RGC announces funding results of Areas of Excellence Scheme and Theme-based Research Scheme 2023/24

The Research Grants Council (RGC) announced today (July 13) the funding results of the Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme 2023/24 (Eleventh Round) and the Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) 2023/24 (Thirteenth Round).

Two outstanding research proposals were awarded a total funding of around $132 million under the AoE Scheme. As for the TRS, a total of nine research proposals were awarded, six of which were provided with a five-year budget totalling $315 million, and the remaining three potentially ground-breaking and highly original projects were provided with a one-year exploratory funding totalling $20 million for yielding preliminary results. The lists of the awarded projects are set out in Annexes I and II respectively.

The Chairman of the RGC, Professor Wong Yuk-shan, said, "I am delighted to announce the successful completion of the AoE Scheme and the TRS 2023/24. After rigorous peer reviews that are based on academic merits, two outstanding projects in the areas of antenna technology and sustainable development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area were selected for funding under the AoE Scheme. The project teams of these two projects demonstrated strong potential in developing their cutting-edge research into areas of excellence. The RGC also decided to fund nine projects important for Hong Kong's long-term development under the TRS. These projects cover a wide range of research areas relevant to our daily lives, including vascular disease, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, fatty liver disease, tropical-storm-resilient system, landslide emergency risk management, regulation of digital assets, smart city, quantum sensing technology and integrated circuits. We look forward to the lasting economic and societal impacts these projects will bring locally, nationally and internationally."

"The RGC introduced two new grand challenge topics, namely "Quantum Technology" and "Integrated Circuits", for this TRS exercise. I am particularly pleased to note that a proposal has been awarded under each of the two new topics. In addition, the project team which was awarded with exploratory funding last year obtained important research results on nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and has been further granted a five-year budget this year. The exploratory funding was introduced to support high-risk yet potentially groundbreaking research. The successful outcome of the said exploratory project shows that the initiative is bearing fruits. Building on the success, the RGC allocated a total of $20 million to fund three exploratory projects in the areas of fatty liver disease, regulation of digital assets and quantum sensing technology this year. We look forward to yet another round of fruitful results from the project teams."

"The most encouraging results of this year's AoE Scheme and TRS demonstrate that with Hong Kong's positioning as an international innovation and technology centre and our solid foundation in scientific research, the RGC and our universities continue to leverage our strengths to serve the needs of our country and Hong Kong."

Professor Wong expressed his gratitude to the panel members and non-local experts for their valuable contributions to the assessment process, as well as local researchers for their continued support to the AoE Scheme, the TRS and the RGC's work.

Details of the approved projects for the 2023/24 exercise are available on the RGC website (AoE Scheme: https://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/funding_opport/aoe/funded_research/aoe11.html and TRS: https://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/funding_opport/trs/funded_research/trs13.html) for reference. A call for proposals for the AoE Scheme and the TRS 2024/25 will be issued later this month.

 

 

Annex I

Areas of Excellence Scheme 2023/24 (Eleventh Round)
Funding Results

Project Title	Participating UGC-funded Universities#	Approved Budget* (HK$ million)	Funding from RGC* (HK$ million)
Advanced Antenna Technology for a Smart World	CityU, CUHK, HKU, HKUST, PolyU	69.190	58.271
Study of the Regional Earth System for Sustainable Development under Climate Change in the Greater Bay Area	CUHK, HKU, HKUST, PolyU	87.147	73.891
Total		156.337	132.162

#	CityU: City University of Hong Kong CUHK: The Chinese University of Hong Kong HKU: The University of Hong Kong HKUST: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology PolyU: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
*	Inclusive of indirect costs / on-costs. The RGC's funding allocation for the AoE Scheme 2023/24 is about HK$132 million. The remaining around HK$24 million of the approved budget will be matched by the universities concerned.

 

 

Annex II

Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) 2023/24 (Thirteenth Round)
Funding Results

Theme / Project Title	Participating UGC-funded Universities#	Approved Budget* (HK$ million)	Funding from RGC* (HK$ million)
Proposals with Five-Year Budget
Theme 1: Understanding Diseases and Disease Prevention
Single-Cell Multi-Omics Study of Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease: Narrowing the Gap Between Bench and Bedside	CityU, CUHK, HKBU, HKU, HKUST	55.510	49.959
Investigation of the Immunosuppressive Microenvironment in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma	HKU	62.971	56.674
Theme 2: Developing a Sustainable Environment
INTACT: Intelligent Tropical-storm-resilient System for Coastal Cities	CityU, CUHK, HKU, HKUST, PolyU	48.293	43.464
Digital Twin-empowered Landslide Emergency Risk Management	CUHK, HKU, HKUST	73.945	62.071
Theme 4: Advancing Emerging Research and Innovations Important to Hong Kong
High-performance Collaborative Edge Computing Enabling Smart City Applications: Framework and Methodologies	CUHK, HKU, HKUST, PolyU	50.821	43.739
Overcoming Technical Limits of Copper Hybrid Bonding for Advanced Three-Dimensional Integrated Circuits	CityU, CUHK, HKU, HKUST	67.437	59.093
Total (6 projects)		358.977	315.000
Exploratory Proposals with One-Year Budget (to yield preliminary results)
Theme 1: Understanding Diseases and Disease Prevention
Dysregulated Host - Gut Microbiota Co-Metabolism in Metabolic Associated Fatty Liver Disease	CUHK, HKBU, HKU, HKUST	-	7.285
Theme 3: Enhancing Hong Kong's Strategic Position as a Regional and International Business Centre
Strengthening Hong Kong as a Global Financial Center by Enhancing the Overall Regtech Capacity of the Industry and Facilitating the Regulation and Infrastructure Design of CBDC and Digital Assets in Hong Kong	HKUST, PolyU	-	5.624
Theme 4: Advancing Emerging Research and Innovations Important to Hong Kong
Diamond-based Multi-modal Quantum Sensing of Nanomagnetism	CityU, CUHK, HKU, HKUST	-	7.091
Total (3 projects)		-	20.000

#

CityU: City University of Hong Kong CUHK: The Chinese University of Hong Kong HKBU: Hong Kong Baptist University HKU: The University of Hong Kong HKUST: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology PolyU: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

*

Inclusive of indirect costs / on-costs. The RGC's funding allocation for the six projects with five-year budget in the TRS 2023/24 is HK$315 million and the remaining around HK$44 million of the approved budget will be matched by the universities concerned. For the three exploratory projects, the RGC's funding allocation is $20 million and the university matching is subject to a revised one-year budget plan to be submitted by the project team which requires approval from the relevant Committee.