The Research Grants Council (RGC) has collaborated with the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) of the United States for the Healthy Longevity Catalyst Awards (Hong Kong) (HLCA (HK)) since 2022. Being part of the Healthy Longevity Global Competition (the Competition) at its Catalyst Phase, HLCA (HK) aims to call for bold and innovative ideas from any discipline that have the potential to extend the human healthspan. Ideas could focus on early-, mid-, or late-life, as long as it ultimately promotes health as people age.
Launched by the NAM in 2019, the Competition is a series of inducement awards and prizes to catalyse breakthrough innovations to improve people’s physical, mental, and social health and well-being as they age. It includes three phases – the Catalyst Phase, the Accelerator Phase, and the Grand Prize Phase. For more information about the Competition, please visit its website (https://healthylongevitychallenge.org/).
The RGC will offer ten Catalyst Awards in the HLCA (HK) each year. Awardees in the Catalyst Phase of the Competition will be invited to present their ideas in an Innovator Summit and can apply for the Accelerator Phase and beyond1. Each award includes a US$50,000 (approx. HK$389,000) cash prize at a maximum for a period of 12 months and travel subsidies (HK$30,000 per person; max. 6 persons per team) for awarded teams to attend an Innovator Summit, which will be organised by NAM for the winning teams to discuss their work with the fellow innovators, researchers, policymakers, and potential investors.
- More information on the Accelerator Phase and the Grand Prize Phase is available on the Competition website (https://healthylongevitychallenge.org/).
Only academic staff members whose conditions of employment meet all the following requirements are eligible for applying for RGC grants as Principal Investigator (PI):
- having a full-time1 appointment in the university proper2 of UGC-funded universities;
- being at Staff Grades from 'A' to 'I'3 (i.e. from 'Professor' to 'Assistant Lecturer');
- being primarily engaged in and spending at least 80% of time in degree or higher degree work4 at the university proper; and
- salary being wholly funded5 by the university proper.
Visiting staff will only be eligible if they have a full-time appointment in the university proper covering at least one year or the duration of the project, whichever is the longer. Staff supported by external research grants6 are however not eligible.
As a transitional measure, academic staff who are engaged in non-degree programmes which are still funded by the UGC may also apply as the PI. Eligible staff in this category must be wholly funded from the General Funds of the university concerned. This arrangement would continue until such time when the relevant programmes are no longer funded by the UGC. Cases of an exceptional nature (including circumstances not covered by the above rules) will be considered by the RGC on a case-by-case basis.
- Part-time staff and staff holding honorary appointments are excluded
- Excluding schools/arms of continuing education and professional training and other analogous outfits.
- Polytechnic staff grades are excluded.
- A Project Investigator who is / will be seconded to work full-time or part-time at the two Innovation and Technology (I&T) clusters (Health@InnoHK and AIR@InnoHK) at the Hong Kong Science Park; or to conduct research in a university or a research institute / body / agency in the Mainland / overseas jurisdiction, is still considered eligible to apply for the Healthy Longevity Catalyst Awards (Hong Kong).
- Staff who are receiving income from paid appointments outside the university proper do not satisfy this requirement.
- These grants are normally awarded for a designated purpose.
The review process includes the following stages:
- Administrative Review
The Secretariat will ensure that universities have endorsed eligibility of the applicants and completeness of the applications.
- Innovation Review
For Innovation Review, applications will be assessed on the basis of creativity and innovation, rather than on the basis of pre-existing data, demonstrated work, institutional capabilities, or feasibility alone.
- Subject Matter Expert (SME) Review
After the Innovation Review, shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit supplementary information regarding the implementation and methodology of their proposals for SME Review. For SME Review, reviewers will comment on the academic and scientific merits and promise of the proposals. However, it should be noted that creativity and innovation should remain as the top-priority evaluation criteria in rating the proposal as this is the most important and distinguishing feature of the Catalyst Award competition.
- Selection Committee Review
A final selection panel will review the shortlisted applications and external reviewers’ assessment, and then identify ten proposals with innovative, novel, and potentially groundbreaking ideas.
For details of the assessment criteria, please refer to the call circular or contact the research offices of the universities.
Applications should be made in the prescribed application form and submitted through Research Offices of the applicant's affiliated university by 5:00 pm on 29 February 2024 (Thursday). Shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit Supplementary Information.
To view the call circular, please click here.
To download the application form, please click here.