Results of Proposal Evaluation
| Funding Scheme | Results | Announcement of Results |
|---|---|---|
| Areas of Excellence Scheme | Two proposals amounting to $162 million1 were funded. | Letter to Heads of Universities dated 30 June 2022 |
| Theme-based Research Scheme | Eight proposals amounting to $306 million2 were funded. | Letter to Heads of Universities dated 5 July 2022 |
| Early Career Scheme | 151 proposals amounting to $109.58 million were funded. | Letter to Heads of Universities dated 30 June 2022 |
| General Research Fund | 1 153 proposals amounting to $981.46 million were funded. | |
| Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme | Ten proposals amounting to $4.61 million were funded. | |
| RGC Research Fellow Scheme (RFS) / RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme (SRFS) | Ten RFS awardees with fellowship grant amounting to $51.6 million were funded. Ten SRFS awardees with fellowship grant amounting to $78.0 million were funded. |
Letter to Heads of Universities dated 7 July 2022 |
Research Funding Schemes
Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS)
The Steering Committee on Research Themes and Topics (SCRTT) has completed the second review on research themes and grand challenge topics of TRS. SCRTT suitably adopted the comments and suggestions received from the University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded universities. Its proposed revisions to research themes and grand challenge topics, including the addition of two new topics, namely "Quantum Technology" and "Integrated Circuits", were endorsed by RGC. With the approval of the Education Bureau, the changes will be implemented in the TRS 2023/24 (Thirteenth Round) exercise to be launched in July 2022.
The TRS Public Symposium 2022 is scheduled for 11 December 2022 (Sunday). Project teams of projects funded in the Sixth and Seventh Round exercises will be invited to present their achievements in the coming Symposium. The University of Hong Kong has kindly agreed to coordinate the event with contribution from other participating universities. The Secretariat will announce the details of the Symposium in due course.
Early Career Scheme (ECS)
In the 2022/23 exercise, the RGC approved a total of 151 projects, amounting to $109.58 million. The success rate was 31% and the average funding level per project was $0.73 million. Among the 151 approved projects, seven projects were rated "outstanding" and also had their education plans rated "satisfactory". The Principal Investigators (PIs) of these seven projects would receive "The Early Career Award 2022/23" and also an additional $0.1 million per project for engaging in educational activities.
Currently, the budget for the proposals in the fields of Biology and Medicine; and Engineering is capped at $1.2 million. The RGC approved to increase the proposal budget cap to $1.6 million starting from the 2023/24 funding exercise. Proposals costing more than $1.6 million will still be considered but they must be supported by strong justifications. The proposal budget cap applies to proposals in the fields of Biology and Medicine; and Engineering only.
General Research Fund (GRF)
In the 2022/23 exercise, the RGC approved a total of 1 153 proposals, amounting to $981.46 million. The overall success rate was 38%. The average funding amount per project was $0.85 million.
Same as ECS, the budget cap for GRF proposals in the fields of Biology and Medicine; and Engineering will be adjusted to $1.6 million starting from the 2023/24 funding exercise.
Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme (HSSPFS)
In the 2022/23 exercise, a total of 27 applications were received, of which ten proposals amounting to $4.61 million were approved. The overall success rate was 37%. The average funding amount per project was $0.46 million.
Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS)
The RGC noted the results and statistics on the Thirteenth Round exercise of the HKPFS for 2022/23. A total of 14 117 initial applications from 149 countries / regions were received. As regards full applications, a total of 7 178 applicants from 107 countries / regions submitted a total of 9 746 full applications to the eight universities by the deadline in December 2021. The number of full applications received was the highest in the record. Based on the approved nomination quota system, 500 nominations were submitted by the eight universities in January 2022 for consideration by the HKPFS Selection Panels. Since 14 applicants were nominated by two universities, there were a total of 486 applicants for consideration of the award. Of the 486 nominated applicants, 153 were from the Humanities, Social Sciences and Business Studies disciplines while 333 nominated applicants were from the Sciences, Medicine, Engineering and Technology disciplines. After rigorous selection, 300 applicants were selected for the awards with another 90 applicants on the waiting list. Eventually, 362 offers have been made before the 300 awardees were confirmed. The RGC also noted the statistics of the HKPFS in the past thirteen rounds, the statistics of HKPFS graduates and the number of research postgraduate places reserved for the Fourteenth Round exercise of the HKPFS for 2023/24. The RGC approved the nomination quotas for universities for the Fourteenth Round exercise for 2023/24. Respective universities were separately informed of the approved nomination quota on 13 June 2022.
