Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) today (May 27) introduced modifications to the Professional Continuing Education Scheme (PCES) and the General Support Scheme (GSS) under the DesignSmart Initiative (DSI) to enhance their operation to better suit the needs of the design industry.
The PCES, one of the funding schemes under DSI, supports the development of new professional continuing training courses which contribute to building design capability and nurturing of talent. An applicant with a project must secure industrial or commercial sponsorship for at least 10% of the approved project cost to demonstrate industry support for the project. PCES funding will at most support 90% of the approved project cost.
"To encourage more educational and training activities which are not promotional fanfare that naturally attracts sponsorship, an option is now provided for PCES applicants to top up outstanding sponsorship, up to 5% of the approved project cost, by training course or workshop fees collected. We consider that the fee collected from subscribers is also a demonstration of industry support for a project," Head of CCIDAHK, Mr Jerry Liu, said.
"The scope of the PCES is also widened to cover ancillary activities which can generate synergistic effect to the main deliverable as long as the main content of a project covers professional training programmes for designers and the industry," Mr Liu said, citing as examples competitions and exhibitions of works generated during the training courses.
"To provide flexibility for applicants to develop projects with a longer-term vision for the benefit of the industry, applications for re-run of previous PCES and GSS projects are allowed under the modified arrangements. Such applications, however, will continue to be submitted on a project by project basis, and assessment will be made on individual merit based on the achievements of the previous project, expected achievements of the re-run project and its improvements over the previous one," he said.
The GSS, another funding scheme under the DSI, supports projects that foster the culture of design and honour design excellence in Hong Kong, including conferences, seminars, exhibitions, competition and awards.
"The modifications aim to provide more flexibility to encourage more worthwhile projects in the promotion of design development. They were worked out with advice from relevant stakeholders and the DesignSmart Initiative Assessment Panel following a review of the operation and effectiveness of the schemes in 2009," Mr Liu said.
The DSI was set up in 2004 to strengthen government support for design and innovation. It consists of a Design Support Programme with four funding schemes and a Design Incubation Programme at InnoCentre. Besides the GSS and the PCES, the two other funding schemes are the Design Research Scheme, which supports research in design and branding, and the Design-Business Collaboration Scheme, which promotes collaboration between design companies and small and medium enterprises in design projects.
As at end April 2010, 323 projects involving a total funding of $145 million were approved under the DSI's four funding schemes.
Further details are available on the website, www.designsmart.gov.hk. For enquiries, please call the enquiry hotline 2737 2635 or email to enquiry@designsmart.gov.hk
Thursday, May 27, 2010