Guidance Notes

Scheme A

Scheme A: Scheme for Winners of Specified International Competitions/Awards

 

(i) Application Deadline and Eligible Period

  • Application Deadline is 28 Feb 2023.
  • All specified awards are eligible for application throughout the eligible period, commencing from 1 Aug 2021 to 28 Feb 2023.
  • Award fees will be reimbursed from 1 Aug 2021 to 28 Feb 2023, and the reimbursement claim for award fees for specified awards will be granted once award announcement is released during the eligible period.
  • There will be no retrospective approval for reimbursement claims in respect of awards obtained before the eligible period (i.e. 1 Aug 2021).
  • Application will be counted on a “First-Come-First-Served Basis” based on the submission date of the application form. If any material information is missing, eg. flight ticket details, a 1-month period will be allowed for applicants to supplement the missing information.
  • Reimbursement will continue until the fund has run out.

 

(ii) Eligibility

  • All specified awards (please refer to Annex: 35 International Competitions/Awards list) are eligible for application throughout the eligible period, from 1 Aug 2021 to 28 Feb 2023.
  • Individual applicants must be a Hong Kong permanent resident.
  • Design companies or design-applying enterprises must be incorporated in Hong Kong and hold a valid Business Registration Certificate.
  • No age-limited is imposed and the applicant is not only limited to design practitioners only. (If the public or design students have the capacity and talents to gain the specific awards, they can also apply.)

 

(iii) Mechanism

The scheme is on a “First-Come, First-Served” basis and the applicant who receives the support from the scheme shall undertake to share his/her/its works at the SIDA exhibition and sharing seminars. No application fee will be charged for applying HKDA SIDA 2021/22. Awardees of unlisted competitions/awards in this program will not be considered. 

Funding support is given in the form of a lump sum grant. A total sum of the award participation fee of each listed award will be reimbursed once the applicant is being awarded as a winner. Each award will be based on its application and award fee in order to be reimbursed. An awardee or awardee’s representative must attend the award ceremony to receive the award, if no representative showcases in the award ceremony, no reimbursement can be applied. The meaning of “award fee” is the compulsory fee of which the awardee needs to pay in order to get the award such as the winners’ promotion fee, the interview fee, the printing fee and etc. requested by the award organizer with official receipts. 

An applicant is required to provide the winner’s work name, description, designers / design companies name, information of contact persons including names, addresses, telephone numbers and any related information.

An applicant is required to submit both invoices and receipts for reimbursement claim and issued in the name of the applicant (for representative’s flight and accommodation, the payer must be under the name of the applicant and the representative will be the guest name). In order to avoid the double subsidy or duplicated financial support, an applicant needs to sign a guarantee that he/she/it has not gained any other funding sources while applying the same specified international award in the same year using the same design.

 

< Reimbursable items >

  • Entry fee
  • Taxation
  • Courier fee
  • Publication fee (Winners Package)
  • Exhibition fee
  • Flight and accommodation for the collection of the award. (This only applies when the organizer has sent an official invitation to the winner. Only ONE representative will be sponsored to collect the award. One air return ticket in economy class to the location of the award ceremony and two nights’ hotel accommodation not exceeding HK$2,000 per night for this representative.)

 

Entry fee, Taxation, Courier Fee, Publication Fee and Exhibition Fee varies in different international competitions/awards, the maximum reimbursement of each award is HK$100,000 while the maximum reimbursement cap for a design unit (designer or design company) in the Scheme A+B is HK$ 200,000.

For illustration purposes, a designer/design unit cannot reimburse more than HK$200,000 even if the designer wins more than one specified international awards within the eligible period. SIDA does not restrict the number of awards

 

Example:

1) Designer A won 2 awards and has already paid HK$120,000 for each award. He can only reimburse HK$100,000 for every single award, so the reimbursement amount will be HK$100,000 + HK$100,000 = HK$200,000.

2) Designer B won 3 awards and paid HK$120,000 for the first award, HK$50,000 for the remaining two awards. He can reimburse HK$100,000 for the first award and HK$50,000 for the remaining two, the total reimbursement amount will be HK$100,000 + HK$50,000 + HK$50,000 = HK$200,000.

3) Designer C won 8 awards and paid HK$20,000 for each award, he can reimburse all the awards, the total reimbursement will be HK$20,000 x 8 awards = HK$160,000.

4) Designer D used the DFA awards winning work to enter two international awards and paid $10,000 entry fee, meanwhile won 2 other international awards and paid HK$20,000 for each award, the total reimbursement amount will be HK$10,000 + $20,000 x 2 awards = HK$50,000.

 

(vi) Reimbursement and Release of Grant

Reimbursement will be processed within 3 months after the application is considered successful.

Since the project is government-funded under CreateSmart Initiative (“CSI”) governance, an applicant understands that this project is operating under the supervision of HKSAR Government, and agrees the reimbursement schedule will be followed by the actual payment schedule of CSI funding issued by the HKSAR Government. A successful applicant will receive 70% of the reimbursement in the preliminary round of examination. The last phase of payment will be settled within 6 – 9 months once the project funds from CSI are received.

 

(v) Miscellaneous

In case of any discrepancy or inconsistency between the English and Chinese version of the guidance notes and the English version shall prevail.

