The Theme-based Research Scheme (TBRS),
which supports academic research on themes
of a longer-term nature and strategically
beneficial to the development of Hong Kong,
has been making good progress, says RGC
Chairman Professor Roland Chin.
Earlier this year, the Steering Committee for
Research Themes identified three research
themes for the first round of TBRS, including "Promoting good health",
"Developing a
sustainable environment" and "Strengthening
Hong Kong as a regional and international
business centre". Following the receipt of
over 300 white papers from local academics,
sixteen topics for the selected themes were
identified by RGC’s White Papers Review Panel
formed mainly by external experts.
"To facilitate the community to discuss, refine
and select the final ‘Grand Challenge Topics’,
a one day workshop on each of the research
themes was held in August. The discussion
was enlightening and each of the workshops
was attended by over 200 academic staff,"
stated Professor Chin. "The project panels
were formed by selected local experts of our
universities. I am pleased to note that they
started to work together in presenting their
ideas and promoting the respective topics.
The audience also participated actively in
the discussion. The workshop did achieve its
intended purpose successfully," he added.
Professor Chin said that he was grateful
for the support and contribution made by
various parties in this new initiative, including
experts, from both overseas and Hong Kong,
who played an important role as facilitators
during the workshops, and assisted in refining
and selecting the topics. Subsequently these
Grand Challenge Topics were endorsed by
Government. The invitation for preliminary
proposals followed immediately. A salient point
of the scheme is that projects should have
high academic merit and be of high impact to
Hong Kong.
"We are moving towards a new arena and
I look forward to seeing more outstanding
research, contributing strategically and
significantly to the long term development and
well-being of Hong Kong, such as improving
Hong Kong economy and enhancing our
quality of life."
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Nurturing Young Talents
In addition, the RGC will follow the practice
of funding agencies abroad by strengthening
its research support to young new scholars,
with the aim of recruiting and nurturing
new talents in the local academia. "Young scholars" refer to faculty members who are
newly appointed as assistant professors at a
university. The scheme has won
preliminary support from the
Council members.
According to Professor Chin,
research funding schemes for
young academics have been
around as early as the 1970s
and 1980s. Some of the more
well-known schemes are "Career Awards" in the United States
established by the National Science
Foundation and the National
Institutes of Health.
"The award is more than just project funding.
Young professors who have won the award
not only received research grants. More
importantly, they took great pride in the honor
and recognition that the award bestowed on them", stated Professor Chin.
"A four-year normative undergraduate
curriculum will be implemented in all UGC-funded
universities in Hong Kong starting
in 2012," added Professor Chin. "In order
to meet the growing demands for teaching
staff, the Government will allocate resources
to hire nearly one thousand new professors
for universities across Hong Kong, of whom
half will likely be younger scholars. It is for
this reason that RGC submitted a proposal to
increase academic research funding for this
target group, as it will help attract more talents
to Hong Kong, raise academic standards in
universities, and nurture the next generation
of academic scholars. Hence the new funding
scheme’s objective, ‘Invest in the Young
Generation’. More details of the scheme will be
discussed at the RGC meeting in December."
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