Funding call: 2021 Shenzhen Fundamental Research (Key Program)

1. Supporting Areas

Please refer to Annex 2 for details

2. Funding Amount and Duration

Maximum RMB 3 million per project for 3 years.

3. Eligibility

1). The applicant (project leader) must be a full-time staff of our university with the experiences of undertaking basic research program. He/she must have senior academic rank (title) of assistant professor (or equivalent) and above.  The PI should not exceed the age of 60 by the year of project completion. At least 50% of the project members(excluding students) should be full-time staff from CUHKSZ，and have purchased social insurance continuously for more than half a year in Shenzhen.

2). If the project team consists of any member (including postgraduate students) who is not an employee of CUHKSZ, the following regulations should be observed

1. The maximum number of collaborative partner is limited to 1 only in Shenzhen;
2. The official stamps of the partner and the collaboration agreement must be included in the application. The agreement should clarify the division of research tasks between the two parties, the distribution of funding and self-raised funding, and the ownership of intellectual property rights. The first and correspondence affiliation of any scholarly publications and IP rights derived from the project should be The Chinese University of Hong Kong ,Shenzhen;
3. The project team from CUHKSZ should undertake the majority of the research tasks and more than half of the funding should be allocated to CUHKSZ;
4. At least three of the first five members of the project team should be researchers from CUHKSZ;
5. If any enterprise is involved, the amount of self-raised funds shall not be less than the amount of funding allocated to the enterprise by the project, and a letter of commitment for self-raised funding shall be provided.

4. Points to note:

1). Restriction on the total number of projects:

1. One applicant can only apply for one SZSTI fundamental research project (general program or key program) in the same year;
2. Please note that the maximum number of SZSTI Science and technology projects (except platform and post subsidy programs) applied for and being undertaken (including hosting and participating) is limited to 3;
3. PI holding an ongoing SZSTI Fundamental Research Program (key program) last year is not eligible for application;
4. PI who are supported by the University stability support program of Shenzhen 2021 are not allowed to apply.

2). For new projects highly relevant to previous projects funded by Shenzhen or other organizations (such as the Ministry of Science and Technology, National Natural Science Foundation, Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province, etc.), the relationship between the new application and previous ones should be clearly stated in the proposal. One proposal can only be submitted once by the applicant. Multiple and repeated submission is strictly prohibited.

3). The applicants should strictly comply with the national laws, regulations and ethics requirement  if their project involves issues related to scientific research ethics and technology security (such as clinical research, information security, etc.). For biomedical research involving animals and special medical research objects such as human subjects, the applicants are expected to provide the approval by relevant ethics committee of the university.

5. Application Process

1). Proposals must be submitted electronically through the SZSTI’s online system (https://sticapply.sz.gov.cn/).  For new applicants, RAO will create a user account for you. Please email RAO at xuyaqing@chku.edu.cn to get this set up before February 20,2021.  Please include their names, personal ID/passport number, email address and mobile phone numbers in the email. Colleagues already with an SZSTI system account can use their existing one.

2). Please upload the following application materials in the system:

1. Scanned copy of application signed and sealed
2. Project feasibility report (see Annex3);
3. Intellectual property compliance statement (see Annex 4 for the template)
4. The letter of integrity signed by the project leader and the university (see Annex 5 for the template);
5. Certification of the applicant's doctoral degree or senior professional title, representative research results and related supporting materials in the past three years [thesis, book or book chapters, patents, high-level talent certificate, award certificates, etc.];
6. The employment contract of the applicants;
7. Shenzhen social insurance certificate of not less than half of the project members for at least recent six months（till January 2021） (for foreigners who do not have social insurance in Shenzhen, please provide sufficient proof to support the full-time employment status of the applicant);
8. Supporting documents of research facilities including labs and equipment list related to the project(see Annex 6);
1. If it is a joint application, a collaboration agreement (with the official stamps of both parties and the signatures of the person-in-charge of both parties) should be provided;
10. If an enterprise is involved, a letter of commitment for self-raised funds should be provided;
11. Certification or approval by corresponding Ethics committee (for biomedical research projects involving animals or human subjects). Please contact RAO for detailed information if needed.

The above documents must be submitted electronically through the SZSTI’s online system and the copy shall be uploaded with the official seal of the University.

6. Deadline

Proposals must be submitted electronically through the SZSTI’s online system (https://sticapply.sz.gov.cn/) before 5 p.m. on March 8, 2021 , RAO will review it in due time. There is no need to submit hard copies at this stage.

Contact: Xu Yaqing (xuyaqing@cuhk.edu.cn)  23515209