Inter-Institutional Development Scheme (IIDS) 2024/25 Exercise
- In general, the overall quality of the proposals was acceptable. In terms of areas of investigation, most proposals were timely in the current social context of Hong Kong (e.g. identity development of young children, impacts of Generative AI, positive psychology, etc.).
- For most of the proposals, it was evident that institutions capitalised on their established expertise and proposed activities to extend their expertise further. In some proposals, internationally renowned speakers would be invited for exchange of ideas and networking. However, some proposals did not address issues like knowledge dissemination, sustainability in the long-term and what outcomes they would achieve.
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Principal Investigators (PI) were advised to consider the following in preparing their proposals in the future -
- an explicit delineation on how hosting the conference and other related activities would enhance the research capacity of the institutions and their staff;
- clear acceptance criteria and process for paper submission;
- tentative plans for evaluating and sustaining the impacts of the funded conferences and activities as far as possible;
- more diverse formats for exchange of ideas than keynote speeches, paper presentations and workshops;
- cost effective and reasonable budget request, e.g. institutions might consider whether to print hard copies of conference proceedings these days; and
- adoption of hybrid conferences where international speakers could interact with local academics, so as to bring in more diverse perspectives at a lower budget.