| Overview
of Research Activities of The University
of Hong Kong 2008-09
Major
Institutional Policy Developments
The University of
Hong Kong (HKU) seeks to sustain and enhance its excellent reputation
as an institution of higher learning through outstanding teaching
and world-class research, so as to produce rounded graduates with
life-long abilities to provide leadership within the society they
serve.
The University's research
policy flows directly from this institutional vision. Its aim
is to strengthen its capabilities in both basic and applied research
within a culture that strives for excellence and relevance as
well as collaboration. The University emphasises innovative, high-impact
and multidisciplinary research, and believes that a fine research
record enhances the quality of research postgraduate education.
It recognises that it must be fully accountable for the effective
management of the public and private resources it deploys towards
its research aims, and welcomes the opportunity to act in partnership
with the wider community to generate, disseminate and apply knowledge.
To further develop
the University's research excellence and to realise its vision
to be recognised as one of the top research-led universities in
Asia and in the world, the University Research Committee has developed
the following five strategies:
1. to develop strategic
research areas and themes;
2. to support 'blue-sky' and curiosity-driven research;
3. to nurture next-generation scholars and researchers;
4. to encourage knowledge transfer to community and society; and
5. to enhance international and Mainland collaborations.
The University places particular emphasis on strategic interdisciplinary
research in selected fields for the valuable synergies it can
produce. In 2008, the Univeristy identified 5 areas of interdisciplinary
research on which to focus support in the 2008 to 2011 three-year
period. These 5 areas are as follows:
- Biomedicine
- China
- Community
- Environment
- Frontier technology
Within these
five strategic areas, the University has identified 19 themes,
with a focus on creating critical mass and synergies. It is also
striving to provide the research environment for new and important
niche areas of research to develop, and has named four emerging
research themes: Communication Disorders, Diversity Studies, Earth
as a Habitable Planet, and Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine.
While strengthening
its research focus in this way, the University is also investing
in the human resources necessary to sustain a research culture
dedicated to excellence. It intends to
(a) recruit 200 additional
professoriate faculty members internationally by 2012;
(b) increase the proportion of full professors to attain a minimum
of 30% of academic staff, with funding for at least 50 endowed
professorships; and
(c) triple the number of postdoctoral fellows (from 100 to 300)
and more than double the number of research postgraduate students
(from 1,500 to 3,600).
Within this broad
strategic framework the University continues to encourage research
excellence in a number of important specific areas. It continues
to fund curiosity-driven research with small project grants, and
to incubate new research initiatives with seed-funding grants.
It continues, through its RPg reform policies, to develop a culture
of student-centred, performance-based, and shared-responsibility
research. It continues to support specific research proposals
with a China focus by supplying matching funding for the central
government's '973' and '863' projects (the major mainland programmes
for basic and applied research respectively).
The following institutional
policy developments took place during the report period.
Strategic Research
Areas and Themes
The University continues
to support collaborative, interdisciplinary research. Following
an in-depth review of the strategic research areas and themes
during a forum in 2007, in 2008–09 the University Research Committee
(URC) refined the focus into 5 areas and 19 themes with a budget
of $25 million for further strategic development and investment
in the new 3-year cycle. The current 5 areas of interdisciplinary
research (which incorporate 19 themes) are Biomedicine, China,
Community, Environment, and Frontier Technology. This approach
strives to provide the research environment for new and important
niche areas to develop. In parallel with the new allocation of
resources in strategic interdisciplinary research, we have put
great effort into publicising our research focus, and during the
reporting year we launched a new website (http://www.hku.hk/research/sras)
and publication (Advancing Together) on the strategic research
areas and themes to provide an overview for academia, industry
and the general public.
Research Integrity
As a world-class comprehensive
university with research activities spanning all major disciplines,
HKU always realises the vital importance of research integrity
to its reputation. All members of the University are obliged to
observe the highest standards of professional conduct in pursuing
their research activities. To promote Responsible Conduct in Research
(RCR), Professor B.J. Duggan has been appointed as the Research
Integrity Liaison Officer for the University since November 2008.
Professor Duggan has been working closely with the Faculties.
The first step, which took place in December 2008, was to invite
the Faculties to provide information on the good practices and
procedures that they have in place to ensure RCR. Following this,
a position paper on RCR was developed in February 2009 and subsequently
considered by Faculties and the University Research Committee.
