Results of Proposal Evaluation
| Funding Scheme | Results | Announcement of Results |
|---|---|---|
| Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) | 51 proposals amounting to $295 million (exclusive of on‑cost) were funded, including 34 Collaborative Research Project Grant (CRPG) proposals, three Collaborative Research Equipment Grant (CREG) proposals and 14 Young Collaborative Research Grant (YCRG) proposals. Among the funded proposals, four CRPG proposals were supported for one‑year exploratory funding. | Letter to Heads of Universities dated 4 January 2024 |
| Research Impact Fund (RIF) | 14 proposals amounting to $75 million (exclusive of on cost) were funded. | Letter to Heads of Universities dated 22 December 2023 |
| Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme | 12 proposals were shortlisted for submission of full proposals. | Letter to Vice Presidents (Research) dated 21 December 2023 |
| Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) | 30 proposals were shortlisted for submission of full proposals. |
Research Funding Schemes
Collaborative Research Fund
The overall budget for CRF 2024/25 will remain the same at $280 million, including $130 million under CRPG, $100 million under CREG and $50 million under YCRG. The Collaborative Research Projects Steering Committee will consider the allocation of the $50 million apportionable budget among AoE Scheme, CRF and TRS in June 2024. The prevailing arrangement allowing the CRF Selection Panel to flexibly redeploy the funding allocation between CRPG, CREG and YCRG will also remain in order to maximise the effective use of the resources available.
Research Impact Fund
The RIF 2023/24 exercise was concluded successfully. RGC noted that the 14 approved proposals demonstrated strong merits and potential impacts. RGC commented that with the broad coverage of RIF, it would be good to see even more innovative proposals coming forward and hoped that applicants could make the section on pathways to impact more compelling by articulating not only potential impacts of proposed projects, but also the associated risks and mitigation. The RIF 2024/25 exercise is planned to be launched in late January 2024 and the budget will remain at $75 million.
Areas of Excellence Scheme and Theme-based Research Scheme
In the 2024/25 exercise, a total of 15 AoE and 66 TRS preliminary proposals were received. Upon transfer of one TRS proposal (which fell outside the scope of TRS) to AoE Scheme, 16 AoE and 65 TRS proposals were processed. The Selection Panels shortlisted 12 AoE and 30 TRS proposals for full proposal submission. In view of the strong demand from the UGC sector, the regular budget for AoE Scheme and TRS will maintain at $150 million and $300 million respectively in 2024/25.
The fifth TRS Public Symposium is scheduled for 8 December 2024 for project teams funded in the Eighth and Ninth Round exercises to communicate and share amongst research community and other stakeholders the achievements of TRS projects. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has been invited to be the coordinating university of the symposium.
Budget for Various Funding Schemes Funded by the Research Endowment Fund (REF) in 2024/25
The indicative broad allocation for the various funding schemes funded by REF in 2024/25 was approved by RGC as follows:
The allocation above reflects broad indicative figures and may be subject to further adjustments.
The latest projected investment return rate of REF in 2023 has dropped significantly as compared to 2022 and is expected to remain on the low side for 2024 given the volatility in the global financial markets. While RGC is able to maintain the operation of the funding schemes at their prevailing scale by deploying some unspent savings of REF accumulated in the previous years, if the investment return of REF continues to deteriorate, RGC may have to consider putting in place cost-saving measures to ensure a sustainable budget in future.
Progress of Research Matching Grant Scheme and RGC Research Fellowship Schemes
After seventeen processing cycles of the Research Matching Grant Scheme (RMGS), the aggregate amount applied for matching was about $5.13 billion and the total amount of matching grants disbursed to UGC-funded universities / self-financing degree-awarding institutions was about $2.87 billion. The remaining balance available for matching stood at about $0.13 billion. The amount will remain open for applications by the participating universities / institutions 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 UGC Secretariat will continue request 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 next call of situation reports in the first half of 2024 is to cover the deployment progress of the matching grants disbursed in the seventh to tenth processing cycles (i.e. Q1 – 4, 2021), as well as the annual progress update of the first six processing cycles.
For the fifth exercise (2024/25) of the RGC Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme (PDFS), a total of 89 nominations were received. For the RGC Research Fellow Scheme (RFS) and RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme (SRFS), a total of 38 nominations for RFS and 39 nominations for SRFS were received in this exercise. The fourth cohort (2023/24) of SRFS, RFS and PDFS awardees were recognised at the award presentation ceremony in November 2023. SRFS and RFS awardees have been publicised through advertorial series on local newspapers, and short videos are being produced on each SRFS awardee.
Revisions to “Pathways to Impact Statement”
To provide applicants with enhanced guidance on research impact and ways to effectively illustrate the process of achieving it, RGC had reviewed and approved the revisions to the “Pathways to Impact Statement” in the applications of RGC research funding schemes, which would take effect from the 2025/26 exercise.
[Enhanced guidance on the “Pathways to Impact Statement” has been implemented in the CRF and RIF 2024/25 exercises.]