Call Circular for the 2025/26 Exercise
Introduction
The Research Grants Council (RGC) and the German Academic Exchange
Service (DAAD) invite applications for the Germany / Hong Kong
Joint Research Scheme 2025/26 exercise. Launched in 1996, the
Scheme aims to promote research collaboration between Hong Kong
and Germany by providing researchers in the two places with
one-year or two-year travel grants.
The Hong Kong Principal Investigators could use the RGC grants to
support justified research visits of research postgraduate
students to partner institutions, in order to enhance the
students’ training and opportunities for overseas experience. The
budget for the 2025/26 exercise is HK$1.2 million. The grant size
for the travel grants is HK$45,000 per year for projects involving
travel of research postgraduate student(s) and HK$30,000 per year
for projects not involving students’ travel. Additional funding
support from Hong Kong and German institutions / companies to
individual grant recipient is most welcome.
Hong Kong applicants should meet fully the requirements for
applying the RGC General Research Fund (GRF). Hong Kong applicants
should submit applications to the RGC through the Research Offices
of respective universities. While applications must be submitted
before the deadline as outlined below, Hong Kong applicants should
check with their universities for internal closing dates. Late
submission will not be processed.
While detailed information regarding the Scheme and its
application procedure could be obtained from respective
universities, it is also available on the RGC homepage under
"Funding Opportunities - Joint Research Schemes for UGC-funded
Sector" at
https://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/funding_opport/ge_hk_jrs/index.html.
The RGC and the DAAD bear no responsibility for the manner in
which the exchange / visit is conducted.
Further details on the Scheme:
Aim |
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To support scholarly collaboration between individual
Hong Kong and German researchers.
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Scope |
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There is no quota on the number of applications to be
submitted by each university.
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Applicants may apply for one-year or two-year travel
grants.
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An applicant (Principal Investigator (PI)) can only
submit one application in an exercise but may
participate as a member of another project in the same
exercise.
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The RGC grant provides only for air passage(s),
accommodation and subsistence costs directly related
to the proposed exchanges between the two partners in
Germany. If free or less expensive air tickets and /
or accommodation are available, the PI may undertake
additional visits or visits of longer duration.
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The RGC grant does not cover expenditure on equipment,
consumables or other project-related expenses, as well
as insurance. Each PI must make provision for these
and any other costs associated with the project.
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Funding will not be provided to the same project for
more than two years.
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The RGC grant is solely for use by the Hong Kong PI.
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Save in very exceptional circumstances (such as
prolonged illness of the PI) and with proper
justification stated in the "Travel Plan" of the
application form as well as prior approval of the RGC,
the PI cannot delegate the trip to his
Co-Investigator (Co-I) nor his project team
members.
An application without proper justification for
delegation of the trip to the Co-I or project team
members does not meet the eligibility criteria of the
scheme and will be disqualified.
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If, for operational reasons, a project team member is
required to make use of the grant for a trip (in
addition to the trip undertaken by the PI), detailed
justification with a clear breakdown of the expenses
requested for each traveller must be provided in the
"Travel Plan" of the application form. In the case
that no breakdown of expenses is provided and the
number of trips endorsed by the RGC is less than the
number requested, the RGC grant will be awarded on a
pro-rata basis.
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If the PI proposes to use the RGC grant to support
travel of research postgraduate student(s) together
with the PI,
detailed justification and the plan for training for
the student(s) through the proposed visit(s), with a
clear breakdown of the expenses requested for each
traveller must be provided in the “Travel Plan” of the
application form. In the case that no breakdown of
expenses is provided and the number of trips endorsed
by the RGC is smaller than the number requested, the
RGC grant will be awarded on a pro-rata basis.
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Format |
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Grant Size |
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Application Procedures |
General
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Parallel submissions of applications by the Hong Kong
and the German applicants are required:
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Hong Kong applicants should submit their
applications to the RGC through the Research
Offices of respective universities. Direct
submission of applications to the RGC will not be
accepted; and
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German applicants should submit their applications
directly to the DAAD. Further details are
available on the
DAAD homepage.
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It is the obligation of both the Hong Kong and German
applicants to ensure that their respective
applications are properly completed and contain
sufficient and consistent information for evaluation.
The RGC will not seek or accept supplementary
information/revision after the application deadline.