RGC Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme (PDFS)
For the third (2022/23) exercise of the RGC PDFS, assessment of the 88 nominations [35 from the Humanities, Social Sciences and Business Studies (H-Panel) disciplines and 53 from the Sciences, Medicine, Engineering and Technology (S-Panel) disciplines] was completed in March 2022. The selection panels were pleased to note another round of well qualified PDFS nominations, with the list of 50 selected awardees (20 from H-Panel and 30 from S-Panel) and a list of 20 waitlisted nominees (9 from H-Panel and 11 from S-Panel) approved by the Chairman, RGC in consultation with the selection panel chairs. Supporting universities were notified of their PDFS results in April 2022. Following the acceptance by the awardees and the arrangement of the fellowship offers by the supporting universities, the third cohort of confirmed PDFS awardees (2022/23) should commence their 36-month fellowship between 1 May and 31 December 2022. Disbursement of the annual stipend of $406,550 for each awardee has been made to the supporting university concerned to fund the awardee's basic salary inclusive of conference and research-related travel allowance.
The scheme is considered successful in attracting talents across the world while at the same time providing opportunities for PhD degree holders of local universities to develop their research careers in Hong Kong. To evaluate the effectiveness of the scheme in meeting its objective of nurturing and retaining research talents, the Secretariat will collect information on the employment status of the awardees in 2023 when the first cohort of awardees complete their 3-year fellowship by then.
To better monitor awardees' appointment changes and progress of their research activities, appropriate provisions have been included in "PDFS Terms and Conditions". For cases of premature termination, both the awardee and the supporting university should report the case to the Secretariat at least three weeks prior to the effective date of termination. Both the awardee and the supporting university should also ensure that the research projects and activities undertaken under PDFS are in compliance with applicable laws, health and safety guidelines and ethical standards.
RGC Research Fellow Scheme (RFS) and RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme (SRFS)
For the third exercise (2022/23) of the RFS and SRFS, a total of 34 nominations (excluding two withdrawn nominations) for RFS [six under the Panel for Humanities, Social Sciences and Business Studies disciplines (H-Panel) and 28 under the Panel for Sciences, Medicine, Engineering and Technology disciplines (S-Panel)] and 32 nominations for SRFS (nine under H-Panel and 23 under S-Panel) received from universities were assessed, with 27 shortlisted finalists (14 for RFS and 13 for SRFS) interviewed via video-conferencing. The selection results of the ten RFS awardees (two from H-Panel and eight from S-Panel) and ten SRFS awardees (three from H-Panel and seven from S-Panel) were approved by the RGC at its meeting on 11 June 2022. Two RFS and one SRFS finalists from S-Panel were approved to be on the waiting list. All awardees should start the research project on 1 January 2023. Each RFS and SRFS awardee will be supported with a fellowship grant covering a period of 60 months at around $5.2 million and $7.8 million respectively.
The selection panel chairs were pleased to note the highly commendable quality of nominees in the 2022/23 exercise and the bar for shortlisting nominees for interview was again set at a rating well above 4.0. To better meet the objectives of the schemes in nurturing and retaining young research talents for Hong Kong research community, documents of the schemes will be fine-tuned to explicitly and profoundly emphasise the importance of mentorship and nurturing of young researchers by the seniors. Also, the apportionment of "teaching relief" in the proposal budget should be reasonable and well justified.
Noting that the first cohort of RFS and SRFS awardees commenced the fellowship in January 2021, it is considered an opportune time to conduct a mid-term review of the schemes in the second half of next year, and the scope of review shall include fellowship period, quota, selection criteria/ process, the effectiveness of the schemes, and awardees' mentorship achievement.
