CUHK
News Centre

The Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (RGC) announced the funding results of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)/RGC Joint Research Scheme (JRS) and the new Collaborative Research Scheme (CRS) recently. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has been funded for 11 JRS projects and 2 CRS projects, accounting for the highest proportion among institutions in Hong Kong.

CUHK’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Sham Mai-har said, “NSFC/RGC Schemes aim to encourage and promote collaboration between researchers and research teams in Hong Kong and the mainland through capitalizing on their complementary strengths. I am very glad that CUHK researchers are actively carrying out high quality collaborative projects with our mainland counterparts, and I hope that with the support of NSFC and RGC, researchers from the two places can give full play to their respective advantages and achieve fruitful research results.”

The CUHK principal investigators of the 11 funded projects under the JRS are Professor Chan Ting-fung from the School of Life Sciences, Professor Chan Wai-yee from the School of Biomedical Sciences, Professor Duan Liting from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Professor Jiang Yangzi from the Institute of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine in the School of Biomedical Sciences, Dr Kang Byung-ho from the School of Life Sciences, Dr Lam Wai-kei from the Department of Chemical Pathology, Professor Li Gang from the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Professor Ng Chun-yu from the Department of Physics, Professor Ren Hongliang from the Department of Electronic Engineering, Professor Chester Shu Ching-tat from the Department of Electronic Engineering, and Professor Zou Jun from the Department of Mathematics. Each successful JRS Hong Kong applicant can receive a maximum grant of HK$1.25 million.

In addition, two collaborative research projects between Hong Kong and the mainland, led by Professor Liu Renbao from CUHK’s Department of Physics and Professor Michael Song Zheng from the Department of Economics, have successfully obtained funding from the NSFC/RGC CRS.

NSFC/RGC JRS and CRS support research projects jointly proposed by mainland and Hong Kong researchers for a duration of four years. Both schemes focus on supporting research projects in six areas of information technology, life science, new materials science, marine and environmental science, medicine, and management science. The CRS, which was newly introduced in 2022/23, aims to support larger-scale collaborative research across disciplines and universities in the mainland and Hong Kong, with a view to enhancing research output and impact. It offers maximum grants of HK$3.6 million to each successful Hong Kong applicant.