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The Research Grants Council (RGC) has announced earlier that an Early Career Scheme for nurturing outstanding junior academics and a Prestigious Fellowship Scheme for supporting outstanding investigators under the disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences will be implemented in 2012/13. At the meeting held on 18 June, the RGC endorsed the eligibility requirements and the implementation details of the new schemes. The details are as follow: Early Career Scheme Applicants should be within three years of their first full time academic job as an Assistant Professor or career equivalent in tenure track involving teaching and research duties. The institutions have to confirm that the applicants are capable of supervising research students (MPhil / PhD). Research proposals submitted by the eligible applicants will be processed under the new scheme. Peer review mechanism will be adopted in the evaluation of proposals. The RGC reserves a specific budget for the new scheme to ensure that the junior academics do not need to compete with the experienced applicants. The new scheme encourages the junior academics to conduct longer term projects – a maximum of five years will be allowed for applicants in their first year of the job and a maximum of four years for those in their second year etc. There are two levels of award: (i) Early Career Grants – funding will be provided to the academics to undertake independent research work and training of undergraduate students; and (ii) Early Career Awards – in addition to the funding for research and training of undergraduate students, an honorary title will be awarded to outstanding junior academics. Those who are unsuccessful are allowed to re-apply within their eligibility period. The first call of proposals will be issued in August 2011 with a submission deadline of November. Proposals will be evaluated in June 2012 and the outcome will be announced in the summer of 2012. Prestigious Fellowship Scheme for outstanding investigators under the disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences Panel To recognize the outstanding academics under the disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences, the RGC will award not more than 10 academics each year. The first call of proposals will be issued in September / October 2011 with a submission deadline in early 2012. Proposals will be evaluated in June 2012 and the outcome will be announced in July 2012. Each institution will nominate a maximum of five outstanding academics each year. The nominees can submit proposals to develop new research projects or to build on on-going research programmes. A new committee comprising international experts in the Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines will be set up to evaluate the proposals. Quality of the proposals; potential and feasibility of the proposed work; qualifications and track record of the applicants; and evidence of institutional support are the major evaluation criteria. For the awardees, the RGC provides resources for the employment of relief teachers to relieve all or part of the teaching / supervision duties and all of the administrative duties so that they can concentrate on their research and writing. In addition, the awardees will receive support for research expenses and dissemination of outputs. A maximum amount of $1 million per award for a period of up to 12 months may be granted. Awardees of the fellowship are required to undertake that they will continue their services in the local institutions for at least one year upon the completion of the award period. The RGC will convene a briefing on the implementation details of the new schemes in September. Details of the briefing will be announced in due course. The University Grants Committee |
