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Tactics Contributing to Successful Grant Applications and Recruitment of Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS) Students
The College of Science (CSCI) held the 2024 Grants Application Sharing Sessions: Success in HKPFS and on GRF/ECS on 28 Aug 2024.

To facilitate successful grant applications and recruitment of HKPFS students, the College of Science (CSCI) held the 2024 Grants Application Sharing Sessions: Success in HKPFS and on GRF/ECS on 28 Aug 2024. This sharing session is specially arranged for CSCI faculty members, showing our determination to enhance research development and pursue research excellence, particularly targeting at RGC-funded schemes. 

Professor Denver Li, Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Education) of CSCI and Associated Professor from the Department of Physics, was one of the speakers and the moderator.

Below is a strong line-up of the invited speakers from all our departments who generously shared their experience with fellow faculty members:

  • Professor Hongyan Sun, Professor from the Department of Chemistry, who has won 9 GRF/ECS, 1 CRF, and 4 NSFC since joining CityUHK in 2011.
  • Professor Pierre Nolin, Associate Professor from the Department of Mathematics, who has won 6 GRF/ECS and 1 NSFC since joining CityUHK in 2017.
  • Professor Maria Babak, Assistant Professor from the Department of Chemistry, who has won 1 GRF/ECS and recruited 5 HKPFS students since joining CityUHK in late 2020.


In particular, Professor Babak shared her successful experience in recruiting good HKPFS students, the evolving landscapes, and useful strategies for recruiting top PhD students. Insightful analysis of the selection criteria of College, University and RGC on HKPFS was also introduced.

All the other speakers revealed strategies and their personal tips for writing GRF/ECS grant applications. For example, how to choose a good topic for the GRF/ECS proposals, how to effectively choose keywords, how to benefit from collaborations, to prepare an effective application. It is anticipated that such sharing sessions will equip CSCI faculty members for the coming round of applications.

This is the first sharing session for 2024/25. Professor Li introduced the future arrangements and schedules for the upcoming sharing workshops, which will focus on collaborative research funds (CRF) and other large strategic funding schemes. Stay tuned!