Notification of the application of Shenzhen Fundamental Research (Key Program)2024
The Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission has initiated the application for Key Program Topics of Shenzhen Fundamental Research 2024
I. Collection Fields
Solicit major and key scientific issues and frontier scientific issues in “20+8” field in Shenzhen’s strategic emerging industries and future industries (Annex 1)
Focusing on mathematical science and interdisciplinary frontiers, new materials and chemistry, synthetic biology, earth and marine science, new generation information and computing technology, bio-medicine and life health, carbon neutrality and environmental ecology, high-end advanced manufacturing basic technology, biological breeding and modern agriculture, urban governance and public safety, quantum science and engineering, brain science and brain-inspired research and other fields or subject directions.
II. Funding Amount and Duration
Maximum RMB 2 million per project for 3 years.
III. Eligibility
a. The project leader shall be a full-time staff member of the university and the actual person in charge of the applied fundamental research project. The leader shall have the experience of undertaking fundamental research subjects and hold senior professional and technical positions (titles).
b. The post-doctoral researchers at the station and those pursuing graduate degrees are not allowed to be project leaders.
c. The main project team shall have a maximum of 5 main members (including the project leader), who shall be full-time employees of our university, at least three of the first five members of the project team should be researchers from CUHKSZ; any members included in the project team but not employed from our university will be deemed as a cooperating unit.
d. More than 50% of the entire project team members (should be full-time staff, excluding students in training) should be full-time employees of our university, and must have purchased social insurance in Shenzhen for more than one year (until October 2024).
e. The number of collaborative partner is limited to 1 only in Shenzhen;
f. 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);
IV Application Process
1. Application 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. Please include your name, 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 :
a. Project feasibility report,
b. Intellectual property compliance statement, The letter of integrity signed by the project leader and the university &廉潔告知書(see Annex 5-7 for the template);
c. Senior professional and technical positions (titles) certificate（see annex 9）, 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.];
d. The employment contract of the applicants;
e. Copies of Shenzhen social insurance payment certificates for more than one year for personnel of among the project team members (as of October 2024). (for foreigners who do not have social insurance in Shenzhen, please provide sufficient proof to support the full-time employment status of the applicant);
f. 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;
g. If an enterprise is involved, a letter of commitment for self-raised funds should be provided;
h. Ethics certificate (involving laboratory animals, animal experiments, and human biomedical research).
V. Points to note
a. It is recommended to apply for maximum 2,000,000 yuan in funding, with a research period of 3 years, from Jan 1, 2025 to Dec 31, 2027.
b. The expected goal of the application form should be combined with the actual situation of the project to avoid false height, so as to avoid failure to pass the project acceptance on time.
c. The funds are implemented on a lump sum basis. No more detailed expense item budgets are prepared. Instead, management systems are formulated based on the negative list, and daily management is responsible.
d. One applicant can only apply for one SZSTI fundamental research project 2024， including general program, key program。
e. 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.
f. Project leaders of key program of Shenzhen basic research projects in 2023 are not allowed to apply.
g. 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 Project feasibility report. One application can only be submitted once by the applicant. Multiple and repeated submission is strictly prohibited.
h. 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.
i. The applicant unit (including the cooperative unit), the applicant and the main members of the project team are not included in the list of abnormal scientific and technological integrity and the list of overdue applications for acceptance; the project applicant and the main members of the project team are not included in the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee and will not pass the acceptance. The project applicant does not have the situation that the financial funds have not been returned within the specified time limit.
j. Applicants must clearly specify the annual funding usage ratio in “10. Annual Research Plan” of the application form.
VI. Deadline
a. The attached materials 5, 6 and7 shall be sealed, and all colleges shall collect them uniformly before Nov. 25, 2024, send them to the RAO for sealing, and then return them to the applicant to upload the system;
b. Please send relevant ethics applications to the committees before November 25, 2024;
c. The deadline for online submission of applications and attachments is before 12:00 noon on Nov. 27, 2024;
d. The signature and seal page of the paper version of the project application form should be sealed. Please all colleges should collect it before 5p.m. on Nov. 28, 2024, send it to the RAO office for sealing, and then return it to the project leader for uploading into the system.
Contact: Xu Yaqing (xuyaqing@cuhk.edu.cn) 23515209
