RGC announces funding results of Strategic Topics Grant 2023/24
The Research Grants Council (RGC) announced today (July 18) that six selected proposals under the Strategic Topics Grant (STG) 2023/24 were awarded a total funding of around $150 million.
The Chairman of the RGC, Professor Wong Yuk-shan, said, "The objective of the STG is to support collaborative and interdisciplinary research at University Grants Committee-funded universities to address Hong Kong's imminent challenges and seize the opportunities offered by the National 14th Five-Year Plan. We are delighted by the overwhelming response from our academia and the total of 29 preliminary proposals received."
Of the 29 preliminary proposals, 13 were shortlisted for submission of full proposals. After a thorough and rigorous assessment process, six of them were selected for funding (see Annex).
Professor Wong added, "I am pleased to see the successful implementation of this new initiative, which was introduced in 2022. The selected proposals cover a wide range of research areas including artificial intelligence in health care, carbon neutrality, integrated circuits, opto-electronics innovation and technology and public health. We look forward to fruitful outcomes of these research projects which, I am confident, will bring about impactful results and benefit Hong Kong."
Professor Wong expressed his gratitude to members and international experts of the assessment committee for their valuable contributions to the assessment process, as well as local researchers for their staunch support to the STG and the work of the RGC.
Details of the awarded projects have been posted on the RGC website (www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/). A call for proposals for the STG 2024/25 will be issued later this month.
Annex
Strategic Topics Grant (STG) 2023/24 Funding Results
| Project Title | Participating UGC-funded Universities# | Approved Budget* (HK$ million) | Funding from the RGC* (HK$ million) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topic 1: Using Artificial Intelligence to Address Imminent Challenges in Health Care | |||
| AI-assisted Microrobotic Platform for Minimally Invasive Interventions | CityU, CUHK, HKU, PolyU | 29.655 | 26.690 |
| Integrated Innovative Artificial Intelligence, Genomic and Biomedical Technologies in Healthcare: Objective Diagnosis, Personalised Therapy, and Determining the Etiology of Major Mental Disorders | CUHK, HKU, HKUST, PolyU | 37.326 | 33.594 |
| Topic 2: Striving towards Carbon Neutrality before 2050 | |||
| Decarbonization Solutions for Buildings in Hong Kong: Development, Assessment and Deployment | CityU, HKUST, PolyU | 34.377 | 30.939 |
| Topic 3: Establishing Hong Kong as the Leading Integrated Circuits, and Opto-electronics Innovation and Technology Hub in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area | |||
| Technology for Next Generation Wide-/Ultrawidebandgap Semiconductor Integrated Electronics | HKUST | 23.759 | 21.383 |
| Photonic Integrated Platforms Based on Topological Physics | CityU, HKU, HKUST | 11.111 | 10.000 |
| Topic 4: Managing the Socio-economic Implications of Pandemic and Other Public Health Challenges | |||
| Improving Pandemic Preparedness by Reflecting on Experiences in the COVID-19 Pandemic from Different Perspectives | HKU, LU | 30.059 | 27.053 |
| Total (6 projects) | 166.288 | 149.659 | |
| # | 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 LU: Lingnan University PolyU: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University |
| * | Exclusive of on-costs. |