Further to the Hong Kong Government’s HKD10 billion investment allocated to support its innovation and technology (I&T) development in February this year, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has doubled the research funding in her new policy announced on Wednesday 12 October. New research funding for local higher education institutions includes:

  • HKD 20 billion into the Research Endowment Fund of the Research Grants Council

According to South Morning China Post (SCMP), this would meet the task force’s recommendation to double the overall competitive research funding by the Research Grants Council (RGC) from HK$1 billion to HK$2 billion per year, which is now awaiting Legislative Council’s approval.

It is reported that there are a few overseas universities already working with local universities, such as: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States working with Chinese University of Hong Kong in terms of virtual Theoretical Computer Science (TCS) , and the University of Waterloo in Canada working with Hong Kong Polytechnic University in terms of Biomedical Research. They will be collaborating with local university partners in the areas of biomedical technology, smart cities, AI and Fintech as well as ‘using Hong Kong as a stepping stone to apply their emerging technologies in Greater China’, said by a source from SCMP.

  • HKD 3 billion Research Matching Grant Scheme

This new research matching grant scheme is set for local degree-awarding institutions. It will be used for the government to match donations from private companies for research-related purposes for three years

  • Fellowship schemes for outstanding academics to strengthen the pool of talent in research and innovation and technology in Hong Kong

Researchers could also benefit from the proposal, costing HK$190 million a year, for three new regular fellowship schemes, for postdoctoral fellows and researchers at associate professor and professor level. These fellowships could free them up from teaching to concentrate on research.

  • HKD 10 billion fund to set up two clusters with focus on health-care technologies and artificial intelligence for the next 10 – 15 years in the Science Park

Under this scheme, local institutions would have more freedom to form partnership through the two platforms, but they would still need to submit their research proposals to the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC). ITC will then pass their proposals to a governing committee for the assessment process. 

According to SCMP, recently, ‘the Institut Pasteur of France, the Guangzhou Institute of Bio-medicine and Health, and the Institute of Automation in Beijing have each expressed interest in joining the clusters as the first batch of institutions to collaborate with local universities and institutions’.

 

Source:

 

The Chief Executive’s 2018 Policy Address – Highlights

www.policyaddress.gov.hk/2018/eng/highlights.html

SCMP: 

 

Comments by Karen Hsu, Education Services Manager, Hong Kong.

The new government initiative aims at attracting top overseas scientific research institutions to Hong Kong, which may bring more opportunities for the UK due to the increasing focus on research impact within the society. When forming partnership, UK universities would be able to share their experience with HK partners in terms of how they work with the Research Excellence Framework for biding research funding as well as research commercialisation with the industries. The British Council will be exploiring more opportunities for research collaboration between HK and UK universities and will keep the sector updated.