OUHK bags largest share of RGC grants for local self-financing institutions

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In the latest round of the Research Grants Council’s (RGC) Competitive Research Funding Schemes for the Local Self-financing Degree Sector, the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) received a total of HK$21 million for 17 projects, making it the largest player among all 14 eligible self-financing institutions.

The University has been playing strongly since it first participated in the schemes. This year both the number of approved projects and the grant amount exceeded last year’s HK$13 million for 11 projects, which already topped all participating institutions. OUHK is also the only institution to have been granted funding six years straight under the Institutional Development Scheme (IDS) as well as having secured more than HK$20 million from all schemes this year. The outstanding results reflect the University’s strengths and efforts in conducting and promoting academic research.

Of the 17 approved OUHK proposals, one comes under the IDS. Entitled “Research Facilities for Basic and Applied Coastal Wetland Research in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area”, it was granted more than HK$9.3 million, the highest amount awarded to any single IDS project. 

Under the Faculty Development Scheme (FDS), where OUHK received an unparalleled HK$11.8 million, the project “Online Topic Modelling with Applications to Fine-grained Sentiment Analysis” proposed by School of Science and Technology Dean Professor Philips Wang Fu-lee stood out among 61 successful applications to obtain a grant of HK$1.6 million. 

OUHK President Prof. Yuk-Shan Wong is very pleased with the remarkable results. Expressing gratitude to the RGC for its recognition of the University’s efforts, he said, “Once again, the encouraging funding results affirm our efforts in promoting and conducting research in various disciplines, including humanities, social policy, education, business and science. Looking ahead, we will continue to improve our research infrastructure and allocate more resources to support and reward our researchers, while further expanding our research capacity and strengthening academic collaboration with other institutions and organizations.”