updates should be attached to respective proposals and delivered to the Secretariat on or before 4 May 2012 so that these changes can be brought to the attention of panel members or be followed up in good time prior to the RGC / Panel meetings to be held in mid June 2012. Such updates should be confined to the essential parts of the original proposals, and applicants should not use the opportunity to hand in a substantially changed proposal.

Hard copies

In parallel, a limited number of hard copies will also need to be made available for contingency purposes. Institutions are therefore required to assist the Secretariat with the printing of one hard copy of each proposal which has been submitted through the electronic system. The Secretariat will provide each institution with a CD containing the electronic copies of all the submitted proposals for the purpose of printing of the hard copies. The hard copies should reach the Secretariat by 16 December 2011. Additional copies of the application are also required to be submitted to the Secretariat by 4 May 2012 (the Secretariat will confirm the exact number of copies required for the second batch in March 2012).

To help reduce the cost of processing and save paper, applicants are requested to keep the length of proposals and attachments to the minimum and institutions should use double-sided printing / photocopying when reproducing the form.

Briefing on the Early Career Scheme

The Chairman, RGC will hold a briefing at 10 a.m. on 19 September 2011 at Wei Hing Theatre, City University of Hong Kong to introduce the implementation details of the ECS and to answer applicants' enquiries concerning the new scheme. Details of the briefing will be provided to your Research Office separately. The briefing is open to all eligible applicants and the administrative staff handling the new scheme.

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).