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Funding results of Areas of Excellence Scheme 2022/23 announced

The Research Grants Council (RGC) announced today (June 30) the funding results of the Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme 2022/23 (Tenth Round). Two outstanding research proposals were awarded a total funding of over $162 million, of which around $144 million will be provided by the RGC and about $18 million will be matched by the universities concerned. The list of awarded projects is set out in the Annex.

The Chairman of the RGC, Professor Wong Yuk-shan, said, "I am delighted to announce the successful completion of the AoE Scheme 2022/23. After rigorous peer reviews based on academic merits, two outstanding projects in the areas of the sixth generation (6G) wireless communications technology and a quantitative history of China have been selected for funding. The project teams of the two selected projects demonstrated strong potential to build upon their existing strengths to develop their cutting-edge research into areas of excellence. I am confident that these projects will create lasting impacts not only locally and nationally, but also internationally."

Professor Wong expressed his gratitude to the local research community for their continued support to the AoE Scheme and the work of the RGC, as well as the panel members and international experts for their invaluable contributions in the assessment process amidst the pandemic.

With the increased funding support from the RGC, the biennial AoE Scheme has become an annual exercise, starting with the current exercise. The next call for proposals will be issued in July 2022.


Background of the AoE Scheme

The AoE Scheme was launched in 1998 with the objective of supporting the University Grants Committee-funded universities to build upon their existing strengths and develop them into areas of excellence. A total of 28 AoE projects from various disciplines have been funded in the past nine rounds of the exercise. Details of the approved projects are available on the RGC website (www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/funding_opport/aoe/funded_research/aoe10.html) for reference.