Progress of Research Matching Grant Scheme (RMGS)
The amount of donation / sponsorship / research contract applied for matching in the latest (i.e. eleventh) processing cycle was at about $229.26 million with corresponding matching grants disbursed at about $124.80 million. It is expected that the applied amount will pick up again upon the cessation of the special work arrangements for staff of universities and institutions. At the close of the eleventh processing cycle, the aggregate amount applied for matching was about $3.82 billion in total and the total amount of matching grant disbursed to UGC-funded universities / self-financing degree-awarding institutions was about $2.18 billion. In addition to one university having reached the matching "ceiling", six other universities and three institutions have reached the matching "floor" of $50 million. The remaining balance available for matching stands at about $0.82 billion. The amount will remain open for applications by the participating universities / institutions for another two years, or until the remaining balance is fully exhausted.
To ensure that all donations received and government matching grants disbursed under the RMGS are used solely for research-related expenditure and spent in a cost-effective matter, the Secretariat has earlier requested universities / institutions to report on the actual use of the donations as well as the matching grants, and also on any intended use of the unspent funds. The first call of situation reports is to cover the deployment progress of the matching grants disbursed in the first four processing cycles (i.e. Q3 – 4, 2019 and Q1 – 2, 2020). Returns from universities / institutions have been well received, the Secretariat will consolidate the information so collected for reporting at the next RGC meeting.
Launching of the Strategic Topics Grant
With the $150 million budget earmarked by RGC, the Strategic Topics Grant (STG) will soon be launched to support collaborative research in specific areas which can help Hong Kong overcome imminent challenges and tap fast-evolving opportunities.
The project cost to be supported by the RGC is between $10 million and $40 million to support medium-large sized projects of up to five years. The STG will fund not more than ten signature projects in each exercise. The proposals submitted must be related to one of the five topics as follows:
Submission of the same proposal to both STG and TRS / AoE Scheme in the same exercise will not be permitted. If such cases are identified, the concerned applications under the TRS / AoE Scheme will be deemed withdrawn. It is expected that the call for application will be issued in July 2022 with the deadline in September 2022.
Revisions to the Guidelines on Handling Conflicts of Interest and the Code of Conduct
To gradually strengthen RGC and its Panels / Committees by involving more Members with local knowledge and perspectives in the assessment process, RGC revised the "Guidelines on Handling Conflicts of Interest" and the "Code of Conduct" to allow participation of some local academics holding emeritus, honorary, adjunct or visiting positions in local institutions without receiving recurrent remuneration directly arising from the holding of such positions in the assessment process. To maintain the impartiality of RGC and its Panels and Committees, apart from following the existing two-tier reporting system of conflicts of interest, the local academics Members concerned will also be required to provide further information about their involvement in the business and operation of the institutions for consideration by the Chairs of Panels / Committees as to whether the Members should be allowed to assess applications concerned. The revised documents could be found on the RGC website.
Enhanced Engagement and Communication Activities
To enhance communication and engagement with the research community, RGC has launched a number of initiatives, including setting up a thematic website3 to showcase the awards and fellowships granted under the UGC and RGC, establishing the Hong Kong Research Portal4 to provide more comprehensive information on Government's research funding support, Hong Kong's research landscape, including various publicly-funded research opportunities, and offers practical advice and insights for those who aspire to pursue careers in the field of research. Research cases are also showcased to raise public awareness of the contribution made by the local research community.
Meetings with Vice-Presidents (VPs) (Research) of the UGC-funded universities were held regularly in the past years and they were much welcomed by the VPs as this provides an opportunity to keep participants updated of RGC's overall strategic direction and policies, as well as to exchange views on various matters concerned by the research community. The last meeting was held on 7 July 2022.
RGC has been collaborating with Hong Kong Central Library and Hong Kong Science Museum in organising public lectures to arouse public interest in the research subjects, local research development and introducing the work of local researchers. Eight such lectures are planned to be held between October to December 2022.