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Build up SCE’s Research Capability

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Background

 

Though the School is positioned as a teaching institution, it encourages academic/teaching staff to pursue research to benefit society and enhance learning and teaching. It aims to build up research capability and develop research-informed teaching by focusing on the strategic research areas of "Environment and Health", "Education and Teaching & Learning" and "Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence". It has diverse research achievements across a wide range of disciplines, with funding awarded from various sources, such as the Research Grants Council (RGC) and the Education Bureau. In the coming years, SCE would put more resources on strengthening its research infrastructure and capability.

 

SCE Strategic Research Areas

 

To follow up with the strategic direction of SCE on “Building up Research Capability”, the School has identified three strategic research areas (see below) and the associated actions/strategies to promote and develop the strategic research areas:

 

  • 1. Environment and Health

    Sub-themes:

    1. Mental Health
    2. Health and Environment/recreation
    3. Drug/medical/biological science

     

  • 2. Education, Teaching and Learning

    Sub-themes:

    1. Early Childhood Education
    2. Teaching and Learning
    3. IT in Education

     

  • 3. Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

 

 

The associated actions/strategies to promote and develop the strategic research areas are as follows:

 

  • 1. Formation of Research Groups

    Research Groups will be formed in accordance to colleagues’ research interests/ expertise and respective strategic research areas, to promote exchanges, cultivate research initiatives/ projects, and develop the inter- and cross-disciplinary collaborations on research.

     

  • 2. Priority of Grants Applications

    Priority will be given to proposals/ applications with research areas that align with at least one of the SCE’s strategic research areas for the following internal/ external grants schemes/opportunities:

    1. SCE Seed Grant Funding Scheme:

      • According to the respective Guidelines for Application of the Scheme, “Alignment with the SCE’s strategic research areas” was set as one of the selection criteria.
    2. External funding/grant opportunities which have quota system and/or requirement to indicate the order of priority of proposals.
    3. Competitive Research Funding Schemes for the Local Self-financing Degree Sector by the Research Grants Council (RGC).

    4. Research Matching Grant Scheme (RMGS):

      • Donations related to any one of the strategic research areas would be given the priority to apply for RMGS in view of its first-come-first-served basis.

     

  • 3. Priority of Infrastructure Development

    Priority will be given to the development/ sustainability of relevant infrastructures/ laboratories within SCE (e.g. Shek Mun campus, SCE Tower etc.) related to the strategic research areas in near future.

 

More Info: MEMO on the Strategic Research Areas

Dean’s Award (Research Excellence)

In the spirit of the SCE strategic direction of “Building up research capacity”, the School encourages academic/ teaching staff to actively engage in research-related activities by launching the Dean’s Award (Research Excellence), commencing in AY 2020/21. To recognise research performance/ engagement of SCE academic/ teaching staff, the Award is established and presented annually, on both an individual and a group basis.

 

  • a) Eligibility

    To be eligible for receiving the award, regardless of category, the teaching staff must be full-time SCE teaching/ academic staff having served SCE for at least 2 years and with at least a one-year renewable contract at the time the award is granted. Those staff who have served SCE for at least 2 years but are incidentally under appointment review in the year of the award are also eligible. The award recipients must also be full-time teaching staff of the School by the time the award presentation ceremony is held.

     

  • b) Award

    A maximum of one award may be selected each year on a competitive basis for each of the two categories, i.e. Individual, and Group. Award recipients will be recognised at the award presentation ceremony.

     

    Category Award
    Individual
    • Certificate of Research Excellence;
    • Cash Award at the amount of $2,000; and
    • The recipient will be granted with teaching relief of 1 course for an academic year, if he/she does not have has teaching relief at that point of time.
    Group
    • Certificate of Research Excellence for each team member;
    • Cash Award at the amount of $4,000 for the whole team (to be shared equally among team members); and
    • The team leader of group award recipient will be granted with teaching relief of 1 course for an academic year, if he/she does not have teaching relief at that point of time. 

