In line with the University’s commitment to achieving excellence in research, the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) encourages its teaching staff to bid for various research grants, including the annual application for the General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS) of the Research Grants Council in Hong Kong. Various resources from the University and College are available to support all faculty members in the application process.

On Friday 6 October 2017, a sharing session on bidding for GRF/ECS funding was held for all CLASS faculty members. Close to a hundred teaching staff from across the CLASS departments participated in the sharing session. Professor Xiaowei ZANG, Dean of CLASS, opened the session and thanked the University for its support. Professor Alex JEN, the Provost, backed the event and gave an overview of securing research funding, the challenges that we face, and the resources with which the University provides its research staff.

CLASS also invited Professor CHEN Guanrong, Chair Professor of the Department of Electronic Engineering and a veteran of successful grant bidding, to share his insights on securing research grants. Three faculty members from the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Dr Chris CHAN, Dr Annis FUNG and Dr Nancy YU*, served as mentors in a sharing session chaired by Professor Samuel HO, Associate Provost (Institutional Initiatives). They each shared their experiences of grant applications over the past few years, and offered practical advice to their fellow researchers.

CLASS arranged two more Mentoring Sessions on 11 October and 13 October to continue to reach out to faculty members to support them in their grant applications.

*Dr Nancy Yu served as a speaker.