Writing Winning Proposals foWriting Winning Proposals for RGC’s CERG Exerciser RGC’s CERG Exercise

Biology and Medicine PanelBiology and Medicine Panel

Professor Paul Tam

Associate Dean (Research)

Faculty of Medicine

No. of funded CERG projects obtained by the institutionsunder the Biology and Medicine Panel from 1998-99 to 2002-03

48

53

62

52 51

40

4542

5053

13

18 1921

24

97

13

22

13

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03

Year

No

. o

f fu

nd

ed p

roje

cts

HKU CUHK HKUST Other Universities

Amount of CERG obtained by the institutions underthe Biology and Medicine Panel from 1998-99 to 2002-03

40.5241.77

50.76

45.71

56.57

27.22

31.54 32.31

38.65

47.44

13.17

17.13 17.18

25.15

28.46

5.98 5.4

9.9

18.17

11.22

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03

Year

Am

ou

nt

of

gra

nts

(H

K$M

)

HKU CUHK HKUST Other Universities

Measures to improve institutional performance in

CERG exercises

Principles

• providing incentives to encourage high-quality CERG applications

• reward excellent performance

• reinforce team work in research

New Measures

• Longer lead-time for proposal development• Funding for ‘friendly’ external reviews• Merit award for successful CERG projects• Incentive award for ‘fundable but not funded’

projects• Top-up funding for successful ‘Individual

Research Grants’• Staff mentoring

New Measures in detail

• Longer lead-time: proposal preparation advanced to November of the preceding year

• External reviews: funding for Faculties to invite external reviewers for proposal critique and brainstorming

• Merit awards: a fixed-sum award of HK$50,000 for each successful CERG project, to be shared among PIs, their departments and faculties

New Measures in detail

• Incentive for FBNF: a fixed-sum award of HK$30,000 for each successful FBNF project, to be shared between PIs and their departments

• Topping up IRGs: for recruiting replacement teachers

• Staff mentoring: encourage Chair Professors to take up mentoring role for junior research staff

RGC funded projects: ClinicalRGC funded projects: ClinicalHKU 2002-03HKU 2002-03

• Out of 41 funded projects, 5 (12%) were clinical

• Out of 132 submissions, 26 (20%) were clinical

• Success rates: clinical (19%), overall (31%)• Out of 158 submissions in 2003-04, 38 (24%)

were clinical

Clinical Research Fellowship Scheme

• To provide outstanding young clinicians with opportunities to receive further medical training in clinical research

• A fellowship application should be accompanied by a CERG research proposal of which the applicant will be the PI.

• The fellowship award is conditional on the CERG proposal being supported.

Clinical Research Fellowship Scheme

• Who can apply:Full-time clinical teachers of HKU orFull-time clinicians working in the HA

Clinical Research Fellowship Scheme

• Fellowship applications will be judged on• quality of the candidate• strength of the mentor’s endorsement• quality of the CERG proposal• institutional priority/support

Longer-term Research Grant

• to foster projects with research objectives to be realistically achieved in 4 to 5 years

Eligibility requirements• in addition to normal eligibility requirements,

– applicants should not hold, as PI, more than 2 projects, with a budget of more than $200,000 each, irrespective of sources of funding, concurrently at the time of award of the longer-term grant

– researchers may hold, as PIs, at most one longer-term grant at any one time and will not be allowed to bid for RGC funding in the first 3 academic years of the project

Other considerations• subject to the same CERG peer-review standards

& procedures. Quality of proposals remains the principal consideration, particular emphasis on:

– the number of all on-going projects of which an applicant is a PI or Co-I to ascertain that the applicant will have time and capacity to undertake a longer-term project;

– proven track record of the applicant in delivering research outputs in previously RGC-funded projects

Disbursement

• Funding to be released in 2 installments

• Release of the 2nd installment is subject to satisfactory progress of the project