261 'worthy' projects rejected for grants
More than 260 projects from tertiary institutes rated good enough for at least partial funding have been rejected by the Research Grants Council because of a lack of money.
The council announced yesterday that $423 million in research grants would be allocated to seven government-funded tertiary institutes for 1997-98. More than 70 per cent was for projects proposed by institutes on a competitive basis.
The rest would be direct allocation for small projects and a new initiative to encourage group research among institutes.
Council chairman Professor Ko Ping-keung said that of the 1,368 proposals received the council was able to support 585 fully or partially. He said an extra $25 million was being sought from the University Grants Committee to cope with the 32 per cent rise in applications.
Professor Ko said 261 proposals were rejected although they were of sufficient quality to get partial funding. 'The council was unable to support them because of a lack of funds.' The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology received the biggest share. It will have more than $83.7 million to work on 147 projects.
The University of Hong Kong will get $83.6 million, the Chinese University $72.3 million, City University $43.1 million, Polytechnic University $25.6 million, the Baptist University $14.7 million, and Lingnan College $1.1 million.
