Exclusive | Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam soothes storm after Science Park boss accused of interfering in academic freedom of Swedish university branch

Developments prompted leader Carrie Lam to write to Swedish institute to avert diplomatic row, Post learns

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Executive Council member Fanny Law at the Hong Kong Science Park, which she chairs. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 7:00am, 4 Dec 2017Updated: 11:06am, 4 Dec 2017

Actions by the chairwoman of Hong Kong’s Science Park sparked accusations of interference in the academic freedoms of one of the world’s top medical universities and required the city’s leader to intervene, the Post has recently learned.

The developments prompted Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, to write to the 207-year-old Karolinska Institute in Sweden to reaffirm the city’s respect for academic autonomy, narrowly averting a diplomatic row, multiple sources revealed.

Park chairwoman Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun declined to comment on speculation over the matter, but said she and the park fully respected research freedom and stressed the park had a shared vision to see the research centre succeed. She added, however, that it also had a duty to act in the corporation’s best interests.

The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm produces 40 per cent of Sweden’s academic medical research. Photo: Handout

Founded in 1810, the prestigious Stockholm-based university produces 40 per cent of Sweden’s academic medical research, and one of its bodies has been responsible for selecting the laureates of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine since 1901.

The university received a HK$400 million donation from Hong Kong tycoon Lau Ming-wai in 2015 to establish the Ming Wai Lau Centre for Reparative Medicine, which opened at the park in October last year – its first and only research branch outside Sweden.