Based on the comments received, a series of activities to promote
RCR awareness for all staff will be introduced from 2009–10 onwards.
Conference Grants
Starting from July
1, 2009, the previous cap of HK$4,000 on conference registration
fee and accommodation expenses for RPg student conference grants
has been removed to provide students with more flexibility. Moreover,
instead of supporting each RPg student to attend one conference
during his/her candidature, PhD students can now receive up to
two conference grants or one travel grant plus one conference
grant during their candidature, with the condition that only one
conference/travel grant per student be awarded in any financial
year.
HKU–SPACE Research
Fund
An HKU–SPACE Research
Fund has been established to support research activity at the
University since 2007–08. A sum of HK$2.5 million is made available
to all newly appointed staff within the first twelve months of
assuming duties to apply for a top-up grant of up to HK$104,800
to support a Type B Rpg place. All awards are made on a first-come-first-served
basis on condition that the top-up grant will be matched dollar-for-dollar
by the applicant's Faculty/Department, and the associated Type
B Rpg quota place should be from the Faculty’s main pool allocation
for the current quota year.
Collaborative
Research
The increasing importance
of collaboration in research is fully recognised by the University's
management and by individual researchers. In addition to joining
forces with local institutions, the University is an active participant
in Universitas 21 (U21), a consortium of leading universities
around the world dedicated to the internationalisation of higher
education. HKU has contributed significantly to the U21 initiative
on Water Futures for Sustainable Cities. In March 2009, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor
(Research) attended the annual U21 meeting and, inter alia, gained
insights into different research assessment models to better prepare
the University for the next research assessment exercise.
The University also collaborates with a number of leading institutions,
laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, research institutes and
government bodies, both in mainland China and overseas. Partnership
with industry has also been reinforced to promote the application
of research results.
Large numbers of individual
researchers undertook collaborative projects during the report
period with researchers in the PRC or elsewhere in the world across
a wide range of activities, including joint research projects,
co-authoring of papers, teaching or lecturing, providing consultancy
or peer review services, supervising research students, and serving
as external examiners.
In July 2008, HKU
and the Beijing Normal University (BNU) signed a memorandum of
understanding on a pioneering partnership for a large-scale Catastrophe
Management Initiative (CMI) in response to the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake.
By synergising the strengths of the two universities, the joint
Initiative is the first-of-its-kind and the most comprehensive,
holistic and integrated project in Hong Kong and the Mainland
that addresses all aspects of catastrophe management, ranging
from rehabilitation to reconstruction and redevelopment, at both
policy and practice levels. The two universities expect that the
various collaborative endeavours will build up a knowledge base
to support policy integration in all functional areas, and thus
benefit catastrophe mitigation and management on the Mainland
and across the world in the future. In November 2008, HKU and
BNU jointly organised a cadre training and international dialogue
on post-catastrophe community rebuilding in Sichuan. In May 2009,
HKU hosted a Symposium on Disaster Management, with invited speakers
including local and overseas scholars and experts. At HKU, with
donations from alumni and the community, the University has set
aside some internal seed funding to facilitate its academic colleagues
to engage in research and service-oriented initiatives in the
earthquake affected areas. In the first round of the internal
seed funding exercise applications for 28 projects were received,
of which 15 were approved with total funding of HK$2.01 million.
The projects cover a wide range of strategic areas including catastrophe
health care, emergency engineering, capacity building and psychosocial
care, and social service management.
To enhance research
competitiveness and international collaboration, the University
has established several schemes as follows:
(a) Visiting Research
Professors Scheme
The Visiting Research
Professors Scheme is a new scheme initiated by the University
Research Committee with funding from the University. It aims to
attract leading scholars at professor level from overseas institutions
to pay well planned visits to HKU to make contributions through
building research collaborations, nurturing young researchers,
and helping colleagues in the preparation of GRF and other grant
proposals. Nominations were well received and the selection process
was completed during the reporting year. There will be 11 scholars
visiting the University with visiting periods of up to 6 months
within 2 to 4 academic years from 2009–10 onwards.
(b) King's/HKU
Fellowships
To strengthen the
partnership between HKU and King's College London, both universities
have agreed to launch reciprocal King's/HKU Fellowships to enable
their academic staff members to visit the partner institution.
An HKU scholar from Psychiatry visited King's College in the reporting
year for academic exchange. Given the overwhelming applications
received, the number of awards has increased to 3 from the academic
year 2009–10.
