In 2020, to further future research work and achieve the three major goals of performing world-class research, fulfilling crucial social responsibilities, and recruiting and cultivating outstanding talents, Academia Sinica (AS) reorganized its granting programs. As part of this process, AS invited researchers of different ranks to form a “research project planning group,” which reformulated AS’s competitive academic research granting programs. The goal was to implement systematic processes to ensure accountability of funding actions as well as transparency and fairness of research resource allocation. AS also encourages all of its researchers to focus on critical research topics, and take on the challenges of larger and more crucial research topics with the support of sufficient multi-year funding.
Since 2021, the competitive research programs that AS researchers can apply for are divided into three major types based on the nature of the project and the scope of the grant:
The goals of the three main types of programs are identical, except for the orientation towards topic selection. Type 1 and Type 2 programs are designed to protect the freedom of academic research and are proposed by researchers in a bottom-up manner. Type 3 programs are planned in a top-down task-oriented manner. The allocation of funds for each program is based on the type, category (individual or team research project), scale and depth of implementation, and evaluation of effectiveness, etc. Allocations are carefully planned with consideration of previous experience after analytical review; furthermore, amendments are made on the basis relevant program review.
Proposal review focuses on whether a project solves a critical issue, the degree of innovation, expected influence and international competitiveness. The review process follows a two-stage model, which includes peer review by experts in the corresponding field of the project, and a secondary review. Since 2020, Type 1 and Type 2 programs have been implemented under a new system, in which programs of the same division and field are discussed and evaluated by the same review panel, and decisions are made with supplementary perspectives from AS. This approach helps to ensure that all applications are considered in terms of their level of quality or relevance to their topics, thereby making the grants fairer and more effective.
Through the transformation and restructuring of these granting programs, AS expects to provide its researchers with stable support so that they can devote themselves to their research, seek out more influential and valuable research topics and directions, explore new territories of knowledge, and pursue important breakthroughs, thus enhancing the innovative research capacity of AS in the international community.