Calendar 2012–13

The University 7 Part 1 Research and Development CUHK fosters the development of quality research over a broad front in all its eight Faculties. It provides opportunities for advancement in the pursuit of human knowledge, and for academic staff to undertake consultancy and collaborative projects with industry. Twenty-eight major research institutes have been established by the University to provide financial support and other facilities for research. While encouraging both basic and applied research in all academic areas, the University also realizes that it is important to achieve excellence and world-wide impact. As part of its Strategic Plan adopted in January 2006, the University has identified Five Major Areas under its Focused Investments Scheme. These areas, selected by the University taking into account both its overall strategy and specific opportunities for funding support, are Chinese Studies, Biomedical Sciences, Information Sciences, Economics and Finance, and Geoinformation and Earth Sciences. In the five University Grants Committee (UGC) ‘Areas of Excellence’ exercises, CUHK has been successful in securing significant support from the UGC in the areas of information technology, plant and agricultural biotechnology, Chinese medicine research and further development, Centre for Research into Circulating Fetal Nucleic Acids, Historical Anthropology of Chinese Society, and Institute of Network Coding. The multidisciplinary teams aimed for good progress in their respective research areas. At the national level, four State Key Laboratories Partner Laboratories have also been established at CUHK. The State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China (CUHK), established in 2006, conducts research into the biology and early detection of cancers particularly prevalent in Asian populations, and seeks to develop novel therapeutics for their treatment. The State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology (CUHK), established in 2008, studies ways of improving rice yields in China by improving the species of rice grown by Chinese farmers. Established in 2009, the State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China (CUHK) conducts research into the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine and the application of biotechnology in medical science, while the State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry, established in 2010, advances inter-disciplinary basic research. About one quarter of the government’s annual allocation to the University in the form of block grants goes directly or indirectly to research. The University also relies heavily on different external funding sources to support research activities. The Research Grants Council remains the major sponsor of research. In the 2011–12 exercise, CUHK staff secured some HK$123 million in the form of competitive grants. The high quality of research is also reflected in the many papers published in international and local refereed journals. Other major sources of funding are the Quality Education Fund, the Innovation and Technology Fund, the Health and Health Services Research Fund, the Health Care and Promotion Fund, the Research Fund for the Control of Infectious Diseases, and various private donations.