     

  • c) The Assessment Criteria to be used in judging the nominees

    • Quality and impact of the scholarly work (e.g. Research publications, Conference presentations/ papers)
    • Recognition in the field as evidenced by invitations to be keynote speakers in international conferences, and/or member of the editorial board for refereed journal publications.
    • Successful award of major external research grant or consistent and active engagement in consultancy projects.

 

More Info for Application AY2022/23: MEMO on the Dean’s Award (Research Excellence)

 

Application Form for AY2022/23: Word

 

Application Deadline for AY2022/23: 5pm, 5 December, 2022 (Monday).

 

NEW Initiatives for the strategic direction of SCE on “Building up Research Capability”

To follow up with the strategic direction of SCE on “Building up Research Capability”, in addition to the previously announced “Strategic Research Areas” and “Dean’s Award (Research Excellence)”, we are pleased to announce that the School has approved the following NEW initiatives to encourage academic/teaching staff to engage in research-related activities, and to promote research culture and quality:

 

A) Incentive measures to encourage colleagues to conduct research

 

  • 1. The employment of relief teacher to release PI/ Co-PI’s time for research during post-funding periods (refers to external grant/ funding only)

    • The individual recipient of external grant/ award with the amount of $300,000 or above, will be granted with teaching relief of 1 course for an academic year, with a max. of 3 consecutive academic years subject to the approval of the Research Management Committee (RMC).
    • E.g. QESS/ QEF/ ECF/ HMRF funding/ grants, excluded funding which allows teaching relief of the PI.
    • PIs/ Co-PIs can apply for teaching relief (PIs/ Co-PIs may apply for the relief in different years during the project period with justifications on work
      arrangements).

     

  • 2. Counting the research award/ funding towards annual performance

    To recognise academic/ teaching staff who secured/awarded (i) external grant/ fund/donation for research project, or (ii) research-related external award, for PI(s) who:

     

    1. successfully secured/ be awarded an externally funded research-related funding/ grant/ donation of HK$100,000 or above; or
    2. had the outstanding progress of a research project/ had the outstanding research deliverables (e.g. impactful journal papers); or
    3. be awarded a research-related award from a professional body or a recognised organisation

     

    would generally be considered “Excellent”* in Scholarly work during the relevant academic year. (*As referred to the existing rating of annual performance)

     

  • 3. Continuation of Seed Grant Funding (SGF) Scheme for 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25s

     

    1. The SGF Scheme was established in December 2018 to provide competitive initial start-up funding for SCE colleagues to carry out some preliminary/ exploratory research and investigation to prepare for external grant application. The Scheme was approved by the SCE-EC to carry out for 3 years (i.e. 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21).
    2. In order to further encourage staff’s engagement in research-related activities, the SCE-EC approved the continuation of SGF for 4 years (i.e. 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25).

 

B) Initiatives to promote research culture and quality

 

The following initiatives were approved to promote research culture and quality for building up of SCE’s Research Capability:

 

  Category Award
a) Enhance administrative support
  1. To streamline the internal administrative procedures on research to encourage more participation in research-related activities.
b) Enhance research quality
  1. To provide professional English editing services by engaging external professionals from respective industries.
  2. To regularise the RMO workshops on proposal writing/ grant application/ statistics as training sessions for colleagues to enhance their skills.
  3. To launch the Research Design Advisory Scheme in AY 2021/22.
c) Promote research culture
  1. To organise a school-wide internal Research Symposium to engage SCE academic/ teaching staff and provide a platform for them to present papers as Professional Development opportunities.
  2. To regularly invite external renowned scholars to deliver talks/ exchange with SCE academic/ teaching staff on SCE’s strategic research areas, and to provide training, advise and mentor our faculty and co-develop research proposals and collaborate on projects.

 

The Research Management Office (RMO) is charged to coordinate the actions/strategies in promoting and developing the SCE Research Capability. Please feel free to contact Dr. Sam Lau at 3027/ samlau@hkbu.edu.hk , Ms. Janet Wong at 3149/ janetwtc@hkbu.edu.hk or Ms. Ada Chau at 3324/ adachau@hkbu.edu.hk of the RMO Office if you have any ideas on the strategic initiatives.

 

More info: MEMO on “NEW Initiatives for the strategic direction of SCE on “Building up Research Capability”