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IDS Research Seed Funds (IDS-RSF) 2025

Guidelines for Application

For administration purpose, this research fund is overseen by the Steering Committee of the HKU Musketeers Foundation Institute of Data Science (HKU IDS), or its delegated authority e.g. a SubCommittee designated by the HKU IDS. The Steering Committee reserves the right not to provide financial support or to provide only partial funding for a project, and will not entertain any appeals against the funding decisions.

In this year’s IDS-RSF exercise, HKU IDS scholars will be eligible applicants as Principal Investigators, while they are encouraged to work with collaborator(s) other Departments. IDS members as collaborators will be given priority for consideration. The following are the general regulations governing the IDS Research Seed Funds administered by the HKU IDS.

Usage on approved funding

  1. Successful Principal Investigators (PIs) of the projects will receive from the Committee Secretary or Administrative Authority a notification of award detailing the duration of the awarded project, awarded amount, special conditions (if any), and the account code for the fund.

  2. The PI is held accountable and responsible for the completion and implementation of the project, and must ensure that the necessary ethics and safety approvals, where applicable, have been obtained before commencement of the project. In case the awarded funding is reduced, the PI will be invited to submit a revised budget to adjust and re-allocate budget items. By default, the PI shall discuss with his/her collaborators on the sharing of the funding and notify HKUIDS of the arrangement before the commencement of the project.

  3. In general, the project budgets are categorized and monitored under the following sub-heads:

    1. Staff Cost – covering salaries of research support staff such as Research Assistants (up to Senior Research Assistants) and Post-doctoral Fellows. Requests for teaching relief will be supported subject to justifications;

    2. Equipment – supporting essential equipment for research that will be used in the proposed project. PIs with genuine needs to purchase special items (such as specific software or apps) will have to provide strong and sound justifications for the approval of the HKU IDS;

    3. General Expenses – covering consumables, excluding stationery, journal subscription fee and professional membership fee (unless with special approval); and

Budget virement and administration

  1. If the awarded PI is a co-hosted HKU IDS scholar from another department, the funding will be injected into a newly opened IDS-RSF sub-account under the PI’s name, which will be hosted at the HKU IDS’ account.

  2. Approved funding should be spent generally in line with the budget items as stated in the original proposal. For awarded projects, PIs do not need to seek approvalfor virement between staff cost, equipment, and general expenses, unless there are changes involving a substantial increase of overseas travelling (Note 1) or a new budget sub-head not covered in the original proposal. Requests for exceptional approval for increasing overseas travelling budget or new sub-head(s) will only be considered under exceptional circumstances with full and sound justification provided.

  3. PIs must follow the University’s prescribed ordering, tendering and appointment procedures for all the items of expenditure as specified in the Departmental Financial Administration (DFA) which is available on the homepage of the Finance and Enterprises Office (FEO).

  4. Equipment and other items purchased with funds from the IDS-RSF shall remain the property of the HKU IDS. The HKU IDS reserves the right to re-deploy the equipment on completion of the project. These items will be entered on the equipment inventory of the HKU IDS.

  5. All research staff supported by the IDS-RSF are regarded as staff affiliated with the HKU IDS who are obliged to update their research profiles at the HKU IDS and acknowledge the HKU IDS in any report, presentation, publication, activities, or other output.

  6. PIs will not normally be allowed extensions of the project beyond 6 months of the project completion date specified in the award letter. Request for extension should be made 3 months before the project completion date. Expenses beyond the project completion date will not be allowed and remaining fund will be clawed back to the HKU IDS.

Note 1: exceeding 50% of the funding ceiling of the IDS Research Seed Funds or equivalent.

Assessment of IDS-RSF applications

    1. For Principal Investigators (PIs) who leave the University / are no longer affiliated to the HKU IDS before the completion of the project, the project account will be automatically lapsed.
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    2. A well justified research project with ingenuity and strong collaborative nature. The proposal should consist of both technical justification and a budgetary justification on how the fund will be spent.
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    3. The expected deliverables of the submissions should include the followings:
      1. submission of an application for basic research support from an external funding body (e.g. GRF from the RGC, HMRF from the FHB); and
      2. production of high quality and impactful research output(s) (e.g. submission to at least one reputable journal and/or conference in the field); and/or
      3. organization of knowledge exchange activities, including but not limited to conferences, workshops, talks, and lectures, with research or scholarly impact or events that help promote both local and international visibility of the HKU IDS in the field of data science.
       
    4. PIs must submit both a 1-page interim annual report for progress update twelve months after the project commencement date, and a final report on the research project based on the given template within three months from the completion date. PIs must provide supporting documents to show the submission of funding applications to an external funding body by using the research outputs of the IDS-RSF before the project completion date. PIs failing to submit the reports will be taken into account during the assessment when applying for a new funding from the HKU IDS in future.
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    5. PIs and/or Co-Is are required to participate in the annual sharing of project progress.
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    6. HKU IDS reserves the right to use and/or modify information / findings of the project deliverables without prior notice.