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Coronavirus pandemic
OpinionComment
Anne Li
Melvin Kan
Anne LiandMelvin Kan

Opinion | Wuhan virus outbreak and Sars history should push Hong Kong towards bold steps in research collaboration

  • During Sars, Hong Kong learned the importance of cross-institutional cooperation in research and clinical practice
  • The city must bring its most gifted researchers together under one roof and encourage interdisciplinary projects, like the Broad Institute in the US

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A boy has his temperature taken as he arrives at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on January 20, 2004, where a man was in isolation after showing Sars-like symptoms. Hong Kong had been declared Sars-free the previous year, after 299 died of the disease. Photo: AFP
Anne LiandMelvin Kan
As Hong Kong remains vigilant in the face of the pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, memories of the city’s fight against the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak are still fresh. A key factor in the defeat of the Sars epidemic was the concerted effort led by the World Health Organisation, which included universities, hospitals and government laboratories across 10 countries.

Through a progressive model of open collaboration, researchers prioritised the greater good over their personal gain and shared their research findings on a common WHO database. As a result, the Sars coronavirus was swiftly identified as the cause of the illness, which helped efforts to contain the spread of the disease and laid the foundation for the ongoing quest for a cure.

As scientific developments become more complex, research collaboration is more important than ever. Unfortunately, the collaborative spirit shown during the Sars epidemic was short-lived, holding back Hong Kong’s progress in innovation in science and technology.

To foster scientific collaboration, Hong Kong needs to establish mega research institutes.

Researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States were pioneers in advancing scientific collaboration, proposing to establish mega research institutes as a new model of collaboration in 2004.

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