2025 NSFC-RGC (Hong Kong) Joint Research Program – Key Program

2025 NSFC-RGC (Hong Kong) Joint Research Program – Key Program
2025年度国家自然科学基金委员会与香港研究资助局 联合科研资助基金合作研究 - 重点项目

Dec. 4, 2024

Official Announcement in Chinese

Sponsor: 
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC)

Funding Details:

• Project goals: This project focuses on supporting mainland and Hong Kong scientists and technicians to carry out in-depth, systematic and innovative research on research directions or discipline growth points with good foundations, promote discipline development, and promote breakthroughs in several important fields or scientific frontiers. The project embodies the principles of limited goals, limited scale, and prominent focus, attaches importance to interdisciplinary studies, and actively carries out substantive cooperation.
• Funding areas: This project supports research in the field of natural sciences jointly proposed by mainland and Hong Kong scientists and technicians, with key funding areas including information science, biological science, new materials science, marine and environmental science, medical science, and management science.
• Application code: Applicants should select the application code of the corresponding discipline based on the research content.
• Funding plan: About 10 projects are going to receive funding in 2025. Each project will receive no more than 3,000,000 RMB.
• Funding period: The funding period is 4 years, and the research period in the application form should be filled in as from January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2029.
• Application requirements:
  • Applicants from the mainland and Hong Kong shall submit project applications to the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Research Grants Council respectively. The titles of applicants and participants in the application forms of both sides must be consistent.
  • The number of collaborative institutions in the mainland shall not exceed 2.
  • Project applications should reflect strong cooperation and complementary advantages.

Applicant Eligibility:

• Applicants must be a senior professional title holder (i.e., Tenure-track Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Full Professor), and must be leading or had led a three-year or above termed NSFC funded program.
• An applicant who is leading an international (regional) cooperative research project may not apply for this project as an applicant.
• Scientific and technical personnel employed by supporting institutions shall not apply for or participate in the application of projects in both domestic and overseas identities at the same time:
  • The person, who is either in charge of the overseas and Hong Kong and Macao scholars cooperative research fund project, or the collaborator of the international (regional) cooperative research project shall not apply for or participate in the application of this project as an applicant before the end of the project funding period.
  • The PI and participants with domestic identities shall not be the overseas collaborators or overseas participants of this project before the end of the project funding period.
• Scientific and technical personnel employed by universities and scientific research institutions in Hong Kong shall not apply for this project through supporting institutions in the mainland.
• Scientific and technical personnel of supporting institutions founded (co-founded) by universities and scientific research institutions in Hong Kong in the mainland shall not apply for this project in cooperation with the scientific and technical personnel of the founding (co-founding) institutions.
• Applicants can only apply for one international (regional) cooperative research project in the same year.
• The project is counted as one of the two projects in total applied or led by the same PI.

Application:
Applicants should submit their applications online.

Please contact shanghai.researchgrants@nyu.edu for more details.

Important Dates: