The Review 2004

16 T H E R E V I E W 2 0 0 4 T H E R E V I E W 2 0 0 4 17 Innovation and Di scovery equivalent), with the result that the University unfortunately had to turn away talent. A central goal of our 2005-08 Academic Development Proposals is to increase the number of RPG places by 50 per cent, although this has not yet been approved by the University Grants Committee (UGC). We are also encouraging young researchers through the Research Assistant Professor Development Fund, which aims to provide career opportunities for researchers who have demonstrated exceptional achievements in their fields and to retain such talent. Apart from having the right people in place, funding is the other critical component in research success. In 2003-04 the University received $125 mi l l ion from the Research Grants Counci l ’s Competitive Earmarked Research Grants (CERG), giving us the lion’s share among Hong Kong’s tertiary institutions. We also received the largest amount awarded through the Innovation and Technology Fund, $37.46 million. The combination of talent and funding has enabled our researchers to produce exciting new insights into a wide field of topics. For example, in 2003-04 the Department of Linguistics published findings in Nature , a top-ranking scientific journal, that demonstrated Chinese speakers have an anatomically different language centre in their brains from English speakers, with implications for brain surgery and language learning. The Department of Earth Sciences published a report explaining how coastl ines ‘breathe’ , with implications for coastal development, which was picked up by overseas news networks. The Department of Computer Science embarked on a project to enable computer systems to communicate more effectively with each other. And the Department of Architecture adapted solar panels to meet Hong Kong’s electricity grid and climate requirements, demonstrating that they can be applicable here. Projects like these open up further possibilities for research. This constant search for new problems or challenges, and creative ways of solving them, is at the heart of the research process. The University applies the same process in assessing its research programmes. As new areas of research crop up that are relevant to our strengths, we aim to bring these on board. As new needs arise, we aim to meet them. The offical opening of the Genome Research Centre in March 2004 was one result of this process. Exploration is booming in genetic research and the University has several distinguished geneticists amongst its staff. The Centre was set up to capitalise on this expertise, develop further human resources and place Hong Kong at the forefront of genomics The University received $125 million in Competitive Earmarked Research Grants, the largest amount of any Hong Kong tertiary institution. DR JONATHAN MAXWELL, Institute of Human Performance. His main area of research is in motor skill acquisition. My time here at HKU has so far been very productive, mainly due to the freedom I have been afforded to explore new ideas and new areas of research that compliment my existing interests. The facilitation of these research initiatives through internal seed funding has been instrumental to my success, resulting in several publications and a successful CERG application.