Funding Schemes Not Administered by RS
Apart from funding schemes administered by Research Services (RS), there are some external funding schemes which may or may not require institutional endorsement and/or submission of applications through the University.
Eligibility
Before preparing a grant application, Principal Investigators (PIs) are reminded to take note of the eligibility requirement for application as specified by the funding bodies.
The Senior Management Team has approved the implementation of an internal policy that, from August 2020 onwards, Emeritus Professors can apply for non-RGC/UGC external research grants as Principal Investigator, or for major project funding as Project Coordinator, if they meet the eligibility requirement specified by the funding body and also the following conditions are met for each grant:
a. a current full-time professoriate staff member—tenured Professor or Associate Professor strongly preferred—with relevant expertise is invited/appointed in discussion with the Faculty Dean to serve as a Co-PI, to ensure continuity for project completion;
b. the Faculty Dean or his/her delegate (e.g., the Associate Dean of Research, the relevant Head of Department, or the Co-PI as specified in a) serves as the budget holder;
c. the grant comes with research overhead funding, and charges for use of existing research facilities and administrative support are budgeted and paid for by the research grant;
d. no laboratory or similar space will be assigned specifically to it;
e. the Emeritus Professor is not an employee of another university;
f. the Faculty and Department confirm their support for the Emeritus Professor to lead a research grant/project application and that Conditions a) to e) are met.
Institutional Endorsement
For an application which requires institutional endorsement, the PI is required to seek endorsement from his/her Head of Department and/or Dean of Faculty by completing a Research Grant Information Form, and submit the application and the completed form to RS at least one week before the external application deadline. RS then vets the application and arranges for the institutional endorsement.
For an application which does not require institutional endorsement, the PI is advised to seek endorsement from his/her Head of Department or Dean of Faculty (if the PI is the Head or in the case of a unitary Faculty) before submitting the application, and to send a copy of the application together with the endorsement to RS for information.
To ensure that updated records are kept by the Research Information Management System (RIMS), PIs are invited to inform RS of the results of their applications so that the relevant data can be captured by the system.
For general enquiries on grant application and administration, please email rssdata@hku.hk.