(c) HKU Overseas
Fellowships
The HKU Overseas
Fellowship awards are newly established for supporting academic
staff members to visit overseas institutions over a period of
one to two months for research collaborations that are in line
with the University’s five research strategies: promotion of strategic
research themes, fostering curiosity-driven blue-sky research,
nurturing next generation researchers, development of knowledge
transfer, and strengthening international and Mainland collaborations.
Applications were sought and the selection process was completed
in the reporting year. Eight academic members awarded the fellowship
will receive HK$50,000 to meet the costs of return economy air
travel and part of the living costs during the visit, to take
place in 2009–10.
(d) Doris Zimmern
HKU–Cambridge Hughes Hall Fellowships
To forge closer ties,
and foster cultural exchange and academic excellence, between
HKU and Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, HKU offers co-funding
alongside the Doris Zimmern Charitable Foundation to enable teaching
and research staff of the University to spend a period of time
at Hughes Hall, as visiting fellows, for research collaboration
and other academic purposes. The cost of the accommodation and
a pro rata College fee in respect of individual fellows will be
covered by the University.
University–Industry Partnership
The University encourages
the commercialisation of its intellectual property through technology
transfer, as the practical application of technological advances
benefits both the University and the community as a whole. The
Technology Transfer Office (TTO) was established in September
2006 to carry out technology transfer, legal, and liaison operations,
while commercial operations come under Versitech, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the University. The TTO was re-located to Cyberport
in August 2008 and opened with a talk by the TTO Director of Massachusetts
General Hospital.
There were a number
of examples of successful university-industry partnership during
the report period. Within 2008–09, Versitech Ltd undertook a total
of 22 contract research projects with various industrial sectors.
As of 2008–09, Versitech Ltd has licensed a cumulative total of
64 inventions and know-hows to industry, representing 25.3% of
all the University’s inventions and know-hows. The Faculty of
Engineering has licensed 46.4% of its inventions and know-hows,
the Faculty of Science has licensed 21.8%, the Faculty of Architecture
has licensed 20.0%, and the Medical faculty has licensed 14.0%.
The University has
been active in bidding for funds under the Innovation and Technology
Fund's University-Industry Collaboration Programme (UICP) and
the Innovation and Technology Support Programme (ITSP). Since
the inception of the programmes in 1999, the University has received
total funding of just under HK$26.43 million for 26 approved projects
under UICP and HK$272.06 million for 81 approved projects under
ITSP.
Research Highlights
Significant
Research Achievements
A number of research
highlights in 2008–09 are listed below:
2009–10 GRF Exercise
The results of the
2009–10 GRF exercise were announced in June 2009. In this exercise
the University submitted a total of 571 applications, of which
203 were approved (35.6% of the total number of projects supported).
The University once again received the lion’s share of the funding
(now for twelve out of the last thirteen exercises). As with the
2008–09 exercise, HKU received the largest amount of funds for
projects under the Physical Sciences Panel and the Biology and
Medicine Panel, and the second largest amount of funds for projects
under the Humanities, Social Sciences and Business Studies Panel.
The University was awarded HK$160.772 out of HK$595.202 million
(including the 15% on-cost from the RGC, the implementation of
which started with this latest exercise; the figures excluding
the on-cost are HK$139.802 and HK$517.567 million respectively).
2008–09 CRF Exercise
Of the 12 projects
funded in the 2008–09 round of the RGC's Collaborative Research
Fund (CRF), HKU is lead institution of 3 projects and participating
in a further 7 projects as a collaborating institution, making
it the most successful university in terms of the number of projects
as lead and collaborating institution. The University was awarded
the second largest amount of funding through the scheme. The three
projects with HKU as lead institution are as follows:
(a) 'Reactive Metal-Ligand
Multiple Bonded Complexes—From Biomimetic Reactions to Highly
Efficient Chemical Synthesis', HK$4.9 million, Project Coordinator:
Professor C.M. Che (Department of Chemistry), in collaboration
with CityU and PolyU;
(b) 'Liver Transplantation
Research Centre: A Multidisciplinary Study for Liver Graft Injury',
HK$5.5 million, Project Coordinator: Professor C.M. Lo (Department
of Surgery), in collaboration with CUHK; and
(c) 'Nano-Spintronics—Quantum
Control of Electron Spins in Semiconductors', HK$4.5 million,
Project Coordinator: Professor F.C. Zhang (Department of Physics),
in collaboration with CUHK and HKUST.