 

For Scheme A: Guidance Note, please download here:     

Scheme B

Scheme B: Scheme for Winners of Specified Local
Competition/Award to Enter International Competition/Award

 

(i) Application and Eligible Period

  • Application Deadline is 28 Feb 2023.
  • All specified awards are eligible for application throughout the eligible period, commencing from 1 Aug 2021 to 28 Feb 2023.
  • Award fees will be reimbursed from 1 Aug 2021 to 28 Feb 2023 and the reimbursement claim for application fees for specified awards will be released once after entry submission is accepted during this eligible period. 
  • There will be no retrospective approval for reimbursement claims in respect of awards obtained before the eligible period (i.e.1 Aug 2021). 
  • Application will be counted on a First-Come-First-Served Basis based on the submission date of their application form. If the material information is missing, eg. flight ticket details, a 1-month period will be allowed for participants to supplement the missing information.
  • Reimbursement will continue until the fund has run out.

 

(ii) Eligibility
Awardees of these 5 local awards below are considered as the eligible participants of Scheme for Winners of Specified Local Competitions/Awards to enter International Competitions/Awards. But the reimbursable items of this category exclude any local award expenditures.

Detailed List of 5 Local awards to be covered by the Scheme B. Competitions/ Awards out of this List will not be considered.

 

  1. Gold and Silver Awardee of Global Design Awards 2021.
  2. Grand, Gold and Silver Awardee of DFA Awards 2021.
  3. Winners of Hong Kong Smart Design Awards 2021.
  4. Gold and Silver Awardee of Kam Fan Awards 2021.
  5. Gold and Silver Awardee of Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards 2021.

 

  • Applicants can only use the same awarded local works to apply for the specified international awards in the eligible period (from 1 Aug 2021 to 28 Feb 2023).
  • Individual applicants must be a Hong Kong permanent resident.
  • Design companies or design-applying enterprises must be incorporated in Hong Kong and hold a valid Business Registration Certificate and Certificate of Incorporation. 
  • No age limit is imposed and it is not only limited to design practitioners only.
    (If the public or design students have the capacity and talents to gain the specific awards, they can also apply.)
  • Maximum THREE applications are allowed for each applicant. Applicants must have to use the same winning works in the specified local awards to enter the specified international competitions and awards, other designs under their names will not be subsidized in this scheme.

 

(iii) Mechanism

The scheme is on a “First-Come, First-Served” basis and applicants who received the financial support from the scheme should undertake to share their works at the sharing seminar. An applicant is required to provide the name of the international competitions/awards and details of application, together with certification from the local award body. No application fee will be charged for applying to HKDA SIDA 2021/22. Awardee of unlisted local competitions/awards in this program will not be considered.

In order to fully utilize the reimbursement funding, there are 3 conditions to reimburse from the budget of Scheme A, B or both A and B.

  • An applicant who has not applied for Scheme B but wins the specified awards, will be fully reimbursed by Scheme A.
  • An applicant who has applied for Scheme B but failed to win the specified awards, will be fully reimbursed by Scheme B.
  • An applicant who has applied for Scheme B and also won the specified awards, will be reimbursed by both Scheme A and B as below:

Scheme B: Reimburse all the application fees until the winners’ announcement.
Scheme A: Reimburse all the promotional fees once the winners are announced.

For example: Good Design Award
Applicant A applied for Scheme B to join this competition, he/she/it needs to pay the i) 1st Judging fee (~HK$797.58) which is also the entry fee, then he passed the 1st round, and enter the 2nd round judging, he/she needs to pay ii) 2nd Judging fee (~HK$4,227.19+), after the 2nd judging, he/she was nominated to the final judging, then he/she needs to pay iii) final judging fee (~HK$7,577.03+) to enter the final round, and he/she/it wins the award finally.

In this case, all “1st judging fee, 2nd judging fee, final judging fee” will be reimbursed from Scheme B as these are all the fees required to pay before the winners announcement. And the fees paid after the winners’ announcement will be reimbursed from Scheme A.

The applicant is required to submit both invoices and receipts for reimbursement claims. The invoices and receipts must be issued in the name of the applicant. In order to avoid the double subsidy or duplicated financial support, an applicant needs to sign a guarantee that he/she/it has not gained any other funding sources while applying for the same specified international award in the same year.

 

< Reimbursable items >

1) Entry fee
2) Taxation
3) Courier fee

Entry fee, Taxation and Courier Fee varies in different international competitions/awards, the maximum reimbursement of each award is HK$100,000 while the maximum reimbursement for a design unit (designer or design company) in the Scheme A+B is capped at HK$ 200,000.

 

(iv) Reimbursement and Release of Grant

Reimbursement will be processed within 3 months after the application is considered successful.

Since the project is government-funded under CreateSmart Initiative (“CSI”) governance, an applicant understands that this project is operating under the supervision of HKSAR Government, and agrees the reimbursement schedule will be followed by the actual payment schedule of CSI funding issued by the HKSAR Government. A successful applicant will receive 70% of the reimbursement in the preliminary round of examination. The last phase of payment will be settled within 6 – 9 months once the project funds from CSI are received.

 

(v) Miscellaneous

In case of any discrepancy or inconsistency between the English and Chinese version of the guidance notes and the English version shall prevail.

 

For Scheme B: Guidance Note, please download here: