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The following is issued on behalf of the University Grants Committee:
The Research Grants Council (RGC) announced today (January 23) the results of the Strategic Public Policy Research (SPPR) 2008/09 exercise.
In the 2008/09 exercise, the RGC received a total of 11 research project applications submitted by institutions funded by the University Grants Committee (UGC). After rigorous international peer-review, the RGC decided to fund the following two projects with a total amount of about $9 million:
Proposal Co-ordinating Name of Amount
Title Institution Principal Awarded
Investigator
A Benefit CityU Professor $4,992,639
-finding Sheung-tak
Intervention Cheng
for Family
Caregivers
of Persons
with
Alzheimer
Disease
Hong Kong HKUST Professor $3,960,000
Panel Study Xiaogang Wu
of Social
Dynamics
(HK-PSSD)
Details of these funded projects are posted on the RGC's website at
www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/result/result.htm .
Commenting on the scheme, the Chairman of the RGC, Professor Roland Chin, said, "This is the first time that we run the SPPR exercise. In contrast to the normal Public Policy Research Scheme run in the past three years, SPPR mainly aims at supporting longer-term public policy research projects and to focus research efforts on the specific areas indicated by the Central Policy Unit. The scheme has attracted high quality research proposals and encouraged inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration. We are confident that the results of the projects supported will make a substantial impact on policy matters in Hong Kong."
The Public Research Funding Scheme was set up in 2005 following the announcement of the then Chief Executive in his Policy Address. In the 2007/08 Policy Agenda, the Government decided to extend the PPR scheme for four more years (i.e. from 2008/09 ﷿ 2011/12) with an annual provision of $20 million. To support and promote longer-term public policy research projects, a new Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme is held once a year starting from 2008/09 in addition to the existing Public Policy Research Funding Scheme. In parallel, the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme is also run once a year starting from 2008/09 instead of twice a year as in the past three years.
Ends/Friday, January 23, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:01
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