Innovation Technology
Support Programme (ITSP)
Awards from the Innovation
and Technology Fund under ITSP have been an increasingly important
source of funding for the University since the programme's introduction
in 1999. The University had 81 projects approved from 1999 until
the end of the reporting year (representing 23% of the 352 projects
approved under ITSP), and has been granted funding of $272.06
million for these projects.
NSFC/RGC Joint
Research Scheme
The University also
did well in 2008–09 in bidding for funds under the National Natural
Science Foundation of China/Research Grants Council (NSFC/RGC)
Joint Research Scheme. Funding of HK$15 million was awarded to
24 projects submitted by six UGC-funded institutions. The University
submitted 55 preliminary proposals, of which 8 were shortlisted
and 7 funded. It received funding of HK$4.75 million, 31.67% of
the total allocation.
Croucher Foundation
ASIs
The Croucher Foundation
sponsors a number of Advanced Study Institutes (ASIs) each year,
to enable experts in a particular field to meet and conduct advanced
tuition on a defined topic.
The ASI meeting "Molecular
Genetics and Cell Signalling in Cancers and Cancer Metastasis"
took place on November 5, 2008. Organised by Professor I.O.L Ng
with funding of over $140,000, it was a follow-up meeting of an
ASI held on January 29–February 2, 2007 with the same title.
In June 2009, funding
of HK$602,000 was granted to the University for the ASI "Recent
Developments in Nearshore Coastal Water Quality Research: Prediction,
Hydro-biological Interactions and Management" by Professor
J.H.W. Lee (Department of Civil Engineering). It will be conducted
on December 11–16, 2009.
Croucher Foundation
International Conferences and Seminars
The Croucher Foundation
also provides sponsorship for international conferences and seminars
in the fields of natural science, technology or medicine. Such
events must be of direct benefit to Hong Kong, and preferably
have a strong research emphasis. Two such conferences were organised
by the University's researchers during the report period:
(a) October 13–17,
2008, Dislocations 2008, by Professor A.H.W. Ngan (Department
of Mechanical Engineering);
(b) June 16–18, 2009,
11th International Conference on Computers in Urban Planning and
Urban Management, by Professor A.G.O. Yeh (Department of Urban
Planning and Design); and
During the report
period the Croucher Foundation also approved two sponsorship grants
to organise the following events:
(a) RNA silencing:
Mechanisms and Applications, by Dr. D.Y. Jin (Department of Biochemistry)
(October, 2009); and
(b) 2nd International
Symposium on Surface and Interface of Biomaterials, by Professor
M. Wang (Department of Mechanical Engineering) (January, 2010).
CAS–Croucher Joint
Laboratories (CAS–Croucher Funding Scheme for Joint Laboratories)
During the reporting
period, HKU was also successful in securing funding through a
new scheme of the Croucher Foundation, the CAS–Croucher ¬Joint
Laboratories. Two awards of HK$1 million each (with further financial
commitment made by the University and the respective Mainland
partners) were given to HKU investigators:
(a) 'Heterogeneous
Peer-to-Peer Network', Principal Investigator: Professor V.O.K.
Li (Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering); and
(b) 'Luminescent Platinum
(II) Complexes: Synthesis, Excited State Properties, and Application
Studies', Principal Investigator: Professor C.M. Che (Department
of Chemistry).
External Academic
Honours
The University of
Hong Kong has a proud record of academic recognition. The University
has also been awarded more Croucher Foundation Senior Research
Fellowships (31 out of a total of 78 fellowships awarded since
1997, including Senior Medical Research Fellowships) than any
of its sister institutions.
During the report
period a number of the University’s researchers received important
academic honours:
(a) Professor A.H.W.
Ngan (Department of Mechanical Engineering) and Professor J. Wang
(Department of Physics) were awarded Croucher Foundation Senior
Research Fellowships.
(b) Dr. J.M. Nicholls
(Department of Pathology) was awarded a Croucher Foundation Senior
Medical Research Fellowship.
(c) A research team
comprising 2 HKU scholars—Professor B.C.Y. Wong and Dr J. Wang,
both of the Department of Medicine—and 13 Mainland scientists
won the first-class award of the 2008 State Scientific and Technological
Progress Award. The winning project was entitled "Discovery
of malignant and phenotype-related molecules and establishment
and application of sequential prophylactic strategy in gastric
cancer".
