1.Prelude

1.1 Introduction 

1.1.1 This policy is made according toClause6.1 of theSupport Measures for Scientific Research, Innovation and Startups in the Shenzhen Park of Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation ZoneandClause47 of the Notice of the Party Committee and People’s Government of Futian District, Shenzhen City, on Several Measures for Further Implementing the Futian Talent Pool Program(Fu Fa [2019] No.4). 

1.1.2 A special fund shall be raised to provide support and basic guarantee for young scientific researchers conducting academic activities in Shenzhen Park. The funds could be used to cover costs of equipment, materials, tests, assessments and processing, travels, conferences, as well as expenses in publishing/literature/information/intellectual property affairs, etc. Each project shall be subject to a financial support floor of RMB1 million and a ceiling of RMB5 million for a period of no more than three (3) years.  

1.1.3 In addition to this special program, young researchers can apply for other supporting programs of the Shenzhen Park at the same time.

1.1.4 TheseApplicationGuidelines shall be read together with the application forms. Unless otherwise indicated, the words and phrases used in theseApplicationGuidelines shall have the same meaning as those contained in the application forms. 

2.Conditions for Application

2.1 Researchers who meet all of the following conditions can apply to the Human Resources Bureau of Futian District for special funding support:  

(a)That they have signed employment contracts with research organizations, R&D enterprises or research outcome commercialization/incubation platforms in the Shenzhen Park to do research work for the latter for a period of more than one (1) year; 

(b)That they have undertaken research projects for the Shenzhen Park with the budget for such projects amounting to RMB300 million at the minimum; 

(c)That they are young researchers who are full-time doctoral degree holders or post-doctoral researchers aged40or below at the time of application and are among the top10 core members of their research teams. (The certificates of full-time doctoral degrees, the certificates of education and the verification reports for such certificates of doctoral researchers or the certificates of post-doctoral researchers to be checked, and their copies to be collected).

3.Support Measures

3.1 The special funding can be used to cover: 

(a) Traveling expenses; 

(b) Conference attending or hosting expenses; or 

(c)Publication/literature/information/intellectual property clerical expenses. 

3.2 Each research team shall be given a maximum support of RMB1 million, irrespective of the RMB1 million floor provision. 

3.3 The special funding shall be disbursed in its entirety to the applicant in the first place and then settled at the end of the support period. The period of support is three (3) years at the maximum and the support shall be settled once a year during that period. Expenses uncovered by the funding shall be borne by the applicant.

4.Application Procedures

4.1 Application methods 

4.1.1 The applicants shall submit the following documents through the research organization it is affiliated with to the Human Resources Bureau of Futian District, Shenzhen City: 

(a) ApplicationForm for the Young Scientists Fostering Programin the Shenzhen Park of Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone.

(b) Effective ID certificates of the applicants and employment (appointment) contracts signed with the employers by the applicants (originals to be checked and copies to be affixed with the official seals of the employers).

(c) Certificates of full-time doctoral degrees, certificates of education and verification reports for such certificates of the doctoral applicants or the certificates of post-doctoral researchers for post-doctoral applicants (originals to be checked and copies to be collected).

(d) Materials proving the research projects undertaken by the applicants, including project approval documents and project budgets (originals to be checked and copies to be collected).

(e) Copies of the bank cards to receive the subsidy, indicating the bank branches, the account numbers manually filled, the signatures and fingerprints of the applicants themselves. 

4.2 Preliminary examination

4.2.1 The Management Authorityshall be responsible to preliminarily check and confirm the fact that the applicants are actually at the service of research projects in the Shenzhen Park.

4.3 Examination and approval 

4.3.1 The Human Resources Bureau of Futian District shall formally examine the applications and ask the applicants to make up for insufficient materials by offering them a list of all materials to be submitted or reject application materials failing to comply with policy provisions with a note explaining the cause of such rejection.  

4.4 Notification

4.4.1 Applications approved shall be notified to the public through the official website of Futian District Government for a period of five (5) working days. If an application is opposed and found through investigations ineligible for the subsidy, the application shall be returned with a note explaining the cause of such rejection.  

4.5 Disbursement 

4.5.1 The Human Resources Bureau of Futian District shall disburse the supporting funds to projects finally approved. 

5.Others

5.1 Subject to the restriction of annual fiscal budgets, the standards of support under this program may be adjusted in due course. 

5.2 The heads of research teams are responsible for guiding and supervising the expenditure of the supporting funds. Relevant supervisory departments shall submit audit reports certified by professional third-party organizations in conducting ex post supervision or spot check.  

5.3 The applicants and the organizations they are affiliated with are responsible for authenticity and accuracy of the application materials. If an applicant is found to have falsified such materials, the applicant will be deprived of the eligibility to apply for the support for the current year and a subsequent period of five (5) years. For an applicant who has already been given the support, the competent administrative department shall cancel the treatment for the applicant as a talent and recover the funds disbursed and the interest accrued. If the applicant refuses to return the funds, he/she will be put on the list ofdishonest people and even referred to the judicial organs if he/she is suspected of having committed crimes. 

5.4 These guidelines shall be effective as of December11,2020, for a period of one (1) year.

5.5 The Human Resources Bureau of Futian Districtshall be responsible to interpret these guidelines. All queries shall be directed to the Talent Work Bureau (829-701-53) or Human Resources Bureau (829-185-37) of Futian District.