Early Career Scheme (ECS) - FAQ

1. What are the objectives of this scheme?

The Early Career Scheme (ECS), introduced in 2012/13, is intended to nurture junior academics and to prepare them for a career in education and research.

2. Which discipline(s) is(are) covered in this scheme?

- Biology & Medicine

- Business Studies

- Engineering

- Humanities, Social Sciences

- Physical Sciences

3. Who is eligible to apply (as a PC/PI)?

The PI of an ECS project grant must be an academic staff member of an UGC-funded university with conditions of employment meeting ALL the following requirements:

- within three years of his/her full time(1) academic job as an Assistant Professor or career equivalent involving teaching and research duties and in substantiation track/tenure track position in any university (local or overseas) at the time of the submission deadline of this funding exercise;

- being primarily engaged in and spending at least 80% of time in degree or higher degree work (2) at the university proper (3); and

- salary being wholly funded (4) by the university proper.

Eligible applicants may choose to submit their research proposals under the ECS or the GRF, but not both, in each funding cycle. New junior academics meeting the eligibility criteria of the ECS are encouraged to compete in the scheme. The grantees and awardees of ECS cannot compete in the scheme again but those who failed will be allowed to re-submit applications within the eligible period.

Cases of an exceptional nature (including circumstances not covered by the above rules) will be considered by the RGC on a case-by-case basis.

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¹ Part-time staff and staff holding honorary appointments are excluded.

² A Project Investigator who is/will be seconded to work full-time or part-time at the two Innovation and Technology clusters (Health@InnoHK and AIR@InnoHK) at the Hong Kong Science Park; or to conduct research in a university or a research institute / body / agency in the Mainland / overseas jurisdiction, is still considered eligible to apply for the ECS.

³ Excluding schools/arms of continuing education and professional training and other analogous outfits.

⁴ Excluding staff members who are receiving income from paid appointments outside the university proper or who are supported by external research grants.

4. Any eligibility requirement on Co-PI/Co-I?

There is no such role of "Co-PI/Co-I" for ECS projects.

5. What are the stages of application?

- PIs submit full proposal
- Optional internal/external review
- Optional editing service
- Formal submission of full proposal (online mode)
- Formal submission of full proposal (paper mode)
- Proposal update

6. What document(s) should be prepared before and/or during application stage?

- Research Ethics Traning Certificate

1. • Staff members are required to present the certificate(s) of passing the ethics test(s) before they could apply for any internal or external grants. For details, please visit the Research Ethics Training Website at https://www.research-ethics.cuhk.edu.hk/orktsResearch/.

- VeriGuide

• • VeriGuide Originality Reports should be endorsed by the respective Panels in the VeriGuide system before the applications are submitted to the Office of Research and Knowledge Transfer Services (ORKTS) for vetting.
  • Scanning of the applications should be done during both the application stage and the proposal update.
  • All full-time academic staff can now have free access to the VeriGuide scanning service (available at: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/veriguide) by entering their Staff IDs and CWEM passwords.

- Undertaking made by Grant Applicant (http://www.orkts.cuhk.edu.hk/images/RGC/undertaking.doc)

7. Is there an institutional quota for this scheme?

No

8. What is the range of funding support?

Threshold Limits for Applications:

The thresholds are $150,000 for projects in the fields of Biology & Medicine, Engineering and Physical Sciences, and $100,000 for projects in the fields of Business Studies and Humanities & Social Sciences. There are no upper limits, but projects costing over $1 million will need to be well justified and supported.

Project Duration:

A maximum of 5-year project duration is allowed for applicants in their first year of full time academic job, a 4-year duration for applicants in their second year and a 3-year duration for applicants in their third year, if the proposed duration is deemed appropriate and necessary by the RGC.

9. What does the funding budget cover?

- Supporting Staff

- Equipment

- Outsourcing of Research Work Outside Hong Kong

- General Expenses

- Conference Expenses

- Relief Teacher

- Research Experience for Undergraduate Students

- High-performance Computing Services

- Research-related Software Licence / Dataset

For the items/costs are chargeable to an RGC grant, please refer to the "Guidelines on Accounting Arrangements for RGC Grants" (https://www.orkts.cuhk.edu.hk/images/RGC/Guidelines_on_Accounting_Arrangements_for_RGC_Grants.pdf) for details.

10. If PIs opt to submit without vetting by ORKTS, what will the minimum processing time be?

If PIs opt to submit without vetting by ORKTS, ORKTS will proceed the Research Panel endorsed application to University's endorsement and submit to the RGC for review. The processing time is around four days.

11. What are the assessment criteria?

The assessment criteria are as follows:

- academic quality/merit;

1. • scientific and scholarly merit of the proposal;
   • qualifications and track record of the (principal) investigator(s);
   • originality;
   • feasibility within the time-scale of the proposal.

- university’s commitment;

- contribution to academic/professional development (where applicable);

- potential for social, cultural or economic application; and

- availability of, and potential for, non-RGC funding.

Academic quality/merit is the overriding criterion in evaluating research projects when others are accorded equal weight. In considering grant applications, the RGC will also take cognizance of alternative sources of funding available because some subject areas will attract more private funding than others.

12. Is it possible to include/exclude specific potential reviewers? If yes, how can I file a request?

PI if wish to request for excluding some experts from reviewing their applications, please submit a signed letter with attention to RGC, basic project info (ref. no., project title, PI), details of potential reviewers(name, affiliation, contact details),

13. When will grantor announce the funding result?

The results will be announced in late June of the following year (e.g. in late June 2021).

14. Is there any support available for applicants of this scheme?

- External review service fee

15. Special Remarks

Editing services will be at individual Research Panels' discretion. PIs may contact the Research Panel concerned for editing services.