HomeGuidelines for the Academia Sinica Grand Challenge Program
Approved on February 24, 2021
Amended on January 18, 2024
Amended on January 18, 2024
- The Academia Sinica (AS) Grand Challenge Program (GCP) has been established to encourage researchers to pursue innovative solutions for critical problems in science and the humanities that have broad and lasting impact. These Guidelines have been established to promote this end.
- GCP Project Principal Investigators (PIs) must be AS full-time Research Fellows of any rank, or AS jointly-appointed Research Fellows of any rank with an AS full-time Research Fellow serving as a Project Co-PI.
- GCP projects may be classified into the following two categories according to the project period and stage:
- Grand Challenge Seed Projects: Funding is provided for one to two years to support exploratory projects with originality and development potential.
- Grand Challenge Research Projects: Funding is provided for five years to support highly developed projects with concrete ideas.
- GCP projects may be classified into the following three categories according to the project scale:
- Individual Research Projects
- Team Research Projects
- Institute/Research Center-based Team Research Projects
- To apply for a GCP project, the applicant should submit the following documents to AS:
- Research proposal
- Applicant’s curriculum vitae and list of recent publications
- AS has established review committees for each of its three Divisions: Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences, and Division of Humanities and Social Sciences. Committee members will consult reports by experts in relevant fields and hold review meetings. The final list for each Division will be approved during a joint meeting of all three committees.
- A Project Execution Agreement should be submitted prior to commencing a project. Project execution and evaluation should be processed in accordance with the Agreement.
- In cases where an AS Project PI (inclusive of Project Co-PI) or a non-AS project participant is found to be in violation of academic ethics or conflict of interest regulations, the “Code of Ethics for Academia Sinica Research Fellows and Research Specialists” will apply.
