Implemented since 1999, the examiner system is the process by which independent examiners are recruited from within the industry to form a panel to assess grant applications and make recommendations for the HKADC’s consideration. Recognising the benefits of peer assessment, the system also ensures that the process of grant assessment will be conducted fairly and impartially and is free of conflicts of interest.

Open recruitment and invitation to join the panel of examiners is done on a regularly basis. Examiners are tasked with the assessment of an array of grants administered by the HKADC.

The declaration of conflict of interest is vital to the effectiveness of the examiner system. Examiners are required to declare all interests and abide to the “Prevention of Bribery Ordinance” and “Code of Conduct” set out by the HKADC in order that the process of grant assessment and the writing of evaluation reports remain firmly independent and free of all potential conflicts. Particular importance is given to the protection of intellectual property rights and the safeguards of confidentiality during the assessment process.

To Prevent Conflict of Interest

The assessment system in the HKADC is formulated based on principles of peer assessment. The HKADC regularly invites and recruits professionals from relevant artforms to be examiners through voluntary nominations and open invitations in newspapers. These examiners will assess funding applications and make grant recommendations for HKADC’s consideration.

To prevent conflict of interest, HKADC will only assign examiners who do not have any conflicts with the application being assessed, as well as those applications being assessed in the same group. The HKADC has also put in place relevant mechanisms and procedures, such as declaration of personal interests, assigning qualified examiners from the pool of examiners to assess each application through an objective random process so as to minimise any potential conflict of interest.

Arts Specialties

Examiners are grouped under the artforms that they are specialised in and the HKADC will arrange adjudication and assessment assignments according to the most relevant artforms (see the table below). Within each artform, HKADC will enlist examiners with professional knowledge in different genres and fields to cater for the wide variety of project applications received. Each artform possesses examiners with expertise in arts administration, arts criticism, arts education and other various arts specialties. For instance, the music artform consists of experts of Chinese music, western music, vocal/choral music. For the dance artform, experts of ballet, Chinese dance, modern dance, folk dance are included in the examiner list. While for visual arts, examiners include those with expertise in Chinese painting and calligraphy, seal-engraving, western arts–2D (oil painting/ print-making/ comics/ water colour painting/ sketching), design, 3D (ceramics/ sculpture/ glass), photography, mixed materials/ installation, architecture, etc.

If the HKADC receives an application other than the artforms or categories listed below, it will try its best to invite suitable experts of relevant professional background to assist in the adjudication of the applications.

The following are HKADC examiners, whose term of office is July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023: