Faculty Research & Creative Activity Grant

DKU Center for the Study of Contemporary China

CSCC Faculty Research & Creative Activity Grant (Max. 5,000 USD)

Submission Deadline: October 31, 2026 midnight China time

*This is a strict deadline. Late applications will not be considered.

Award Notification Date: December 1, 2026

Program Description

The Faculty Research and Creative Activity Grant is provided by the DKU Center for the Study of Contemporary China (CSCC) to enable full-time DKU faculty to engage in projects that will significantly advance research or creative work on China’s society, politics, and economy (broadly defined) and contribute to faculty professional development.

The funding term is minimal 12 months and maximum 24 months. Proposals will be reviewed by a CSCC grant review committee, which makes funding recommendations to the CSCC Co-Directors. Applicants should not assume that reviewers are familiar with their area of scholarship and are recommended to provide sufficient backgroud and context to help reviewers understand the project. Please avoid technical jargon and use clear, accessible language.

Eligibility

  • Applicants must be employed full-time at DKU for the entire duration of the project.
  • Faculty who received this grant in 2025 are not eligible to apply.
  • Faculty may receive maximum one CSCC grant per academic year.
  • Projects without existing funding opportunities will be prioritized.
 

Application Material 

To apply, submit one PDF file consisting of:

  • Proposal narrative (max. 4 pages, single-spaced) including PI name; project title; project background, rationale, and significance; project objectives; project methodology; project outputs and research dissemination; professional development impact; list of references.
  • Project activities and timeline (max. 1 page).
  • Budget (maximum 1 page): A well-organized budget table that lists how the grant funds will be used (in both USD and RMB) along with an explanation of each budget item. Budget changes are only allowed for up to 10% of the total budget after project approval. If applicants have or are actively applying for other support for the project, they must mention this in their proposal. If the completion of the project requires more than the maximum amount that can be awarded via this grant, the applicants must demonstrate that other support is available to sustain the continuation of the work over the necessary timeframe.
  • Up-to-date Curriculum Vitae
 

Evaluation Criteria

  • Relevance and Significance:
    • Does the project offer meaningful new insights into China’s society, politics, and economy and demonstrate scholarly, social, or policy relevance?
  • Design:
    • Are the project goals clearly articulated and appropriately matched with a rigorous and well-justified research methodology?
  • Impact:
    • Does the proposal specify concrete project outputs and outline realistic plans for disseminating research results to relevant audiences?
  • Feasibility:
    • Are the project objectives achievable within the grant duration given faculty expertise and available resources?
  • Budget Justification:
    • Does the applicant clearly justify the need for the grant funds and propose a reasonable and realistic plan for how the funds will be used to achieve the project’s goals?
 

Grant Conditions for Awarded Projects

  • All project outputs need to acknowledge the CSCC as funding source.
  • Grant recipients need to submit a progress report and final report.
  • Reimbursement requests must follow DKU guidelines and include project proposal.
  • Budget changes of more than 10% of total budget require pre-approval from CSCC.
  • Projects involving human subjects require IRB approval before access to funds
 

Questions?

All grant proposals and inquiries should be sent to Chi Zhang, the program coordinator for the Center for the Studies of Contemporary China.

List of CSCC Research Grant for Faculty Research & Creative Activity Projects

  • Andrew Wortham | Rural Queer Collusions: HIV Governance and MSM CBOs in Southwest China
  • Chen Zhang | (No) Place for Aging? Older Rural-to-Urban Migrants’ (Un)Integration into Chinese Cities
  • Dingyi Xu | Intergenerational Memory and Socio-Environmental Transformation in Rural Wuhan since the 1970s
  • Kent Cao | Colonel Van White: Zhou Enlai, Marshall Mission and American Collecting in the 20th Century China
  • Puyang Li | Bridging the Green Belt: Assessing the Ecological and Social Spillovers of China’s Belt and Road Mining Investments in the Congo Basin
  • Zhenjie Weng | GenAI-integrated Training Strategies and Models in Language Teacher Education in China
  • Claudia Nisa | Gender Dynamics in (Non)compliance with Smoke-Free Indoor Policies in China
  • Hui Yao | Voices, Visuals, and the Visceral: Wu Cultural Heritage at the Margins
  • Jason Todd | Assessing the Impact of China’s 1979 Election Law on Women’s Representation in Local People’s Congresses
  • Jianzi He | Mapping Interjurisdictional Cooperation among Chinese Counties
  • Kim Gordon | Archival Recordings of Senior Kunqu Singing Masters Accompanied by Bamboo Flute
  • Lianyun Pang | Navigating Cultural Nuances: A Study on Refusal Pragmatic Acquisition in Chinese as Second Language Learning
  • Robin Rodd | The Socio-ecological Metabolism of Chinese Belt and Road Initiatives in South America
  • Coraline Goron & Xiaohan Cui | China’s role in Convention on Biological Diversity COP15
  • Fangsheng Zhu | The Rise and Fall of China’s EdTech Industry
  • Mengqi Wang | Unfinished Homes: Stalled Lives amid China’s Real Estate Crisis
  • Minjoo Joo | Forgiveness and Innovative behaviors
  • Wen Zhou | Folk Conceptions of Humanity in China
  • Yachao Sun, Kristin Hiller, Tyler Carter, Wendy Li & Tong Zhang | Development of Writing Programs in Sino-Foreign Joint-Venture Universities in China
  • Yanran Yang | Opportunities and Challenges of Using Nuclear Power for District Heating in China
  • Zhenjie Weng | Exploring Influencing Factors on Language Teacher Agency: Comparing Language Teacher Educators in China and
  • Yuan Wang | Winning Hearts and Minds: Who Gains from the Chinese Belt and Road Project in Kenya?
  • Sajida Tuxun | Consuming Food, Consuming Ethics: A Research Proposal on Healthy Diet
  • Kaley Clements | Mekong Drift
  • Ben Van Overmeire | Astroreligion: The Religious Imagination of Space Travel in Space Opera and Astronaut Memoir written in English and Chinese, 1961-present
  • David Landry | Mapping Chinese Mines around the World
  • Claudia Nisa | Chinese consumer preferences for plant-based substitutes of animal products
  • Xiaochen Zhang | Population Aging, Regional Innovation and Productivity: Evidence from China
  • Zhaojin Zeng | The Formation and Development of China’s Industrial Infrastructure: A Study of Industrial Gazetteers in the Republican Era
  • Meifang Chen | Multisectoral Needs Assessment for Community-based Diabetes Management in China
  • Yu Wang | Overwork and the Division of Labor in Marriage in Urban China
  • Gergely Horvath | Patterns of co-authorship among economists in the Chinese academia
  • Cici Cheng | Art and Research: Photographing Communities Across the World
  • Annemieke van den Dool | Authoritarian policymaking: The role of societal events in lawmaking in China
  • Yachao Sun | A Bibliometric Approach to Translingual Practices in Applied Linguistics