2018 was a landmark year for researchers in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government announced in October that $20 billion would be allocated to the Research Endowment Fund and it also launched a new $3-billion Research Matching Grant Scheme. Moreover, the central government made it known that local scholars could now compete for national research funding without an obligatory requirement of having a partner on the Mainland. These measures will enrich, deepen and diversify the research funding sources and unquestionably raise the competition and standard of research in Hong Kong. HKU is well-prepared to take up the opportunities and challenges. Over the past year, we have re-examined our research strategy in light of technological advances, society’s hunger for innovation, and the growing demand to show impact in research. The former (Emerging) Strategic Research Themes scheme, which provided seed funding for interdisciplinary research, came to a close in 2017 and has evolved into the new Strategically Oriented Research Themes (SORTs) scheme, which includes other areas of strength, emerging areas and areas of potential at the University. Fourteen individual SORTs have been identified and grouped into four areas: SmartBio & HealthTech (SH), with themes such as chemical biology for drug discovery and precision cancer medicine; Future Innovative Technologies (FIT), such as electric energy conversion and utilisation; Smart Systems & Sustainable Society (S4), such as mitigating mega-city hazards; and Intelligence, RESEARCH AND INNOVATION Data, E-Commerce & Automation (IDEA), such as FinTech, RegTech and the future of finance, and artificial intelligence to advance well-being and society. Avenues for translating this research into impact are being developed, such as a collaboration with Institut Pasteur and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation to establish a joint biomedical R&D centre on key healthcare challenges, particularly immunology, infection and personalised medicine. Identification of the SORTs themes will inspire new ideas and novel approaches in solving some of the most pressing and complex problems of the 21st century. Gearing for quality and impact drives our research towards excellence and value and leads to a spectrum of benefits to society. The elements of assessment in the University Grants Council’s Research Assessment Exercise 2020 include 15 per cent focused on impact. The University has been at the forefront in balancing research outputs with impact. In 2010 we opened our Knowledge Exchange Office, which has played an important role in creating pathways for impact (this work is continuing and described in the Knowledge Exchange chapter). Over the past five years, we have held workshops, invited experts and built up capacity to translate research into impact and collect evidence of that impact. Our Technology Transfer Office has also been very resourceful in intellectual property protection, innovation and commercialisation. These preparations and on-going efforts have brought impact deep into our research culture and are already bearing fruit, as the examples in the following pages illustrate. A critical factor in maximising research impact at the academic level is through collaborations with scholars in Hong Kong, Mainland China and abroad. Using the Field-Weighted Citation Impact as a metric, papers co-authored by, for example, scholars from HKU and the University of Sydney had a citation impact of 6.29, against 1.62 for papers authored solely by HKU authors and 1.80 authored solely by Sydney authors. More such collaborations are being encouraged through strategic partnership agreements between HKU and global universities. In 2018, for instance, new agreement was reached with the University of Toronto and Tsinghua University to co-fund research activities. An agreement with MITACS, a national non-profit research organisation in Canada, will provide HKU research postgraduate students with access to internship opportunities throughout the country. HKU and Tsinghua University also signed a separate agreement in October 2018 for more in-depth collaboration on research and other activities. In addition, HKU has strategic partnerships with University of Cambridge, University College London, King’s College, the University of Chicago and Shanghai Jiaotong University, the University of Sydney and so forth. Our interactions with Mainland China are growing in importance. The ability to apply directly for national funding, with or without a Mainland-based partner, has enormous potential to create paths for larger projects within a much larger competitive field. This will provide a healthy challenge for the University to focus on its strengths and cutting-edge fields, for which we are wellpositioned. In November 2018 five laboratories jointly operated by HKU and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) were rated as ‘distinguished‘ or ‘good‘ in the Fifth Assessment of the Hong Kong-CAS Joint Laboratories. These included labs for biomaterials, chemical synthesis, chemical geodynamics, new materials, and stem cell and regenerative medicine. HKU is also continuing to develop its physical presence on the Mainland. The HKU-Zhejiang Institute of Research and Innovation appointed its first full-time director in September 2018, while a purposebuilt 1,200-square-metre laboratory was under renovation in Shenzhen’s Virtual University Park and will open in 2019. The HKUShenzhen Hospital, which received 3A status from the Guangdong government in 2017, has received approval for conducting Phase I-IV clinical trials. Other examples of the University’s growing presence in the Mainland include the establishment of the HKUGuangdong Pharmaceutical University Innovations Platform in Zhongshan focused on biomedical research and technology (see page 23) and HKU’s leadership role in a new alliance of Shanghai and Hong Kong universities, whose members will include the top universities of both places. Forging ties abroad has created new synergies closer to home. The University places a premium on grooming young scholars and in 2018 welcomed the announcement by the University Grants Council to waive the tuition fees of full-time research postgraduate students from Hong Kong to encourage higher pursuits and rewarding careers. We also continue to take the lead in promoting research integrity and are preparing to co-host the World Conference on Research Integrity in Hong Kong in 2019 with RMIT University of Australia. Our scholars across all fields continue to produce outstanding work and had a very strong showing in the Research Grants Council’s major funding schemes for 2017–18, securing $269.4 million in competitive research grants and participating in all five new projects funded in the Theme-based Research Scheme (including as project co-ordinator for two of them). HKU also successfully competed for and secured 20 projects under the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2018. Taken together, the renewal of our research strategy, dual focus on quality and impact, expanding network of international collaborations, deeper engagement with Mainland China, grooming of future talent and our steadfast commitment to excellence and integrity are providing a fertile ground for HKU research at a most opportune time. Our potential is on an upward trajectory at a time when, more than ever, society needs new solutions and insights to navigate rapid and exciting change. Strategically Oriented Research Themes (SORTs) is a new initiative to advance HKU’s research impact worldwide. HKU-Zhejiang Institute of Research and Innovation represents one of HKU’s many partnerships with Mainland China. ︱19 18︱
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