The National Natural Science Foundation of China has just announced that it will accept applications for the Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau) starting March 21, 2019.   This Fund is offered for the first time exclusively for young Hong Kong and Macau scholars.

Application guidelines <Click here>.  Please read carefully to ensure compliance.

Submission of Proposals

Proposals must be submitted via the NSFC’s online system <click here>.  If you already have an existing NSFC account, you can continue to use it for this application.  For new applicants, please email MRPO at mrpo@hku.hk to create an user account for you.

Funding size: RMB 1.3M for 3 years.

Eligibility

l Full-time staff in HKU regardless of nationality;

l Assistant Professor / Research Assistant Professor or above;

l Able to work in HKU for no less than 9 months per year; and

l Under the age of 38 (for male, born on or after January 1, 1981) or 40 (for female, born on or after January 1, 1979) by January 1 of 2019.

There are no restrictions to the number of ongoing NSFC or NSFC/RGC projects one is holding via Hong Kong, SIRI or ZIRI to apply for this Fund.

The following are not eligible:

l Postdoctoral Fellows and Postgraduate students

l Former awardees of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (國家杰出青年科學基金) or the Excellent Young Scientists Fund (優秀青年科學基金).

Internal application deadline

April 8, 2019 (Monday).

Enquiries

Ms Allie Ho, Tel: 3917 1550, Email: mrpo@hku.hk