Guidance Notes

This set of Guidance Notes provides information on grant application, project execution and report submission.

1. Eligibility

All regular full-time academic and teaching staff members including lecturers, teaching fellows and instructors are eligible to apply Teaching Development Grant (TDG).
All regular full-time academic and teaching staff members including lecturers, teaching fellows and instructors joining the University within the past 24 months, i.e., in Semester A 2022-23 (1 September 2022) and thereafter, are eligible to apply Teaching Start-up Grant (TSG), except those have received and TDG or TSG in the previous calls for proposals.
All applicants, in their role as Project Investigator (PI) for the project proposal, shall submit one TDG or TSG application in each Call for Proposals.
PI shall have only one on-going project at any time. Colleagues with an on-going project are not eligible to have a new application.
Each colleague can have a maximum of two approved projects within a span of four academic years.

2. Funding and Duration

TDG: The funding ceiling is HK$240,000 for each project and the duration of an individual project is up to 18 months.
- Projects involving international or overseas collaboration may request up to HK$270,000 for each project; and the project duration is up to 2 years.
- Projects involving the adoption of Virtual Teaching and Learning (VTL) element or harnessing Innovative and Breakthrough Technologies for Teaching Development may request an additional HK$50,000 with strong justifications. A technical review will be performed on the feasibility.
TSG: The funding ceiling is HK$120,000 for each project and the duration of an individual project is up to 18 months.
- Projects involving the adoption of VTL element or harnessing Innovative and Breakthrough Technologies for Teaching Development may request an additional HK$50,000 with strong justifications. A technical review will be performed on the feasibility.

3. Application Procedure

Call for proposals are made twice a year (Semester A and Semester B). Please use the appropriate application form to prepare a proposal with budget details, and submit it to (ted@cityu.edu.hk).
Applicants shall submit the project for a full Ethical Review and provide the application reference number in the application form. The set of the Ethical Review guidelines is available on the Research Grants and Contracts Office’s (RO) webpage.
Please download the TDG application form here.
Please download the TSG application form here.

4. Budgetary Guidelines

Funding is fixed for the duration of the project. A detailed budget and justifications for all items of the project should be spelled out in the proposal.
TDG funds shall not be used to support project initiatives beyond UGC-funded undergraduate degree programmes.
TDG funds should not be used to purchase personal electronic appliances, e.g., smart phones, digital cameras, iPads, etc. These items are not normally permitted.
TDG funds shall not be used to provide monetary incentives to students for participation in the projects.
PIs have the responsibility to monitor project expenses within the approved budget and in accordance with the University’s staffing and financial procedures determined by HRO and FO. Please refer to the FO’s “Financial Policies and Procedures Manual” on financial matters. The Manual is available in Departmental Offices and the electronic version is on the FO website (https://www.cityu.edu.hk/fo/stafflan/htm/fppm_fo.htm). Also, PIs should refer to the Human Resources Office’s (HRO) webpage for recruitment details (e.g., appointment procedures, pay scale, qualification requirements, etc.).
More information about the TDG’s specific budgetary restriction is available here.

5. Evaluation on proposals

All TDG and TSG proposals will be subjected to a rigorous evaluation involving both internal and external reviewers.
The funding decision for the TDG and TSG will be made independently.

6. Responsibilities of PIs

managing the project within the funds allocated and in accordance with the University’s financial and staffing procedures;
reporting to the TDG Approval Panel any changes to the project or difficulties encountered that may affect the progress via TED;
completing the project within the approved time-scale; and
submitting the final report on completion of the project within one month after the project completion.

The failure to submit the final report will result in the ineligibility to apply for future teaching grants.

7. Funding and Financial Responsibility

PIs are expected to operate within the approved budget allocation.
PIs shall refer to the financial statement posted on AIMS, which provides on-line financial information on their projects in the Finance Office Oracle System. It is primarily the responsibility of the PIs to keep track of the expenditures and monitor the spending carefully.
The TDG Approval Panel reserves the right to withdraw the funding and/or bar the PI from internal grant application in cases the grant recipient fails to fulfil their responsibility as PI or fails to comply with the grant conditions, including but not limited to:
(i) failure to submit the Ethical Review approval documents to TED;
(ii) failure to commit project funds 12 months after the commencement date of the project;
(iii) failure to submit final report within one month after the project completion.
PIs shall not transfer the TDG budget to other CityUHK or external project accounts.
PIs shall manage the project in accordance with the University’s financial and staffing procedures.

8. Shared Works

Investigators who employ research support staff or collaborate with others, including research students, for their projects are reminded of the need to recognize and acknowledge contributions by such individuals whenever and wherever the project is promulgated. CityUHK has a responsibility to ensure that the learning and teaching project does not lead to conflict over the “ownership” of a piece of work.

9. Acknowledgement

All publications arising from the funded project should contain an acknowledgement of the financial support given by the University Grants Committee’s Teaching Development Grant/ Teaching Start-up Grant, quoting the relevant project number whenever possible. The following format of acknowledgement should be used:“The work described in this paper was fully/substantially/partially supported by the University Grants Committee’s Teaching Development Grant/ Teaching Start-up Grant (Project No. xxxxxxx)”.

10. Intellectual Property Rights

The UGC does not claim copyright or other intellectual property right of the TDG project deliverables. PIs are required to have a suitable acknowledgement of the TDG funding in any publication/publicity in relation to the TDG projects.

11. Grant Project Change Request Form

If changes are required for a funded project, please request a Grant Project Change Request Form from TED (Mr. Raymond Chan, Email: wmc.raymond@cityu.edu.hk, tel: x6740). Please be aware that such requests are typically not approved unless there are exceptional circumstances supported by strong justifications.

12. Final Report Submission

Please send the completed final report to TED via email (Word) and the internal mail (Hard copy).