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Funding results of third round of Theme-based Research Scheme and sixth round of Areas of Excellence Scheme

The Research Grants Council (RGC) announced today (July 9) the funding results of the third round of the Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) and the sixth round of the Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme. Three proposals were supported for funding under the TRS with a total of some $176 million (including on-costs and indirect costs). For the sixth round of the AoE Scheme, another three proposals were funded with a total of some $144 million (including on-costs and indirect costs).

Announcing the results, Chairman of the RGC, Professor Benjamin Wah, said, "We are pleased to announce that the two exercises have been successfully concluded. I am glad that the quality of the proposals of both Schemes was very high and pleased to see that institutions have put in significant effort in preparing the proposals. The funded projects were selected through rigorous peer-review evaluation by international and local experts who have made the toughest recommendation."

Professor Wah said that the objective of the TRS was to focus some of the academic research efforts of the University Grants Committee-funded institutions on themes of strategic importance to the long-term development of Hong Kong. The current themes were "Promoting good health", "Developing a sustainable environment", and "Enhancing Hong Kong's strategic position as a regional and international business centre", with a total of 11 grand challenge topics identified for invitation of research proposals.

In the third round exercise, 42 preliminary proposals were received and 16 of them were shortlisted for submission of full proposals. Among them, 10 were invited for selection interviews. Finally, three of them were awarded funding.

The AoE Scheme, on the other hand, provides funding to support proposals from all disciplines including those falling outside the scope of the TRS. The AoE Scheme was launched by the University Grants Committee (UGC) in 1998 to enable the development in research areas where Hong Kong has particular potentials and where Hong Kong can develop a competitive edge internationally. The administration of the AoE Scheme was transferred to the RGC in February 2012.

In the sixth round exercise, 32 preliminary proposals from all five disciplines, namely Biology and Medicine, Business, Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Physical Sciences, were received and nine of them were shortlisted for submission of full proposals. Among them, six proposals covering all the five disciplines were invited for selection interviews. Finally, three of them were awarded funding. The list of awarded projects of the two schemes is set out in the Annex.

Professor Wah is grateful for the continuous support and contribution made by various parties in implementing the two schemes. In particular, the international and local experts have devoted their valuable time in making professional assessment on the proposals.

"Both the TRS and the AoE Scheme are very competitive and highly selective funding exercises. Only the most outstanding proposals would get the funding. All of the six funded projects have displayed strong potential for attaining international excellence. We all look forward to the success of these projects in bringing benefits to the long-term development of Hong Kong and becoming world leading researches in their respective fields," he added.

The details of the approved projects are posted on the RGC website at http://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/funded_research/layman/theme/trs3.html (TRS projects) and http://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/aoes/aoe6.html (AoE projects).