Public Health in Action: Student Knowledge Exchange Competition

As a strong believer in public health advocacy and innovation, it has always been the mission of the School of Public Health to put public health in action. We are committed to educating and interacting directly with the public via outreach programmes, so that people are better informed and more empowered to improve their health and well-being.

In this connection, the School launches the “Public Health in Action: Student Knowledge Exchange Competition” in March 2021, which aims to promote a student culture of contributing to the society through innovative engagement initiatives on health advancement.

Objectives

• To encourage students of HKU LKS Faculty of Medicine (HKUMed) to put their public health knowledge into practice, and make contributions to the community
• To facilitate student participation in experiential learning through community engagement
• To conduct impactful, innovative, and real-world outreach projects

 

Eligibility

• Open to all current undergraduate and graduate students at HKUMed.
• Students must participate in teams of at least two people.
• There is no restriction on the number of team members. However, each student can only join one team.
• The team coordinator must be a current student of HKU School of Public Health – BASc in Global Health and Development, Master of Public Health, MPhil or PhD students are included. He/she shall be the key contact with HKU School of Public Health for proposal submission and presentation.

 

About the Competition

• Each team is required to submit a proposal of two-three A4 pages, outlining a project which directly interacts with the public, community partners or the media on a health-advancing issue – for example, providing a solution or preventive measures to a known health concern, or ideas for boosting health and wellness.

• The project proposal must contain the following elements:
  1. A primary goal and ultimate benefits
  2. A well described target audience
  3. Mechanism to interact with the target audience and achieve the goal
  4. A project timeline, with a target to provide evidence of delivery and parameters to determine the effectiveness of deliverables
  5. Measurable deliverables (e.g. number of talks delivered, creation of an App) 
  6. Parameters to determine the effectiveness of deliverables (e.g. post-event surveys, App download statistics)

• Team coordinators should: 1) fill in the online application form (here) and 2) submit their proposals to Ms Bernice Luk at bernice1@hku.hk on or before 6 June 2021, 11:59pm (Hong Kong time).
• Teams should read and fully understand the FAQs and Terms & Conditions before entering the Competition.
• Teams are welcome to invite faculty members to be their project advisors/mentors.

 

 

Selection Process & Criteria

Stage 1 – Assessment of Project Concept

Submitted proposals will be reviewed based on the following criteria. Shortlisted teams will be invited to pitch their ideas to the Selection Panel in June 2021. 

Selection criteria are as follows:

• Student Participation – Students' strength and involvement in the project proposed
• Focus – Whether the project states a well-defined problem, clear objective, strategy to achieve the goal, and clear deliverables
• Creativity – Whether the design and implementation is innovative
• Operational practicability – Whether the operation aspects are realistic and feasible within the available time and budget 
• Benefits – Value to the community or a specific group of target audience

A maximum of 5 finalist teams will be selected from the pitching session. HK$8,000 will be provided to EACH of the 5 finalist teams as seed money.

Stage 2 – Assessment of Project Deliverables

• The deliverables indicated in the proposals are to be completed by 15 October 2021.
• The 5 finalist teams will meet the Selection Panel in October/November 2021 to present their project deliverables. Questions from the Selection Panel are to be addressed.
• The Selection Panel will rank the presentations into 3 prizes: Gold (1 award), Silver (1 award) and Bronze (up to 3 awards).
• HK$20,000 will be awarded to the Gold prize winning team; HK$13,000 to the Silver prize winning team; and HK$9,000 to the Bronze prize winning team. 
• The award money and certificates will be presented to the winning teams in November/December 2021.
  
   

 

Prizes

A maximum of 5 awards, ranging from HK$8,000 to HK$28,000, will be awarded to the winning teams.

There are 2 stages of selection: 5 finalized teams will each be awarded HK$8,000 as seed money upon the acceptance of project concept. Then those 5 finalized teams will be judged upon their completion and presentation of deliverables. Three awards will be given out: Gold (1 team) of prize money HK$20,000; Silver (1 team) of prize money HK$13,000, and Bronze (up to 3 teams) of prize money $9,000.

Awards	Instalments	Total Amount
Gold:	HK$8,000 (seed money) + HK$20,000 (prize)	HK$28,000
Silver:	HK$8,000 (seed money) + HK$13,000 (prize)	HK$21,000
Bronze*:	HK$8,000 (seed money) + HK$9,000 (prize)	HK$17,000

*There can be a maximum of three Bronze prize winning teams

 

 

Selection Panel

Chair:

• Professor Keiji Fukuda, School Director and Clinical Professor (view profile)

Faculty members:

• Dr Michael Chan, Associate Professor, Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences (view profile)
• Dr Janice Johnston, Honorary Associate Professor
• Dr Wendy Lam, Associate Professor and Head of Division of Behavioural Sciences (view profile)

Non-faculty members:

• Mr Laurence Tang, Senior Manager, iDendron, HKU; HKU MPH Alumnus (view profile)
• Mr Ken Wong, Executive Director, Hong Kong Life Sciences Society (view profile)

 

 

Key Dates

Application opens:	31 March 2021
Talk on Knowledge Exchange:	16 April 2021
Deadline of application and proposal submission:	6 June 2021, 11:59pm (HKT)
Pitching to the Selection Panel:	Within June 2021
Announcement of the 5 finalist teams:	By 30 June 2021
Completion of deliverables:	By 15 October 2021
Final presentation to the Selection Panel:	October/November 2021
Awards presentation	November/December 2021

 

How to Apply

Register here

Teams should read and fully understand the FAQs and Terms & Conditions before entering the Competition.

Further Information

FAQs: View here

Terms & Conditions: View here

 

Talk on Knowledge Exchange

Learning how to put knowledge into practice, and bring real-life impact to the community, are essential skills for today’s public health professionals.

In this talk, entitled – How to Convert Your Knowledge into Impact? – the speaker will explain the concept of 'knowledge exchange', and why it is important to acquire relevant skills. The speaker will also introduce some of the resources available in the university. This will be followed by inspiring stories from students, illustrating how they are successfully turning innovations into real-life impacts.

The talk is held in connection with the Competition. HKUMed students especially those interested to join the Competition are welcome to attend the talk and participate in the Q&A session.

Details of the talk are as follows:

Date:	16 April 2021 (Friday)
Time:	2-3pm
Format:	Hybrid - simultaneous live participation for both face-to-face and virtual participants
Target audience:	All current students at HKUMed
Venue:	Boardroom, G/F, Patrick Manson Building (North Wing), 7 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam
No. of seats available on-site:	15 seats for on-site participation; more for Zoom participation
Speaker:	Mr Laurence Tang (view profile) Senior Manager, iDendron,Technology Transfer Office,The University of Hong Kong HKU MPH Alumnus
Moderator:	Professor Keiji Fukuda (view profile) Director and Clinical Professor, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong
Registration:	Click here

 

For queries, please contact Ms Bernice Luk at 3917 9923 or bernice1@hku.hk.

 

Enquiry

Ms Bernice Luk (Tel: 3917 9923 | Email: bernice1@hku.hk)