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Research projects from multiple disciplines at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have recently been awarded a total of over HK$32 million in funding from the Research Grants Council (RGC) under various schemes, including the Research Impact Fund, the European Union (EU) – Hong Kong (HK) Research and Innovation Cooperation Co-funding Mechanism by the RGC, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)/RGC Joint Research Scheme, French National Research Agency (ANR)/RGC Joint Research Scheme, and the Germany/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme, in support of a greater collaborative research, as well as more research that can be translated into benefits to the community.

Professor Mai Har SHAM, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, said, “I am proud of the CUHK researchers who have recently achieved impressive results in the RGC funding schemes. Our biomedicine and automation technology projects, which are among the main research areas in the CUHK 2025 strategic plan, are particularly successful. It shows that CUHK is on the right track in terms of research capacity building, and also demonstrates the University’s foresight and pursuit of research excellence.”

Three research projects were awarded over HK$21 million from the Research Impact Fund. The Fund aims to encourage impactful and translational research projects, and collaborative research beyond academia. The three projects are led respectively by Professor Li ZHANG, Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering; Professor Amy Sau-ching HA, Department of Sports Science and Physical Education; and Professor Jun YU, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics.

Professor Li ZHANG also won a research grant under the EU-HK Research and Innovation Cooperation Co-funding Mechanism by the RGC which aims to foster EU-HK collaboration in academic research. Professor Zhang received over HK$1.8 million to support his project “Multifunctional Hydrogel-based Magnetic Heteroswarm for Liver Chemoembolisation”.

Six research projects were funded by the NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme to the tune of over HK$7 million. The scheme aims to promote collaboration between researchers and research teams in Hong Kong and the mainland that complements the existing strengths of both sides. The six projects include one in the Life Science category led by Professor Jerome HUI, School of Life Sciences; two in the Medicine category, led respectively by Professor Ling QIN of the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology and Professor Vincent Chi-kwan CHEUNG of the School of Biomedicial Sciences; one in the Marine and Environmental Science category, led by Professor Lin LIU of the Earth System Science Programme; and two in the New Materials Science category, led respectively by Professor Dongyan XU of the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering and Professor Hon Ki TSANG of the Department of Electronic Engineering.

In addition, Professor Jianfang WANG, Department of Physics, received over HK$2.5 million under the ANR/RGC Joint Research Scheme to support his project “Electrically-Excited Chiral Plasmonic NanoCavities”. This scheme was launched to strengthen collaboration between French and Hong Kong researchers.

RGC also launched a joint research scheme with Germany, the Germany/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme, to promote collaboration between the two locations by providing researchers in both with travel grants. Professor Normann WITZLEB, Faculty of Law and Professor Margaret IP, Department of Microbiology each won a travel grant under this scheme, together worth a total of HK$130,600.

Details of the funding results are attached.