FOR HKUST MEMBER

Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme (RAISe+)

Call for 2nd Batch RAISe+ (HKD 10B) Proposals

  • Submission deadline: 25 March 2024 at 23:59

HKUST Application Procedure:

Research/startup teams should submit the following documents for internal review:

  • Filled Application Form (MS Word)
  • Signed Letters of Commitment by investors and Partners' Supporting Letters (PDF)
  • An indicative in-kind contribution list (MS Excel)
  • A pitching deck (no more than 15 PPT slides)

Please submit the required documents to oktbd@ust.hk by 25 March 2024 23:59.

General

  • The RAISe+ Scheme is a new funding scheme under the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) administrated by the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC). The scheme aims to support the university’s research teams with good potential to transform, realize, and commercialize the R&D outcomes and become successful startups. 
  • The Scheme consists of two stages while research/startup teams could choose to apply either both stages or only stage two:
  1. Stage One concerns the transformation and realization of R&D outcomes within around three years; and
  2. Stage Two concerns the initiation of the commercialization of R&D outcomes within the remaining time frame of the project.
  • To underline the importance of collaboration amongst the Government, industry, academic and research sectors, ITF funding support from $10 million up to $100 million will be provided on a matching basis to each successful project application which is generally up to 60 months (or 36 months if the project comprises the second stage only). 
  • In the first stage, there should be contributions from both the industry and the university, but capital investment and/or sponsorship or in-kind support are accepted. The in-kind support shall not exceed 50% of the total contribution from the industry and university. In the second stage, only capital investment and/or sponsorship from the industry are accepted, whereby the university’s contribution is welcome but will not be considered for matching purposes.
  • The higher the degree of industry contribution and the more certain/unconditional industry contribution are considered more favorable during the vetting process. 

Application Eligibility

  • ITC will organize TWO application solicitation exercises every twelve months. For each exercise, each university is allowed to submit up to 15 projects to ITC.
  • The university serves as the applicant, while approved projects will be executed by the research/startup teams.
  • The project team may have any mix of the following members of the university –
    1. Undergraduates, postgraduates or alumni; and/or
    2. professor(s) or other faculty members
  • Project teams from InnoHK centres (excluding those R&D outcomes which were subsidized), and existing companies which were registered for not more than 7 years as of the deadline of the application call exercise are also eligible for the application.
  • A person-in-charge (“PIC”) must be appointed for each team who should be associated with the university, hold a senior position in the team, engage in the team’s business, and be responsible for overseeing and liaising the RAISe+ funding and project operation matters.

Assessment

  • ITC, as well as its external expert panels, will review the university’s recommended projects based on their technical and business merits.
  • The applications will be assessed in accordance with the following criteria and weightings in the first stage and second stage respectively –
  Assessment Item Applications for joining from Stage One Application for joining Stage Two
(a) Innovation and Technology Component 35% 20%
(b) Commercial Viability of Project Outcomes 20% 35%
(c) Technical and Management Capability of the Team 20% 20%
(d) Relevance of the Project with Government Policies or in Overall Interest of the Community 10% 10%
(e) Financial Considerations of the Project 15% 15%

HKUST DeepTech Projects 2024 Submission Form