Notice of the Guangdong Department of Science and Technology on the Application for Key Special Project (Smart Agriculture) under the 2022 Guangdong Key Field R&D Program

Notice of the Guangdong Department of Science and Technology on the Application for Key Special Project (Smart Agriculture) under the 2022 Guangdong Key Field R&D Program “Precision Agriculture and Ecological Green Technology”

I. Application Requirements

1. The lead applicant must be an enterprise, scientific research institute, university, or other public institution or industry organization registered in Guangdong with an independent legal personality. It should underscore the industry-university-research institute collaboration, integrate resources at home and abroad, and prioritize high-quality partners. In principle, the lead applicant should cooperate with no more than 5 organizational participants in one sub-project.
2. The lead applicant should have significant domain-specific advantages and strong capabilities in R&D or resource integration, as it plays a core role in a specific sub-project. Sub-projects led by enterprises or national/provincial laboratories (or sub-centers) will be prioritized.
3. Applicants should make budget plans according to the actual needs and the requirements of the guidelines. Sub-projects applied for should be partially or completely supported by self-raised funds. For enterprise-led sub-projects, the self-raised funds should account for no less than 70% of the total investment in principle. (The proportion of the self-raised funds of each organizational participant should be adapted to the proportion of the financial funds obtained.) For other sub-projects, the self-raised funds should account for no less than 50% of the total investment in principle. The lead applicant should be allocated the largest share of financial funds in principle. Organizational participants registered outside Guangdong are not entitled to any provincial financial fund.
4. Generally, organizational applicants for the “Guangdong Key Field R&D Program” are not subject to restrictions on the application quota. However, a research team or an organization is not encouraged to spread itself too thin. Under each Project, a research team is allowed to lead/participate in 1 sub-project only. A legal entity (or a secondary institution of higher learning) is allowed to lead/participate in no more than 3 sub-projects in principle. Otherwise, they will be recorded as violating the research integrity rules and punished accordingly.
5. The sub-project owner shall participate in the actual project organization and implementation as a coordinator and leader. They shall not outsource their work to domain-specific experts.
6. The sub-project content must be authentic and credible. The organizational applicants shall not exaggerate their strength and technical and economic indicators. Organizational applicants are responsible for the authenticity of the application materials. The organizational applicants and recommending entities shall review the application materials in strict accordance with the requirements in the Opinions on Further Strengthening the Research Integrity Promotion (TZ [2018] No. 23). Exaggeration and falsification are prohibited. The organizational applicants and sub-project owners shall sign and affix an official seal to the Letter of Commitment to the Authenticity of Application Materials, which can be downloaded from the Public Government Affairs Platform. Once a sub-project is approved, the technical, product, economic and other assessment indicators shall not be modified or adjusted without justifiable reasons.

7. An applicant who meets any one of the following circumstances is not allowed to apply for any sub-project and their application will be rejected:

(1) The applicant has 3 or more ongoing sub-projects under the “Guangdong Science and Technology Program” or any sub-project that is overdue for one year (except for platform-based, inclusive government-funded, and post-subsidized projects).

(2) The applicant has a sub-project under the “Guangdong Key Technology Special Program” or the “Guangdong Key Field R&D Program” that is still pending acceptance inspection, but it is allowed to apply for a sub-project as a participant.)

(3) The applicant is found to commit major violations during the audit and inspection of the provincial special fiscal funds.

(4) The applicant applies for the same sub-project repeatedly with different subject names or under multiple programs.

(5) The applicant applies for a sub-project that is already applied for by its employer alone or jointly with organizations and has been approved.

(6) The Guangdong-registered organization where the applicant works is not recommended by the competent department of science and technology.

(7) The applicant has a record of serious dishonesty in scientific research or is on the social credit blacklist, and is still in the penalty period.

(8) The applicant goes against the research ethics.

8. The application shall meet the specific requirements of each Project.

II. Application Methods

1. Applications should be submitted on the “Guangdong Provincial Government Service” website or the “Guangdong Public Government Affairs Platform for Science and Technology Management (http://pro.gdstc.gd.gov.cn)”. Technical proposals, financial statements, intellectual property reports, cooperation agreements, letters of commitment, letters of recommendation, and other supporting documents should also be provided. If an applicant cannot submit their application online for some special reasons, they shall apply to the Guangdong Department of Science and Technology in writing. Upon approval, they can go through the offline application.
2. If written materials are required during project review and evaluation, the applicant will be notified by a professional agency separately.
3. After a sub-project is approved according to the procedures, the applicant shall submit the project application form and the paper copy of the assignment plan to the service center of the Guangdong Department of Science and Technology. (All submitted documents shall be signed and sealed. The submission date and specific requirements will be announced separately.)

III. Review and Approval

Projects under the “Guangdong Key Field R&D Program” will be reviewed and evaluated by professional third-party agencies. The review covers the background, basis, technical route, scientific research capability, schedule, budget, performance goals, and other aspects. The evaluation covers technology readiness, intellectual property rights, and so on.

1. Assessment of technology readiness and advancement The “Smart Agriculture” Project mainly supports sub-projects with Level 3 to 6 technology readiness. Generally, the technology readiness level should reach 7 to 9 when a sub-project is completed. In principle, the technology readiness level should be improved by 3 levels or more after the sub-project is completed. (See Annex 2 for the technology readiness standards.) The applicant shall elaborate on the technology readiness in the feasibility report as required and provide necessary supporting documents. (The outline of the feasibility report can be downloaded from the Public Government Affairs Platform.)
2. Duplicate content check and technological advancement analysis An applied-for sub-project will be compared with the previous ones under the “Science and Technology Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology” and the “Guangdong Science and Technology Program” using big data technology to ensure project uniqueness and advancement.

3. Intellectual property analysis and review Generally, the project research results are regarded as high-quality intellectual property. All organizational applicants shall strengthen intellectual property management and propose high-quality goals of intellectual property development for the sub-projects they have applied for in accordance with the requirements of the “High-quality Intellectual Property Analysis and Evaluation Guidelines (Annex 3)”. The applicants shall elaborate on the intellectual property in the feasibility report as required and provide necessary supporting documents. (The outline of the feasibility report can be downloaded from the Public Government Affairs Platform.) The applicants shall not simply set the number of patents and papers as their project goals.
4. After a sub-project is approved according to the procedures, it will be included in the project database for management. Financial funds will be allocated in stages according to the annual fiscal budget and project progress.
5. The applicants will be enrolled on merit. If there are less than 3 applicants for a sub-project, the review and evaluation will not be initiated as a result of insufficient competition, and the sub-project will not be approved. If there are 3 or more applicants for a sub-project, only one applicant will be enrolled in principle after formal review and evaluation, except for a circumstance where multiple applicants for the same sub-project have outstanding review results and different technical routes.

IV. Application Date

The centralized online application is open from March 21, 2022 to April 25, 2022 at 17:00. The deadline for online review and recommendation is May 6, 2022 at 17:00.