The UK Economic and Social Research Council and the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, China are pleased to announce a bilateral agreement to foster collaborations between social scientists in UK and Hong Kong. ESRC is the co-ordinating and administering body for this initiative.
For the purposes of this initiative the social sciences are defined as inclusive of the subjects of economics, economic and social history, political science, socio-legal studies, education, psychology, cognitive studies, linguistics, management and business studies, human geography, environmental planning, international studies, area and development studies, social statistics, demography, social science computing, sociology, social anthropology, social policy and social work.
Proposals should be submitted by UK partners on behalf of all collaborators to the ESRC by Thursday 15 July 2010. Applications must be made to the ESRC small grants call for the Hong Kong bilateral and should be submitted by the UK Principal Investigator's Research Organisation via the Je-S system.
Applicants should note the following carefully:
Projects must involve integrated collaboration between the UK and Hong Kong partners. Projects must have well identified joint working, demonstrating clearly the added value of the collaboration. They must demonstrate distinctive, cross-country aspects, where both sides of the research team provide necessary local expertise. Loosely connected projects in the two places, where there is no clear scientific value added from the collaboration, will not be eligible.
The UK element of the joint proposal will be funded by ESRC and the Hong Kong element will receive a grant from the RGC. Funding will be awarded and grants will be managed in accordance with the normal rules and procedures of each funding agency.
The maximum duration of a joint project supported by the ESRC and the RGC is three years. Both the UK and Hong Kong elements of the joint project supported under this funding opportunity should have the same start and end date. RGC grants can only be used in Hong Kong.
The funding limit is set between £15,000 and £99,999 (at 100 per cent fEC; funded at 80 per cent) for UK element of the joint project and HK$350,000 (excluding 15 per cent on-costs) for Hong Kong element. Financial resources requested from each agency should conform to the normal funding regulations of each agency.
The Hong Kong applicants and their sponsoring institutions, must abide by the prevailing rules, regulations and eligibility criteria as stipulated in the "Explanatory Notes for Completing the Application Form" (GRF 2) and "Disbursement, Accounting and Monitoring Arrangements for Funding Schemes Administered by the Research Grants Council" issued by the Research Grant Council (RGC).
The Hong Kong applicants must also note that no institutional quota is imposed on applications. It is however important that institutions should satisfy themselves that the applications are of sufficient quality before they are submitted for consideration. Also, no Hong Kong applicant should submit more than one application as the Principal Investigator in any one round of exercise of this funding scheme.
Hong Kong applicants and their sponsoring institutions must also note that where approval on Research Ethics / Safety is required for their research proposal, they should ensure that it is obtained without delay. The institution should note that if no confirmation of such approval is provided to the RGC through respective UGC-funded institutions by 1 November 2010, the ESRC will regard this application as being withdrawn and will stop processing it. For further information see the Je-S application supplement (MS Word).
Applications under this bilateral should be submitted to the ESRC by the UK partner as a small grant. The application should be submitted through the Je-S system. The normal guidelines for submitting small grant applications apply with additional requirements as detailed below.
- Proposals must be clearly labelled as a bilateral collaborative proposal. The title field in Je-S must begin with: 'Bilateral (Hong Kong):' followed by the title.
- Proposals must be submitted under the call "ESRC/RGC (Hong Kong) Collab Research Proposals 2010-11".
- Applicants must ensure that general fields of the Je-S form - eg Summary, Objectives, Case for Support - relate to the collaborative project as a whole. The Case for support is the body of a joint research proposal. It should clearly explain the essence of the proposed collaborative research proposal and the value of the linkages between the UK and Hong Kong elements of the project. Applicants must ensure that a reviewer can assess the value of the entire collaborative research project.
- The details of the Hong Kong Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-applicants (Co-Is) (name, post, institution, department/unit and the role (PI or Co-I) of each investigator) should be listed at the top of the first page of the Case for Support. It should indicate the Hong Kong institution, which will be the co-ordinating institution of the Hong Kong part of the joint proposal and responsible for administering the Hong Kong grant. This should be the institution of Hong Kong Principal Investigator (PI).
- On the Je-S form, the resources requested should refer only to resources needed by the UK component of the project. A brief summary of the resources being requested from the partner agency should be included in the 'Justification of Resources' attachment.
- Hong Kong applicants are also asked to complete Je-S application supplement (MS Word). The supplement document in PDF format must be submitted to the ESRC (as part of Je-S application) before 15 July 2010.
- For further information applicants should refer to the Notes for Guidance (PDF).
The UK and Hong Kong applicants are obliged to ensure that the application and any supplementary documentation, including the supplement submitted to the ESRC contain sufficient and consistent information for evaluation. The ESRC will not seek or accept supplementary information / revision after the application deadline.
Applicants must note that the ESRC retains the right to reject applications where they fail to comply with the procedures set out in the guidelines.
Applications will be assessed under a normal ESRC small grants peer review process, which will include a substantial input from RGC. Following assessment each agency will make its own decision on whether a collaborative proposal should be funded. Both agencies will have to agree to fund for a collaborative project to go ahead.
Given the complexities of co-ordinating peer review and decision-making between the two funding agencies it is unlikely that ESRC will be able to process UK-Hong Kong bilateral applications within its normal targets. Applicants are advised to take this into accounting when determining start dates for projects. It is expected that ESRC and RGC funding decisions will be available in February 2011.
The call for proposals has also been published on the RGC website.
Further information
Any queries can be e-mailed to international@esrc.ac.uk