National Health Research Institutes

Integrated Research Grants in Health and Medical Sciences

• Program Project Grant (PPG) emphasizes the integration and coordination of research projects in the same research fields and the formation of core research resources.
• Innovative Research Grant (IRG) is dedicated to encourage independent researchers to develop unique and innovated advances research.
• The Career Development Grant (CDG) aims to encourage young researchers to develop independent research.

Areas of Grants:

• Medical Sciences Grants: These focuses on locally prevalent diseases such as cancers, cardiovascular diseases, mental health, geriatric diseases, occupational and environmental diseases, accidents and injuries, myopia and infectious diseases. Both clinical and basic research approaches are emphasized. Exploration on preventive measures is a plus.
• Public Health Grants: These focuses more on health insurance, quality assurance in medical care, health professionals development and training programs, long-term health care policies, control of pharmaceutical treatments, hospital management, health behavior sciences, health economics and cost-benefit analysis.
• Medical Biotechnology Grants: These focuses more on the development of new techniques in treatment and diagnosis, bio-products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
• Medical Engineering Grants: These focuses more on creative inventions and development of natural and artificial materials for medical use. These may include improvement in medical care techniques, the design, manufacturing, testing, control, animal testing, clinical trials of medical equipment, medical machines, artificial organs, artificial limbs as well as the testing of the safety of devices and their cost reduction benefits.

Grant Review Panel:

The NHRI invites more than 60 outstanding scientists in medical and health related fields from local and abroad to form the Scientific Council, five Scientific Review Committees and the PPG Parent Committee.

Site Visits:

An effective review system to assess grant progress has been developed over the years. To understand the progress and results of the research grants, the NHRI requires each investigator to submit quarterly and annual progress reports. For grants that last for more than one year, investigators are required to submit progress reports covering the entire period of support at the end of the studies. These progress reports will serve as reference credentials for future applications or new grant reviews and will be open to access by the public when necessary. Committees' members and some ad hoc scientists are invited to conduct site visits or reverse site visits to evaluate the progress of the grants, or to examine possible difficulties investigators may encounter during or after the period of grant funding. The reviewers may make constructive recommendations to the investigators in need.

Numbers of Grants and Budgets:

During fiscal years 1993 to 2003, 359 new integrated research grants have been approved. Most of them last for more than one year, and they are called continued grants at the following period to distinguish from new grants. The yearly numbers of new grants and continued grants, and the annual budgets of total grants are listed as below.

Success Rate:

The Committees help in conducting objective and fair grant review and evaluation each year. In average, the funding rate is around 20-30%. Through this objective peer review process the NHRI is capable of identifying the best research projects for funding. The peer review system is a successful device to safeguard the standard of excellent research.