Thematic Research Program for interdisciplinary research cooperation with Taiwan
The Thematic Research Program is intended to encourage researchers to engage in cooperative research programs designed to address intellectual or social issues of broader context and scope than possible with individually initiated and conducted research projects.
Many of the unsolved problems of the 21st century are highly complex, requiring input from many fields. The team or interdisciplinary approach recruits researchers from the full gamut of relevant research or intellectual disciplines, allowing them to bring their backgrounds and expertise to bear on a common issue or problem.
Through the Thematic Research Program, Academia Sinica encourages physical scientists, life scientists, social scientists, and scholars in the humanities to work closely together with their peers throughout the world, in an overall effort to contribute to the solution of some of the more pressing and complex issues of our society, including agriculture, energy, drinking water, natural resources, public health, medical care, economical globalization, global climatic change, environmental pollution, rapid social change, and the efficient utilization of human resources.
Thus, aside from integrating various disciplines within the Academy, Academia Sinica also hopes to promote collaborations with universities as well as other research institutions, both local and abroad, to pursue common research goals, and to raise its own research vistas and academic standards while conducting the research.
The Thematic Research Program offers 3-year grant to a program project.
Eligibility
Thematic program projects should complement the mid- and long-term academic and research and development goals of Academia Sinica. The extent to which a project transcends disciplinary boundaries, the short and long term goals of the proposed work, its likely research outcomes, including the likelihood of and the extent to which the proposed research will lead to new knowledge, new basic discoveries, intellectual paradigm shifts, new breakthroughs or new technologies will be assessed in the evaluation for funding.
Project directors and sub-project principal investigators must be experienced and have had considerable previous academic and research accomplishments.
Project directors must be full-time employees of Academia Sinica at the level of Assistant Research Fellow or above; or the faculty from universities joining Academia Sinica Degree Program, who shall be at the level of Assistant Professor or above, and jointly-appointed by Academia Sinica, according to the faculty list provided by the Executive Committee of Academia Sinica Degree Program. He or she must demonstrate an ability of coordination.
The sub-project principal investigator must be at the level of Assistant Research Fellow or be a well-qualified specialist or scholar or above during the course of a project.
Evaluation
All program project applications are evaluated first by scholars/experts in the area(s) or field(s) of the proposed work appointed by the Academic Advisory Committee. The comments received from the first round of reviews are re-assessed by a second tier of reviewers, who will make a final recommendation regarding the decision of funding as well as the budget level of funding.
The most important criteria to be used in the assessing of a program project from the Thematic Research Program are project integration, innovation, and the likelihood of possible research breakthroughs. The project director’s ability to coordinate a program project, including budget planning and management, is also assessed. Finally, program projects that are commensurate with the mid-term or long-term academic and research and development goals of Academic Sinica will be given a higher priority.
