Results of Proposal Evaluation
| Funding Scheme | Results | Announcement of Results |
|---|---|---|
| Areas of Excellence Scheme | Two proposals amounting to $156 million[1] were funded. | Letter to Heads of Universities dated 6 July 2023 |
| Theme-based Research Scheme | Six proposals were funded with five-year budget amounting to $359 million[2]; and Three exploratory proposals were funded with one-year budget at total RGC funding of $20 million. |
|
| Early Career Scheme | 187 proposals amounting to $139.93 million were funded. | Letter to Heads of Universities dated 30 June 2023 |
| General Research Fund | 1 068 proposals amounting to $979.15 million were funded. | |
| Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme | Ten proposals amounting to $5.05 million were funded. | |
| RGC Research Fellow Scheme / RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme | Ten RFS awardees with fellowship grant amounting to $51.6 million were funded. Ten SRFS awardees with fellowship grant amounting to $78 million were funded. |
Letter to Heads of Universities dated 7 July 2023 |
| Strategic Topics Grant | Six proposals amounting to around $150 million were funded. | Letter to Heads of Universities dated 7 July 2023 |
Research Funding Schemes
Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) and Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme
The AoE Scheme and TRS 2023/24 exercise was concluded successfully. A total of two AoE proposals and nine TRS proposals (including three exploratory proposals) were funded. The three exploratory proposals would be given one-year budget to yield preliminary results. The total RGC funding was $20 million and the university matching would be subject to a revised one-year budget by the project team upon approval from the relevant Committee.
Early Career Scheme (ECS)
In the ECS 2023/24 exercise, the RGC approved a total of 187 projects, amounting to $139.93 million. The success rate was 36% and the average funding level per project was $0.75 million. Among the 187 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 2023/24” and also an additional $0.1 million per project for engaging in educational activities.
General Research Fund (GRF)
In the GRF 2023/24 exercise, the RGC approved a total of 1 068 proposals, amounting to $979.15 million. The overall success rate was 33%. The average funding amount per project was $0.92 million.
Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme (HSSPFS)
In the HSSPFS 2023/24 exercise, a total of 32 applications were received, of which ten proposals amounting to $5.05 million were approved. The overall success rate was 31%. The average funding amount per project was $0.51 million.
Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS)
For the Fourteenth Round exercise of the HKPFS for 2023/24, a total of 12 511 initial applications from 138 countries / regions were received. As regards full applications, a total of 6 772 applicants from 105 countries / regions submitted a total of 9 142 full applications to the eight universities by the deadline in December 2022. Based on the approved nomination quota system, 502 nominations, involving 493 applicants were submitted by the eight universities in January 2023 for consideration by the HKPFS Selection Panels. After rigorous selection, 300 applicants were selected for the awards with another 90 applicants on the waiting list. The RGC approved the nomination quotas for universities for the Fifteenth Round exercise for 2024/25 of which the Universities were informed on 16 June 2023.
Besides, to commensurate the progressive increase in the number of publicly-funded Research Postgraduate (RPg) places to the eight UGC-funded universities in the next two academic years from existing 5 595 in 2022/23 to 7 200 in 2024/25, UGC endorsed at its May meeting a proposal to gradually increase the HKPFS award places from 300 to 400 places in the next two rounds of exercise in 2024/25 and 2025/26 the earliest. RGC noted that there had been a keen competition for fellowship places in the previous exercises and hence were confident that the quality of the awardees could be maintained at a high level should the number of awardees be increased to 400. The proposal had been submitted to the Education Bureau for consideration. Subject to Government’s policy and financial support, universities would be informed of the details.
RGC Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme (PDFS)
In the fourth selection exercise (2023/24) of the PDFS, the selection panels were pleased to note another round of 87 well qualified nominations (32 from the H-Panel and 55 from the S-Panel), among which 50 awardees (20 from H-Panel and 30 from S-Panel) and 19 waitlisted nominees (seven from H-Panel and 12 from S-Panel) were selected. The fourth cohort of PDFS awardees accepting the fellowship should commence their 36-month fellowship between 1 May and 31 December 2023. While 12 of the awardees are local, more than half of the 50 awardees are affiliated with Hong Kong as they either obtained their PhD degree from Hong Kong or are currently pursuing PhD programmes at local universities. Disbursement of the first annual stipend of $413,060 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. As the first cohort (2020/21) of awardees would complete their fellowship starting from June 2023, supporting universities are encouraged to organise networking activities (e.g. academic seminar, exchange among awardees, postdoctoral forum) within this inaugural cohort of PDFS fellows as well as with subsequent cohorts of PDFS awardees.
RGC Research Fellow Scheme (RFS) and RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme (SRFS)
In the fourth selection exercise (2023/24) of the RFS and SRFS, a total of 35 nominations for RFS (eight under the H-Panel and 27 under the S-Panel) and 37 nominations for SRFS (nine under H-Panel and 28 under S-Panel) received from universities were assessed to select ten RFS awardees (two from H-Panel and eight from S-Panel) and ten SRFS awardees (two from H-Panel and eight from S-Panel). One 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 2024. 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 2023/24 exercise, except for RFS nominees under the H-Panel. There was a good mix of RFS / SRFS research projects covering basic, applied and overlap research nature, while some research projects proposed by nominees under the H-Panel might not require a full five-year project period under the fellowship, and it was noted that some nominees under the S-Panel were requesting a disproportionally high amount of funding for “general expenses”. In future exercises, nominees should present their credentials and substantiate their research proposal / budget in appropriate proportion which should commensurate with the 5-year fellowship period.
Strategic Topics Grant (STG)
The STG 2023/24 exercise was concluded successfully. RGC noted that the proposals received were of high quality which would help Hong Kong overcome imminent challenges and tap emerging opportunities. The STG 2024/25 exercise is planned to be launched in late July 2023 and the five strategic topics will be similar to last exercise.
Progress of Research Matching Grant Scheme (RMGS)
The amount of donation / sponsorship / research contract applied for matching in the latest (i.e. fifteenth) processing cycle was about $165.57 million with corresponding matching grants disbursed at about $87.28 million. After fifteen processing cycles of RMGS, the aggregate amount applied for matching was about $4.88 billion in total and the total amount of matching grant disbursed to UGC-funded universities / self-financing degree-awarding institutions was about $2.73 billion. In addition to two universities having reached the matching “ceiling”, the remaining six universities and three institutions have reached the matching “floor” of $50 million. The remaining balance available for matching stands at about $0.27 billion.
The effectiveness of RMGS in terms of increase in the donations for research received by the eight UGC-funded universities from the private sector since the inception of RMGS in August 2019 is well noted, and this upward trend corroborated that RMGS has effectively fulfilled the core objectives to incentivise the private sector to strengthen financial support for research and development (R&D), diversify research funding sources of the higher education sector, and to encourage collaboration between industries and the sector in R&D.
Collaboration with European Union – Revised Co-funding Mechanism under Horizon Europe
RGC approved the continuation of collaboration with European Union (EU) covering the 2023-24 Work Programme of Horizon Europe under a revised co-funding mechanism. Subject to confirmation by EU, the first round of the 2023/24 exercise under Horizon Europe would be launched in October 2023.
RGC Visit to The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Members of the RGC and Subject Panels visited The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on 8 June 2023. RGC was grateful to The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for their warm hospitality and the interesting programs arranged for the visit. The university for the next visit will be Lingnan University in June 2024.