What is the Research Endowment Fund (REF)? How does the Fund work?
- In the 2008-09 Budget Speech, the Financial
Secretary announced that the Government
would set up an $18 billion Research Endowment
Fund (REF) to support research at the
UGC-funded institutions.
- The REF was established in 2009 to provide
a steady flow of research funding for
the institutions. The UGC is responsible
for advising on the policies governing
the operation, development and investment
of the Fund. Out of the $18 billion, the
investment income of at least $14 billion
will be used to replace, from the 2010/11
academic year onwards, the bulk of the
existing earmarked research grants distributed
annually to the RGC, thus providing greater
funding stability and certainty of funding
to support institutions' research projects.
- In addition, the investment income from
up to $4 billion of the REF will be deployed
to support theme-based research, thus
allowing the institutions to work on research
proposals on themes of a longer-term nature
and strategically beneficial to the development
of Hong Kong.
- The REF was topped up by $5 billion
in 2013/14. Investment income of $2 billion
is used to replace the government recurrent
subvention and investment income of $3
billion is used for providing competitive
research funding for the Local Self-financing
Degree Sector.