The Review 2015

19 Knowledge Exchange HKU produces excellent research in a wide variety of fields and has many talented and accomplished staff and students. By these factors alone, it can make many meaningful contributions to society. But the journey from the campus to the community is not always a given. Our researchers and students need support, guidance and training to develop their capacity and maximise the impact of their work. This is where University policies and investment can make a difference. HKU regards knowledge exchange (KE) as the engine of impact. We have placed it alongside teaching and research as one of the key areas of the University’s work. In 2014–15, we strengthened our institutional and capacity-building support for research translation by bringing technology transfer firmly under the KE umbrella. HKU has been commercialising its research since 1994 through its business arm, Versitech Ltd. The Technology Transfer Office (TTO) was established in 2006 to provide structured services and support for invention disclosures and intellectual property management. These activities should operate as a subset of KE, but were sometimes seen to be isolated from it. Now, since January 2015, the TTO has been brought under the KE Office to reaffirm that technology transfer is a core function of HKU’s KE mission. The re-organisation has coincided with a ramping up of our technology transfer activities. Earnings from commercialising our intellectual property grew six-fold in 2014–15 over the previous year, to $21 million. We also launched a fund for start- ups, called TSSSU@HKU (Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities at HKU), that is supported by the Government's Innovation and Technology Commission. By autumn 2015, 11 HKU start-ups had been awarded funding. To develop the entrepreneurial capacity of staff, students and alumni, we launched the DreamCatchers series in May 2015, which attracted more than 1,000 alumni, staff, students and friends of HKU to its kick-off event. Our Entrepreneurship Academy also provides postgraduate students and research staff with training and networking opportunities to develop new ideas and research findings into a business, and in 2015 it admitted undergraduate students for the first time. Over the past three years, more than 400 students and research staff have participated in its sessions. The Year in Brief The Review 2015 A group of Boy Scouts are given a tour of HKU’s Stephen Hui Geological Museum by Dr Petra Bach (in white top), the museum’s curator and lecturer in Earth Sciences.