(d) Professor H.H.P.
Fang (Department of Civil Engineering) was the co-recipient of
a second-class award in the same exercise for his project "The
study and engineering application of a new biological technology
for the removal of organic nitrogenous pollutants from wastewaters".
(e) Professor A.G.O.
Yeh (Department of Urban Planning and Design) was awarded the
UN-Habitat Lecture Award at a ceremony in Nanjing in November
2008. The Award is given by the UN to recognise outstanding and
sustained contributions to research and practice in town planning
and development.
(f) Professor M.F.
Yuen (Department of Medicine) was named a young scientist of the
year in the medicine category at the inaugural Young Scientist
Awards, co-organised by the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions
of Higher Learning and Elsevier, the world's leading research
publisher of scientific information.
(g) Professor J.H.W.
Lee (Department of Civil Engineering) was elected Honorary Fellow
of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) in 2008.
(h) Prof Jao Tsung-I,
a worldwide renowned scholar and a versatile talent in Chinese
learning, was awarded a Fellowship of China Central Research Institute
of Culture and History in 2009, the first Hong Kong scholar to
receive this honour.
Outstanding Researcher
Award Scheme
The University continues
to encourage and reward distinguished research achievement by
its staff by conferring its own outstanding research awards at
a well-attended annual ceremony. At a ceremony held on February
19, 2009 the University conferred the following awards in respect
of research achievements during and prior to the report period:
(i) Outstanding
Research Student Supervisor Awards
Prof. R.Y.K. Man (Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy)
Prof. I.O.L. Ng (Department of Pathology)
Dr M.F. Zhou (Department of Earth Sciences)
(ii) Outstanding
Young Researcher Awards
Dr T.L. Chan (Department of Pathology)
Dr A.S.Y. Cheung (Faculty of Law)
Dr E.Y.M. Lam (Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
Dr W.T. Siok (School of Humanities)
Dr P.H. Toy (Department of Chemistry)
(iii) Outstanding
Researcher Awards
Dr D.Y. Jin (Department of Biochemistry)
Prof. J. Lam (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
Dr K.K. Luke (School of Humanities)
Prof. H.F. Tse (Department of Medicine)
Prof. W.T. Wong (Department of Chemistry)
Since 2005, the University's
Outstanding Researcher Award Scheme has included the Research
Output Prize to reward the authors of outstanding individual publications
such as refereed journal papers, books, or CD-ROMs. Faculties
can determine the research output form that best represents their
research achievement and select on output item each year for the
prize. Ten Research Output Prizes were awarded in February 2009
for the following items of research output:
Faculty of Architecture:
Fulong Wu, Jiang Xu* and Anthony Gar-On Yeh*, Urban Development
in Post-reform China: State, Market, and Space, Routledge
(2007), 345 pages.
Faculty of Arts: Bert
Becker*, Georg Michaelis: Preusischer Beamter Reichskanzler Christlicher
Reformer 1857–1936. Eine Biographie (Georg Michaelis: Prussian
Official, Imperial Chancellor, Christian Reformer 1857–1936. A
Biography), Schöningh (2007), 892 pages.
Faculty of Business
and Economics: James P. Vere*, '"Having It All" No Longer:
Fertility, Female Labor Supply, and the New Life Choices of Generation
X', Demography, 44, 4 (2007), 821–828.
Faculty of Dentistry:
R. Wong* and B. Rabie*, 'Effect of Puerarin on Bone Formation',
OsteoArthritis and Cartilage, 15 (2007), 894–899.
Faculty of Education:
Shek-kam Tse*, Joseph Wai-ip Lam*, Elizabeth Ka-yee Loh* and Raymond
Yu-hong Lam*, 'The Influence of the Language that Hong Kong Primary
School Students Habitually Speak at Home on their Chinese Reading
Ability in School' Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural
Development, 28, 5 (2007), 400–417.
Faculty of Engineering:
Ken T.M. Wong*, Joseph H.W. Lee* and I.J. Hodgkiss*, 'A Simple
Model for Forecast of Coastal Algal Blooms', Estuarine, Coastal
and Shelf Science, 74 (2007), 175–196.
