Institutional Development Scheme (IDS) Research Infrastructure Grant 2023/24 Exercise
  1. The Research Infrastructure Grant aims to build up the research capacity of the institutions in their strategic areas. The proposals should clearly state the priority of strategic development, justifications for the proposed set-up, possible coverage of beneficiaries and linkage of the proposed infrastructure with the research theme. Feasible implementation and collaboration plans are also expected.

  2. The overall quality of proposals improved in this round of exercise. The higher quality proposals were well-developed with clear agenda and feasible implementation plan to address important and timely research issues. The research themes and proposed activities fell in the strategic areas of the institutions, and synergy would be generated between the proposed projects and the existing research centres of the institutions.

  3. Though some proposals had good research intention, they were not well-thought-out with lack of focus on the specific research directions. More elaboration on the expected deliverables and the sustainability of the proposed infrastructure should be provided.

  4. Some proposals were too ambitious with broad and diverse project scope and objectives. Project teams were advised to reduce the scope to enhance the feasibility of the proposals. Some of them seemed lacking suitable expertise / sufficient manpower in the field of the proposed research which casted doubt on the implementation and effectiveness of the projects.

  5. Budget requested by some proposals was excessive and a large amount was reserved for purchase of facilities and equipment like software licence, personal electronic devices, high-performance computing devices and standard office equipment, etc., but strong justification on these budgetary items were not clearly stated.

  6. Project teams were reminded that it was not permissible to use the RGC funds to purchase personal electronic devices (e.g. smartphones, tablet computers, personal digital assistants and digital cameras / video recorders) and standard equipment (e.g. desktop PCs, servers, laptop computers, printers and scanners) except with sound justification as approved by the RGC.