Allocation of Resources to Universities for Research

(24-02-2011)

Institutions all over the world are working assiduously to excel in their academic research, in the hope to advance development and strive to be the leading ones in the international research community. Hong Kong institutions have to adjust their strategy by adopting the best practice overseas, and to gear up to facing the intensified challenges from the region and the rest of the world. Nowadays, all economies have concentrated their resources on the best quality research projects, and looking for breakthroughs. Hong Kong should follow the footsteps of the international community and engage in cutting edge research with a view to nurturing elites in Hong Kong.

Competition Drives Excellence

It is a pleasure to see that research development of our institutions have progressed beyond the nascent stage some 20 years ago. Many of our researchers and outstanding students are conducting world-class research today. Hong Kong however should not be complacent. We have to keep abreast of time and make reference to what our counterparts are doing in research funding allocation. The University Grants Committee (UGC) is planning the improvement of the existing funding mechanism by linking research funding with top quality research so as to enhance the competitiveness of our institutions.

Allocation of Research Resources

The UGC has all along supported the institutions in academic research. There are three main sources to fund institutions’ research work, namely:

1. Research Portion of the Block Grants (thereinafter the “R portion”) (approximately $2.7 billion) used for funding research infrastructure, including activities like hiring of academic staff, acquiring equipment, conducting research projects. The UGC will determine the amount of research funding in the light of the institution’s overall performance. Such funding was allocated to institutions directly without any competition;

2. allocation of research postgraduate places (thereinafter the “RPg places”) to institutions (approximately $1.4 billion). There was consensus with the Heads of institutions to introduce a competition element in the allocation of RPg places starting from 2012;

3. funding disbursed through the RGC (thereinafter the “RGC funding”)(approximately $750 million). Such funding is derived from the investment income of the $18 billion Research Endowment Fund set up in 2009, and is only one quarter of the “R portion” and half of the “RPg places”. Researchers are required to submit proposals for peer review by international experts to compete for research funding.

New Funding Arrangement

The UGC proposes to transfer almost half, or $1.3 billion, of the “R portion” to the “RGC funding” for competitive allocation over a few years. It will be awarded as “on-costs” of the funded projects, which will be returned to the institutions for their deployment and funding research related expenditure, such as part of the salary, general infrastructure, equipment and other administrative costs. In other words, the Head of Institution will have full freedom to decide how to allocate the funds. The amount of on-costs to be allocated will depend on the number of successful projects granted. That is to say, if an institution is very successful in these project competitions, the institution will gain more on-costs funding, and vice versa. In a nutshell, the whole amount of $1.3 billion RGC funding is all for research work, and at the full disposal of heads, and not directly allocated for use by the academics on individual projects.

The new funding arrangement is to enhance the competitive element in Hong Kong’s research and to advocate a balanced funding model – partly competitive and partly secure. The new policy serves to improve the allocation of research funding and to proactively underpin the development of research in Hong Kong

Professor Roland Chin
Chairman, Research Grants Council