Faculty of Law: Thomas
K. Cheng* 'A Tale of Two Competition Law Regimes—The Telecom-Sector
Competition Regulation in Hong Kong and Singapore' World Competition,
30, 3 (2007), 501–526.
Li Ka Shing Faculty
of Medicine: Sha Mi, Bing Hu*, Kyungmin Hahm, Yi Luo, Edward Sai
Kam Hui*, Qiuju Yuan*, Wai Man Wong*, Li Wang*, Huanxing Su*,
Tak-Ho Chu*, Jiasong Guo*, Wenming Zhang*, Kwok-Fai So*, Blake
Pepinsky, Zhaohui Shao, Christilyn Graff, Ellen Garber, Vincent
Jung, Ed Xuekui Wu* and Wutian Wu*, 'LINGO-1 Antagonist Promotes
Spinal Cord Remyelination and Axonal Integrity in MOG-induced
Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis', Nature Medicine,
13, 10 (2007).
Faculty of Science:
Vesselin Drensky and Jie-Tai Yu*, 'The Strong Anick Conjecture
is True', European Mathematical Society, 9 (2007), 659–679.
Faculty of Social
Sciences: David D. Zhang*, Peter Brecke, Harry F. Lee*, Yuan-Qing
He and Jane Zhang, 'Global Climate Change, War and Population
Decline in Recent Human History', The National Academy of
Sciences of the USA, 104, 49 (2007), 19214–19219.
*
HKU
members
Major International
Research Events
A number of important
international research conferences were organised during the report
period by the University including the following examples:
(a) January 9–10,
2009—Over thirty leading scholars from around the world gathered
at HKU for two days of intensive discussion of the international
impact of the Cultural Revolution on China's position in the world.
Top mainland academics met with colleagues from around the world—Russia,
Germany, Eastern Europe, Greece, India, the US and the UK—to explore
in depth the international ramifications of events in China during
the last years of Mao Zedong's leadership.
(b) May 9, 2009—Distinguished
academicians and local and international experts gathered for
A Symposium on Disaster Management, with intensive discussion
and updates on different aspects of disaster management. The symposium
was well received with over 250 participants. Two top mainland
academics, Professor Li Deren, Member of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Professor Wang
Sijing, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, shared their
expertise on "Remote Sensing and GIS for Disaster Management"
and "Extreme Natural Disasters and Risk Management"
respectively.
(c) October 23–25,
2008—The Inaugural Conference on "Managing World Cities:
Hong Kong-London-New York", co-organised by the Faculty of
Social Sciences at HKU, the Central Policy Unit, King's College,
London and New York University, New York, was held in Hong Kong.
The Chief Executive, the Honourable Mr Donald Tsang, delivered
a keynote speech on the first day of the three-day conference,
which explored the common opportunities and challenges in the
management of world cities.
Published Research
The University has
an excellent record of published research, both in discipline-specific
journals and in more high-profile publications such as Science,
Nature, and The Lancet. As far as its academic publishing is concerned,
it has the highest number of refereed publications, both in absolute
terms and expressed as a ratio of publications per staff member,
of any UGC-funded institution. According to the latest available
statistics, for 2007–08 (see RGC Annual Report 2008) the University
had 5,768 peer-reviewed refereed publications.
The University does
particularly well in scientific publications. According to statistics
published by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), there
were a total of 204,513 citations of 19,350 HKU papers in journals
tracked by the ISI between 1999 and June 2009. This was the highest
number of citations of any UGC-funded institution. In 2008 the
University had 3,097 publications in journals tracked by the ISI,
again more than any other UGC-funded institution. The ISI also
ranked 100 HKU academic staff among the world'ss top 1% of scientists.
Patents
The University has
filed 877 patents in various parts of the world since 1998, mostly
in the United States (425), the European Union (154) and Greater
China (120 in China, including Hong Kong, and 16 in Taiwan). During
the same period 208 patents were granted, principally in the United
States (99). During the 2008–09 academic year, the University
filed 79 patents. During the same period, 41 patents were granted
and 18 patent applications were abandoned.
Agreements/Legal
Documents
During 2008–09, the
University has signed or reviewed 369 technology transfer related
agreements/legal documents—such as licensing, consultancy and
materials transfer agreements—with counter signing parties mostly
in Hong Kong (102), North America (114), the European Union (40)
and the People’s Republic of China (76). The total of 369 represents
an increase of more than 40% on the figure for 2007–08.
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