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One-off Special Equipment Grant

I am writing to invite applications for a one-off Special Equipment Grant for the acquisition, replacement, upgrading, and establishment of research equipment, and would like to provide you with details of the application procedures in the ensuing paragraphs.

Background

The Government recognizes that a higher education sector that is strong in research is crucial to Hong Kong's competitiveness. Having regard to the current state of the research equipment at the UGC-funded institutions, research achievements thus far, and future demand arising from the new "3+3+4" academic reform, the Government proposed to provide a sum of $200 million to the UGC for setting up a one-off Special Equipment Grant (the Grant) further to enhance the research capability of UGC-funded institutions. This proposal was approved by the Legislative Council on 11 January 2008.

Operating Principles

The Grant will operate through a non-recurrent competitive bidding exercise. The broad operating principles for the Grant are as follows:

(a) the grant should support acquisition, replacement, upgrading or establishment of new and major research equipment / facilities which should primarily be used for publicly-funded research activities¹. Such equipment / facilities should be for communal or shared usage / collaborative research by multiple users within or across the institutions, and should exclude consumables, capital works, and recurrent expenditure;

(b) all requests for special equipment grants will be considered on their own merits;

(c) institutions are required to spend all funds disbursed by 30 June 2011. Any unspent funds beyond the aforementioned period or provisions surplus to the actual requirements will be returned to the UGC; and

(d) the special equipment grant will not cover any recurrent expenditure (including maintenance) that may have to be borne by the institutions in consequence.

¹ In case the equipment is used for non-publicly funded research activities, the institutions will levy overhead charges on such activities, so as to avoid cross-subsidisation of public resources to non-publicly funded activities.

Financial Limit

The funding required for any single piece of equipment under each application should be at least $2.5 million (including the institutional commitment as set out in the following paragraph) and each grant is capped at a ceiling of $10 million, but there is no ceiling on the cost of equipment. Given the substantial amount of funds each application will involve, and the considerable competition for the limited funds available, justification for applications will need to be particularly well argued and supported.

Institutional Commitment

The Grant operates on a matching basis. Institutions are required to contribute at least 25% of the cost of the equipment (not the grant) in real money.

Assessment

All proposals will be assessed by a Special Equipment Grant Working Group comprising overseas academics, and external reviewers under a vigorous peer review process to ensure that there is a genuine need for the equipment and that the research activities to be supported by the equipment are of a high standard. The reviewers will consider the following factors when assessing proposals:-

(1) merit of the proposal, its contribution to academic / professional development and potential for application, and benefit to tertiary institutions in particular and Hong Kong in general;

(2) scope for collaborative research/joint use, and the degree of such usage;

(3) feasibility in implementation;

(4) institutional support, including that of the sponsoring / collaborating institutions;

(5) prospect of external funding; and

(6) availability of similar facilities elsewhere in Hong Kong.

Having considered external reviews on the proposals, the Special Equipment Grant Working Group may draw up a short-list of proposals for interview. In the final decision, if the academic research merits of proposals are equal, the UGC will, when considering the final allocation of grants, give special / sympathetic consideration to an application if it comes from an institution which would otherwise receive no funding from the Grant.

Inter-Institutional Equipment Committee (IIEC)

Institutions are required to submit their proposals to Inter-Institutional Equipment Committee (IIEC) for consideration and comment. In this connection, we require institutions to submit a duly completed IIEC form (FORM IIEC 1) (please click the hyperlink to download form) for each application and relevant supportive documents (from sister institutions via the applying institutions) on or before 31 March 2008. It will be in the interests of all involved if institutions process sister institutions' applications efficiently.

Application Procedures

All applications must be submitted in the format of SEG1 (please click the hyperlink to download form), which can be downloaded from the UGC web site (http://www.ugc.edu.hk). The applicants should read the related explanatory notes, SEG2 (please click the hyperlink to download form) (also available on the above web site) before completing SEG1, and adhere to the requirements elaborated in the explanatory notes. I should be grateful if you would alert applicants, as well as staff who are responsible for the internal coordination of the exercise, to the above rule.

Quota of Application

Each institution may only submit up to TEN proposals in total. Please do not submit equipment proposals simply to fill your quota.

The Principal Investigator must provide a project summary in layman's language - to be used for public release shortly after the announcement of the funding result, if his/her application is selected for funding. The intention is to promote academic research to the general public.

All applications must be submitted to the UGC Secretariat (Attn.: Mr Anthony Chan) by 28 February 2008 (Thur). Please provide 15 hard copies and 10 soft copies (in well-labelled CD ROM) of each proposal. The selection interviews (for short-listed applications) are tentatively scheduled for 19 (p.m.), 20 and 21 June 2008. We expect to announce the results in July / August 2008. To facilitate wider access to this circular, a copy of it will be placed on the UGC Web site.

Enquiries

Should your staff have any inquiry, please feel free to contact Mr. Anthony Chan (Tel: 2844 9916 or Email: achan@ugc.edu.hk) or Ms Ling Ho (Tel: 2844 9917 or Fax: 2845 1183 or Email: lho@ugc.edu.hk) for information.