Home / Global Research / Funding/Fellowship Schemes / UQ-CUHK-Exeter Joint Fund 2022

header_banner6

 

ENSURE Grand Challenges Scheme – Initiator Grant

 

(For CUHK and University of Exeter faculty)

Deadline: Friday, 1 March 2024 (extended from 16 February 2024)

 

The CUHK-University of Exeter (Exeter) Joint Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Resilience (ENSURE) was established in 2018 to embark on large, impactful collaborations to tackle emerging issues related to global environmental change. The joint centre has so far supported five interdisciplinary projects covering the topics of global food security, coastal ecosystems, air pollution, climate change, and forest management.

 

Grand Challenge Scheme

A new round of funding to support collaborative research drawing from a wide range of expertise to address six Grand Challenges is now available. They are:

  • GC1. To conserve and promote biodiversity in sustainable ways, and to optimise societal benefits from genomic to ecosystem scale
  • GC2. To enhance monitoring and forecast capability of climate extremes in the developing world to help adaptation of regional economies
  • GC3. To promote, manage, and finance ecosystem-based solutions to climate change, and to enhance co-benefits with multiple SDGs
  • GC4. To build and finance efficient and sustainable energy systems
  • GC5. To ensure food and water security for vulnerable communities from local to regional scales
  • GC6. To facilitate and encourage behavioural changes to address food-water-energy nexus and climate change challenges

Grand Challenge projects will be directly engaged with policy, industry, and civil society stakeholders in order to effect meaningful change, and will be developed sustainably so as to continue to have tangible impact beyond the funded project period.

 

Initiator Grant

The Grand Challenge Scheme comprises two phases—Initiator and Main Grant. Applications are now invited to the Initiator Grant:

  • Up to 4 Initiator Projects will be supported with a maximum of GBP 15,000 (~HK$150,000) each for works to be carried out between March and July 2024.
  • Projects shall focus on addressing one or more of the six Grand Challenges.
  • The purpose of the Initiator Phase is to facilitate discussion, formation, and planning of projects that have the prospect of engaging substantial teams across disciplines in larger-scale impactful research.
  • Projects should focus on securing commitments for match funding from other external sources in any future costed extension through the Main Grant Phase [funding up to GBP 200,000 each (~HK$2m) for works to be delivered between August 2024 and August 2026].

 

Programme Guidelines and Forms

Applicants (CUHK staff log-in required) can access the programme guidelines and application form from the following links for more information:

 

Key Dates

  • Call opens: 12 January 2024
  • Call closes: 1 March 2024 (extended from 16 February 2024)
  • Award announcement: 23 February 2024

 

Application Enquiries