Ban on Hong Kong scientists securing funding from mainland China should end, local delegate tells national legislature

Leading scientist Professor Nancy Ip says she has submitted proposal to National People’s Congress, as Hong Kong University of Science and Technology eyes joint research centre with mainland institution

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The Greater Bay Area is an economic scheme meant to more closely link Hong Kong and Macau to nine mainland Chinese cities. Photo: Roy Issa

Published: 8:03am, 19 Mar 2018Updated: 11:27am, 20 Mar 2018

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is planning to set up another joint research centre in the Greater Bay Area with a mainland institution to boost cross-border collaboration, according to one of its vice-presidents.

Professor Nancy Ip Yuk-yu, an internationally renowned scientist and one of the city’s 36 deputies to the National People’s Congress, said she had proposed to China’s top legislature lifting the ban on local scientists getting mainland funding for their research.

HKUST’s vice-president for research and graduate studies told the Post she saw great opportunities in building a stronger academic alliance in the Greater Bay Area – a national scheme linking Hong Kong and Macau with nine other cities in southern Guangdong province.

HKUST vice-president Professor Nancy Ip hopes Hong Kong can tap into the mainland’s resources. Photo: Kimmy Chung

“Twenty years ago, there was more research funding in Hong Kong than on the mainland, but now it’s reversed.

“It would be very good for Hong Kong if we could tap into resources on the mainland,” Ip said in Beijing, where she is attending the ‘two sessions’ – annual meetings of the NPC and the central government’s top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

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