HONG KONG: Joint research funding with China urged

An official review of higher education in Hong Kong has recommended that permission be granted for cross-border use of research funds between the city and mainland China, which could see a ban on such use lifted for the first time in decades.

Recent years have seen growing academic and research collaboration between Hong Kong and China, but a prohibition against the use of China's research funding in Hong Kong and vice versa undermined vast potential for research collaboration, local academics say.

The report Aspirations for the Higher Education System in Hong Kong was commissioned by the official funding body, the University Grants Committee, and released earlier this month. The review was led by Sir Colin Lucas, warden of Rhodes House at Oxford University.

The review group calls on the Hong Kong government to initiate negotiations with relevant authorities in China to ease regulatory requirements in teaching and research collaboration with mainland Chinese institutions, especially the portability of research funds.

Currently Hong Kong's universities wanting to conduct research projects in mainland China must fund them from private donations or other money that does not come from public resources.

Institutions have had to put in time and effort to raise funds to maintain cross-border research ties. If implemented the UGC recommendation could speed things up.

"Projects that would require three years to be done [because of funding constraints] could be completed in one year," said Hong Kong Baptist University President Albert Chan Sun-chi.

"Also, genuine collaboration requires input of resources from both sides. We are in a passive position if we cannot offer any funding for a project," he said, adding that increased chances of research collaboration with the mainland could help to attract top talent from around the world to work in Hong Kong.

Although Hong Kong has high quality research institutions, its allocation of research funding as a percentage of gross domestic product is one of the lowest among developed nations, according to Chan.

"If talent and resources from Hong Kong and the mainland can be merged, the team work and joint expertise could allow us to compete with the rest of the world," he said.

Research projects in Hong Kong often require data collection in China and the need for China's research academics to carry it out. Hong Kong has a shortage of research talent in certain fields and often has to import academic researchers from other countries.

The review group also pointed to Hong Kong's intermediary role in promoting technological cooperation between China and the rest of the world.

More overseas enterprises could also be attracted to conduct research and development projects in Hong Kong or the Pearl River Delta, should more funds become available.

Having established a branch campus in Zhuhai, China, in collaboration with a mainland institution in 2005, Baptist University is set to build a research institute in Changshu, in Jiangsu province, to carry out research in fields including Chinese medicine, biotechnology and communications.

It signed a memorandum of understanding with the Changshu municipal government last month. Expanding into the Yangtze River Delta allows the university to tap the vast state funding available in China, Chan added.

In support of China's scientific and technological development, 12 laboratories in Hong Kong universities have the status of Partner Key Laboratories of China's State Key Laboratories.