Lingnan University Digital Commons @ Lingnan University Annual Report on Research Activities to Research Grants Council Office of Research Support 1-1-2013 Annual report on research activities 2012-2013 Lingnan University (Hong Kong, China) Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.ln.edu.hk/research_annual_report Recommended Citation Lingnan University (2013). Annual report on research activities 2012-2013. Hong Kong: Lingnan University. Retrieved from http://commons.ln.edu.hk/research_annual_report/12 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Office of Research Support at Digital Commons @ Lingnan University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Annual Report on Research Activities to Research Grants Council by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Lingnan University. Annual Report on Research Activities 2012/13 Table of Contents ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents Report 1 Overview Report 2 List of Ongoing Research Projects in 2012-2013 Funded by Sources other than UGC / RGC Competitive Grants and Public Policy Research Funding Scheme (A) Ongoing Research Projects Funded by UGC’s Block Grant (B) Ongoing Research Projects Funded by RGC’s Direct Allocation (C) Ongoing Research Projects Funded by Non-UGC/RGC Sources Report 3 List of Research Output by Academic Staff in 2012-2013 (in PDF format) Explanatory Notes for Report 3 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Annual Report on Research Activities 2012/13 Report One – Overview ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Report 1: Overview Institutional Policy on Research Lingnan University is a distinct liberal arts university in Hong Kong with a strong research focus that complements its primary undergraduate teaching mission. We are committed to both quality teaching and excellence in research and find the complementarity of these two aspects of our mission to be beneficial to the University’s development. In the reporting period, the University has around 130 GRF/ECS eligible staff (13 Chair Professors, 23 Professors, 55 Associate Professors and 40 Assistant Professors). We have 72 research postgraduate students (25 PhD and 47 MPhil) and 50% of them are non-local (UGC average is 73%). At the university level, there are nine research centers/institutes and programs with seven focused research areas identified as per the Strategic Plan 2009-2016. The Office of Research Support (ORS) provides proactive services to academic staff and the Research Committee (RC) has come up with new incentive measures implemented from this reporting period to encourage staff to apply for external grants of the RGC. Developments in the Reporting Period In response to the change in research funding policy of the RGC, the RC has adopted some measures to support and encourage grant-funded research. These measures include: (a) granting teaching remission of 1 course per year for the duration of project to principal investigators (PIs) who won GRF/ECS and other competitive earmarked research grants of the RGC; (b) reserving the internal Direct Grant (DG) for application by PIs who had unsuccessful GRF/ECS grant applications scoring 3.0 or 3.5; and (c) increasing the share to department of project indirect/on-costs allocated to University by RGC. The teaching remission incentive scheme was implemented starting from this reporting period while the other two measures will be launched from 2013/14. Opportunity was also provided during the updating of the Strategic Plan 2009-2016 for a revisit of the strategy for the research area. Three directions: internationalizing research, heightening success rate of external grant applications and showcasing research excellence are stated in the Action Plan Updates to the Strategic Plan published in May 2013. Relationship between research policy and other institutional policies Research postgraduate training. In the education of research postgraduates, the University places high priority in providing quality support to students and gives funding annually to support research students to attend conferences. During the reporting period, the University has allocated funding which supported participation of research postgraduates in 27 conferences and resulting in 22 paper and 2 poster ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 Annual Report on Research Activities 2012/13 Report One – Overview ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ presentations. Integration of research postgraduates into the academic activities of the department is evidenced by their participation as presenters in departmental seminars, membership of research project teams and co-authorship in publications with staff (refer to Report 3). Staff development. Staff development policy has a direct impact on staffs’ research productivity. With this in mind, the University has pursued several measures to facilitate young faculty to perform research, to give space for staff to engage in uninterrupted periods of research and writing, and to recognize those who had excelled in their research endeavors. An Initial Research Activities Fund for Newly Recruited Assistant Professors provides ancillary funding for research-related activities without requiring the submission of a formal research proposal. In the reporting period, 5 newly appointed Assistant Professors were eligible to receive funding. A study/academic leave scheme of 6-12 months enables academic staff to be released from teaching and administrative duties to concentrate on research, study and writing full time. Eight such awards of half-term each were made in the reporting period for leaves to be taken between July 2013 and June 2014. The Academic Staff Review Committee (ASRC) which assesses staff performance has also instituted an annual evaluation of staff’s excellence in research publication where top performers may be given one course of teaching remission as a reward. Research Funding Organization of research funding The RC under the Senate is responsible for both policy formulation and oversight of research activities in the University. It recommends to the University the annual allocation for research budget and related funding schemes, decides on all internal funding allocations and monitors progress of research projects funded by various grants. To carry out its various functions, RC sets up three subcommittees for reviewing applications for conference grants, University Conference Fund, and ethical clearance for projects involving use of human subjects. Research and Postgraduate Studies Panels (RPSP) are constituted in each of the three faculties to undertake initial assessment of applications for internal research grants and make funding recommendations to the RC. As the University disburses two types of internal research grants – Direct Grant (DG) of up to $120,000 and Faculty Research Grant (FRG) of up to $30,000, distribution of FRG is decided by the RPSP while for DG, scoring of applications is undertaken by RPSP but funding decisions are made by the RC. RPSP members also play a role in commenting on GRF/ECS proposals before they are endorsed for submission to RGC. ORS provides full administrative support to RC and the RPSPs in the whole internal grant application review cycle as well as managing the grant award accounts to ensure ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2 Annual Report on Research Activities 2012/13 Report One – Overview ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ that funding guidelines and budgetary procedures are properly followed by principal investigators. Funding criteria Internal grant applications are assessed by a rigorous process of peer review which takes into account the need to be supportive and constructive but at the same time ensuring only sound project ideas with well-thought out plans can receive funding support. The criteria used in assessing applications are: academic merit, feasibility of completion within the proposed time-frame, budgetary appropriateness, and the track record of the investigator(s). The competitive nature attached to the process serves to acquaint new faculty with the rigor of peer review for grant proposals as they eventually have to submit proposals for peer-reviewed external grants. Usage and allocation of research funds In 2012/13, the RC has approved a total of HK$2,375,832 to support 24 DG projects. Faculty RPSPs approved a total of $405,286 to fund 16 smaller FRG projects across the 3 faculties. Another $1,473,838 was approved to support staff attendance in 126 overseas and 5 local conferences. In addition, two conferences to be hosted by Centre for Asian Pacific Studies and Department of Philosophy in Lingnan in 2013 were allocated a total of $230,000 from the University Conference Fund. The careful consideration given to these applications by the RC ensures that money is well spent on activities that can generate further productive gains, such as internal research grants acting as precursor for GRF applications and conference papers that directly contribute to the volume of research outputs. A listing of all the internal research grants