The DAAD would verify the applications upon receipt of
the Hong Kong applications from the RGC. Applications
with incomplete / insufficient / inconsistent
information may lead to disqualification.
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Applications will be disqualified if the proposals are
found to have exceeded the allowable page limits or
excessive attachments.
Application
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For each application, please submit a softcopy (with
size up to 2Mb per application) and three copies of:
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application form;
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two-sheet (i.e. four sides) project proposal (see
below);
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one A-4 page (with a maximum of 400 words)
curriculum vitae (CV) for each research
postgraduate student if travel for student(s)
is/are proposed, with information on name,
academic qualifications, current research work,
research output, etc; and
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one A-4 page (with a maximum of 400 words)
curriculum vitae (CV) for each project team
member, with information on name, academic
qualifications, previous academic position(s) held
(with date(s)) & present position (state if
applicant is a visiting academic from overseas),
previous relevant research work, publication
records including the five most representative
publications in the recent five years and five
representative publications beyond the recent five
years, and others including research-related
prizes and awards, brief description of experience
in consultancies, service as a referee in
evaluating other grant applications, patents, PhD
theses supervised, etc.
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The project proposal should contain the following
details:
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project title;
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research objective(s);
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research plan and methodology:
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to make sure this section is written in a manner
that allows easy understanding by reviewer(s) in
related field(s)
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to include an outline of the work plan according
to the proposed time schedule
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reason(s) for the choice of the German PI; and
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plan for collaboration (indicate the respective
roles and the specific tasks to be undertaken by
the Hong Kong and German PIs as well as each of
their team members).
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Hong Kong applicants may refer to the Proposal
Templates enclosed at the Appendices to the
application form in preparing their proposals and CVs.
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Applications must be received by the RGC by
23 June 2025. Applicants should check
with the Research Offices of respective universities
for internal deadlines.
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The Review Process |
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The RGC and the DAAD will review the applications
based on:
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the academic merits of the proposed research;
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the possible synergy, the expected benefits, and
the prospects for longer-term collaboration; and
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opportunities for training of young researchers
and research postgraduate students through the
proposed exchanges.
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The RGC and the DAAD will jointly select applications
to be supported. Only applications, which have been
jointly supported by both sides, will be considered
for funding.
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Announcement of Results |
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The RGC and the DAAD will announce the selection
results in December 2025.
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The RGC will convey the results to the Hong Kong
applicants through their respective universities. No
feedback on the applications will be provided.
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The results will be available at the RGC homepage under
"Germany/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme - Funded
Research" at
https://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/funding_opport/ge_hk_jrs/funded_research.html.
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Funding period |
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PIs should use the one-year grant or the first year
fund of the two-year grants between 1 January 2026 and
31 December 2026 inclusive, and the second year fund
of the two-year grant between 1 January 2027 and 31
December 2027 inclusive.
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For two-year grants,
unspent balance from the first year cannot be
carried forward to the second year
and should be returned to the RGC within six months
upon expiry of the first year funding period.
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Monitoring and Assessment |
Interim Report for two-year grant
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The PIs should prepare and submit the interim reports
for two-year projects to the RGC by the deadline as
stipulated in results announcement. They should check
with the Research Offices of respective universities
for internal deadlines.
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Although the second year funding has been granted, the
RGC will consider clawing back the grant and
terminating the project if interim report indicates
that the PI fails to accomplish the proposed exchanges
and collaboration.
Completion Report
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Hong Kong PIs should submit a copy of their completion
report together with publications arising directly
from the sponsored work to the RGC through respective
universities within twelve months after the expiry of
approved funding period.
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All publications arising from the research
collaboration under this Scheme should carry an
acknowledgement as follows: "The work described in
this paper was supported by a grant from the
Germany/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme sponsored by
the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong and the
German Academic Exchange Service (Reference No.
[G-[University's abbreviation][University code][serial
number of 2 digits]/[year], e.g. G-HKU701/25)".
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The RGC will not allow extension of the approved
funding period.
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The university should submit the relevant financial
statement together with any unspent balance to the RGC
within six months after the expiry of the approved
funding period.
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Enquiries
All enquiries should be directed to the Research Offices of
respective universities in the first instance who, if in doubt,
will contact the UGC Secretariat.