The Healthy Longevity Global Competition (the Competition) was organised by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) of the United States. 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. The Research Grants Council (RGC) collaborates with the NAM to conduct the Healthy Longevity Catalyst Awards (Hong Kong) 2022 (HLCA (HK) 2022). Applicants may submit ideas related to basic science, medical treatments, commercial products, technologies, social sciences, architectural and community design, or any other field – as long as they are innovative, impactful, and capable of extending health and function in any stages of the lifespan.
There will be ten Catalyst Awards in the HLCA (HK) 2022. Awardees in the Catalyst Phase will be invited to present their ideas in an Innovator Summit and can apply for the Accelerator Phase and beyond. 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.
Applicants may submit proposals in the following topic areas, but application on other topic areas under the objectives of the Competition are welcome:
- Biology of aging and molecular pathways;
- Built environment and urban planning;
- Disease prevention, including biomarkers and indicators of disease;
- Health care delivery;
- Housing, such as smart-enabled homes, intergenerational housing models;
- Policy, such as economic, health and science policy;
- Social connectedness, engagement and well-being; and
- Technology, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, medical-, assistive-, and information-technology.
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 GRF.
- 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 steps:
- Administrative Review
The Secretariat will ensure that universities have endorsed eligibility of the applicants and completeness of the applications.
- Innovation Review
Five Innovation Reviewers will be assigned for each proposal and grade the proposals according to the assessment criteria. Proposals from the STEM disciplines will be reviewed by three STEM reviewers and two non-STEM reviewers. Proposals from the non STEM disciplines will be reviewed by three non-STEM reviewers and two STEM reviewers. For Innovation Review, applications should 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 provide supplementary information regarding the implementation and methodology of their proposals. 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, identifying the most innovative, novel, and potentially groundbreaking ideas.
For details of the assessment criteria, please refer to the call cirucular 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 4 March 2022 (Friday). 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.