UGC Blog
I want to respond
Archives
UGC
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Promoting Knowledge Transfer for Socio-Economic Benefits
(04-11-2010)

What role does "Knowledge transfer" play among the academia and the community? If knowledgeable and innovative academics work round-the-clock doing research yet not sharing its outcome with the community, then whatever potential their research results have will fail to translate into real impact for the betterment of the society. The UGC is committed to encouraging local higher education institutions to step up their "knowledge transfer” to our society: on the one hand, to apply research outcome to the industries and the community for the genuine benefit of the economy and the society; on the other to understand proactively the knowledge needs of the community which in turn enrich their research agenda and curriculum, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and impact of the public funds invested in higher education. "Knowledge transfer" essentially is a “two-way street” (thus being called by some as "knowledge exchange") combining two strong powers: that of institutions in exploring new knowledge; and that of our community and industries in applying and disseminating knowledge - together to bring about socio-economic development and innovation.

Two Common Perceptions

Specifically, this process generally takes one of the following forms: institutions undertaking commissioned research from business sectors; licensing patent rights to corporations for product development; organizing continuing professional education courses for specific fields for enhancing their professional skills; partnering with non-governmental organizations to optimize their provision of community service; offering to the public “research outcomes” such as visual and arts performance, etc. We are pleased to see institutions have become more positive and proactive in "knowledge transfer" and regard it as one of their three core functions – the other two being teaching and learning, and research. Despite the various benefits of "knowledge transfer", there are nevertheless two common perceptions among our institutions: first, some traditional academics think they are in fact “transferring knowledge” to their students everyday in their lectures and to their peers through regular publications in top-notch international journals and conferences. I have no dispute to this – but the potential impact their discoveries can bring is far beyond classrooms and papers. For instance, discovering a chemical for curbing chronic diseases is certainly good news for the world. Yet, patients may hardly benefit from this if the researcher only publishes in international journal, but refrains from participating in drug development. Discovery of academic knowledge is certainly a noble endeavour, but some take it that this process should not be tainted with any association to commercialization or profiteering. I encourage we all to broaden our perspectives: the benefit entailed by knowledge transfer is not about earnings of the institutions and corporations, but the socio-economic benefits brought to the community. "Knowledge transfer", in broader terms, is simply a process to match demand and supply in knowledge. The better demand and supply are matched, the more effective each public research dollar is being spent. Therefore, we should encourage the academic to join forces with the community to “transfer" the research outputs to the society. Second, some institutions, being pioneers in "knowledge transfer", set up technology transfer offices in their institutions many years ago to serve as a one-stop-shop between the industries and the knowledge base in the university, and some of these offices even took the initiative to “diagnose” business’ needs in knowledge and professional skills. They are most vital element in promoting Knowledge Transfer. However, "knowledge transfer" is broader than that. Scholarly outputs from arts, humanities and social sciences disciplines make equally important contribution to the transmission of humanistic cultural values and improvement in quality of life, and these research results should also be shared with the public. Therefore, the UGC firmly believes that institutions, including those having comparative advantage in non-technology disciplines, can also play their parts in “knowledge transfer”.

To encourage academics to spend extra time on "knowledge transfer", policy support is essential. Providing appropriate incentives for academic staff may be even more effective than simply setting up more working groups. We are pleased to see some institutions include an appraisal element on "knowledge transfer" in the staff promotion mechanism, launch award programmes for "knowledge transfer", and provide teaching relief for colleagues engaged in "knowledge transfer" activities etc. There is much room for institutional management to share practices in this area. Reinventing the wheel is surely something we wish to avoid for the benefit of the entire sector.

Conference this month to Share Experiences

The UGC, as a higher education funding body, spares no efforts in promoting "knowledge transfer". We successfully lobbied the Government for introducing a new stream of recurrent funding ($50 million a year) last year for knowledge transfer. Although it is not a big sum when compared with the overall sector-wide budget, this additional funding is recurrent in nature - signifying the ongoing commitment of the Government and the UGC in supporting knowledge transfer. Within the first year of funding, we have witnessed positive responses from our institutions. A marked increase was observed in both the quality and quantity of knowledge transfer (on average over 20% growth in terms of volume), and central monitoring system was also improved in the institutions. There is indeed a “ripple effect” that we hoped the funding could bring about. Institutions have recently submitted to the UGC annual reports for the knowledge transfer activities for the past year, which can be found at the UGC website.

We also vigorously promote the active sharing of experiences among institutions. The UGC and the Innovation and Technology Commission co-sponsored the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the other seven UGC-funded institutions and the Hong Kong Science Park to co-organise a two-day Knowledge Transfer Conference on 8 and 9 November. The Conference will feature a good number of experience-sharing sessions from local and overseas academics, and industry and business leaders. For details, please visit the event website. Through this Conference, the UGC hopes to encourage institutions to strengthen their "knowledge transfer", promote exchanges with other regions, and establish Hong Kong's leading position in this area, in order to benefit the general public and the wider community.