The full grant proposal must be presented in both Chinese and English for convenience of peer review in and outside China. All applicants must therefore be fully aware that the proposals will be read by scientists in the same or similar fields. There is no formal application form, but the proposal is expected to cover at least the following aspects:

• A very brief statement of objectives of the study;
• Background of the study and scientific contents;
• The methodology and a research schedule (including starting date and duration). Applicants should note that a number of assessors are not willing to review applications which do not give methodological details.
• If the outcome of the study is expected to be of some applied or industrial significance, please explain;
• Essential bibliography notes (only) relevant to the study;
• A brief curriculum vitae of each of the members of the research group, on no more than one side of A-4 for each, to include mainly: the month and year of birth, nationality, personal webpage if available, brief career history with only full-time appointments (with dates); research grants but only those received in the past three years and presently held (with dates). Full publication lists are not welcomed, but the principal investigators may identify the titles of the FIVE items (only) which they consider to be most important to represent achievements of his/her career.
• Budget Statement in the form shown in the appendix: Itemised breakdown required, e.g. consumables, research personnel, equipment, scientific activities or programs etc., with estimated costs, year by year, at current prices, and tabulated to show the place of expected location of disbursements of each item (i.e. Chinese mainland or Hong Kong). This part must be very clear as it must include all costs including those items and expenses that will eventually be covered by the 20% of the total budget of the project to be contributed by the university and the relevant CAS institute if the application is successful. For practical purposes, applicants may wish to confine their budget total to around HK$3.75 million [i.e. including HK$3 million (80%) from the Foundation plus HK$750,000 (20%) from both institutions.]  The budget should show separate figures for salary in respect of each research post, and should identify the standard on which the salary is calculated.

Three hard copies of each full grant proposal should be presented. Additionally, please send a soft copy of the proposal to info@croucher.org.hk.

Other than those joint laboratories which are already accredited by CAS, each full grant proposal must be accompanied by an Indication of Intention form to be completed by both the Hong Kong university and the CAS Research Institute to establish, in the longer term a Joint Laboratory approved by CAS. The Indication of Intention form, which must be signed by both Principal Investigators, should be on a separate sheet.

Each proposal should carry an endorsement by an authorised senior officer in the institution concerned (the CAS institute in the case of the mainland partner and the university in the case of the Hong Kong partner) who will be held responsible to commit the institution to relevant financial responsibilities, including the confirmation to make an immediate contribution, upon offer, equivalent to HK$750,000 of the amount of the grant earmarked for their side of the proposed collaboration.

The applicants may nominate two academic referees for the project if so wished, on the understanding that the selection panel has no obligation to call on the services of the persons so nominated.

The grants for this scheme originate from a private source, and before completion of application formalities, applicants should be prepared to accept that the funder does not offer any critique for proposals whatever the outcome.