12 HKU research projects receive HK$72 million funding under RGC schemes
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has achieved significant results in the Research Grants Council (RGC) 2025/26 Exercise. 12 research projects led by HKU, including three under the Research Impact Fund (RIF) and nine under the Collaborative Research Fund (CRF), receiving over HK$72 million in funding.
Professor Stephanie Ma, Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) (Interim), HKU, expressed her encouragement regarding the university's success in securing collaborative funding. She said, 'I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the Research Grants Council for its invaluable support of HKU's cross-disciplinary research endeavours. I also extend my deep appreciation to our dedicated research teams whose creativity and commitment have made these achievements possible. This significant grant not only recognises HKU's research excellence in pioneering fields that span Engineering, Medicine, Science, Architecture and beyond, but also reaffirms our position as a global leader in research innovation. At HKU, we remain firmly committed to transforming cutting-edge discoveries into tangible, real-world solutions that address pressing societal challenges. I encourage all HKU members to continue embracing the spirit of bold innovation, advancing world-class research and fostering impactful knowledge exchange, so that our collective efforts can benefit the broader community and contribute to the development of innovation and technology in Hong Kong and globally.'
HKU projects funded under RGC Research Impact Fund:
- Gallium Nitride Chip Technology for Vertical Power Delivery to AI Processors in Data Centres
Project Investigator: Professor Yuaho Zhang, Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
- Single-base m6A epitranscriptomic profiling: A new frontier in cancer biomarker discovery and precision medicine
Project Investigator: Professor Wong Chun-ming, Department of Pathology, School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine
- Saving Hong Kong oysters from environmental disaster to sustain the livelihoods of growers
Project Investigator: Professor Thiyagarajan VENGATESEN, Professor, School of Biological Sciences and Swire Institute of Marine Science, Faculty of Science
HKU projects funded under RGC Collaborative Research Fund:
- An angle-resolved ultrafast cathodoluminescent microscope for interdisciplinary studies of quantum optics and quantum materials
Project Investigator: Principal Investigator: Professor Yi YANG, Belinda Hung Outstanding Young Professor and Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science
- Neural mechanisms of consolidated memory editing in humans and mice
Project Investigator: Professor Cora Lai Sau-wan, Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, LKS Faculty of Medicine
- A Deep Dive into Immune Dynamics and Drug Resistance to Advance Therapeutic Innovations for FGFR2-altered intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma
Project Investigator: Prof Carmen Wong Chak-lui, Department of Pathology, School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine
- Molecular Mechanisms of Non-Homologous End Joining Regulating Nucleosome Remodeling in Human DNA Repair
Project Investigator: Professor Liang Shikang, Assistant Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, LKS Faculty of Medicine
- Investigation the Mechanism of Coronavirus RNA Replication and Translocation within Replication Organelle
Project Investigator: Professor Ni Tao, Assistant Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, LKS Faculty of Medicine
- Human centromere structure and its maintenance mechanism
Project Investigator: Professor Zhou Keda, Assistant Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, LKS Faculty of Medicine
- Exploring an adaptive transboundary flood risk governance framework in the Greater Bay Area: An enhanced social-ecological-technological systems approach
Project Investigator: Professor Shenjing He, Lady Edith Kotewall Professor in the Built Environment, Faculty of Architecture
- The Science of Sustainable Structural Materials: microstructure evolution, simulation tools and experiments
Project Investigator: Professor David Srolovitz, Dean of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Chair of Materials Theory, Faculty of Engineering
- Wafer-scale integrated III-V/lithium niobate lasers and photonic circuits
Project Investigator: Professor Chao Xiang, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
The RIF is designed to encourage more impactful and translational research projects, and a greater volume of collaborative research beyond academia. The CRF supports multi-investigator, multi-disciplinary projects in order to encourage more research groups to engage in creative and high-quality multi-disciplinary projects.
Please visit the UGC website for the full list of funded projects for 2025/26 under the Research Impact Fund, and the Collaborative Research Fund.
