HONG KONG SAR –
Media OutReach Newswire – 2 June 2026 – The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) right now efficiently hosted its annual “Unicorn Day,” one among Hong Kong’s flagship innovation and entrepreneurship occasions. The occasion introduced collectively over 1,800 contributors, together with college students, school, and alumni, in addition to worldwide and native authorities representatives, {industry} companions, buyers, innovation and know-how entrepreneurs, and researchers. Participants exchanged insights on methods to strengthen collaboration throughout the innovation ecosystem, foster cross-disciplinary partnerships, and speed up the interpretation of analysis outcomes into real-world affect.
The occasion was officiated by
Prof. SUN Dong, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry of the HKSAR Government, alongside
consuls-generals and senior officers from international locations together with Australia, Chile, France, Hungary, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Vietnam, and the United Arab Emirates. They have been joined by Prof. Nancy IP, HKUST President; Prof.
Lionel NI, HKUST (Guangzhou) President; and Prof. Tim CHENG, HKUST Vice-President for Research and Development; in touring over 100 HKUST-nurtured startups, showcasing improvements and functions spanning areas similar to healthcare, electronics, and synthetic intelligence programs, in addition to new supplies, inexperienced power, and sustainability.
Prof. Sun Dong remarked, “Innovation and technology (I&T) has always been at the top of the Hong Kong SAR Government’s agenda. We fully recognise the crucial role of local universities — not only as key partners, but as the bedrock of Hong Kong’s I&T ecosystem. In just three and a half decades, HKUST has risen to become a global powerhouse in deep tech, entrepreneurship, and innovation as demonstrated by its ability to nurture unicorns and deep-tech ventures. Hong Kong is entering a golden era of I&T development. We are building new engines to drive Hong Kong’s high-quality development, focusing on research and development in key fields and leading industry applications. I am confident that Hong Kong will rise as a leading international I&T center and contribute meaningfully to our nation’s high-quality development, and that HKUST will continue to be a driving force in this amazing journey.”
President Ip mentioned, “As we mark the thirty fifth anniversary of HKUST this 12 months, we additionally have fun the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that has lengthy been embedded in our DNA. Both the Technology Transfer Center and the Entrepreneurship Center have been established within the University’s early years to help school and college students in realizing their entrepreneurial aspirations and to advertise the interpretation of analysis outcomes into sensible options. Over the previous 35 years, the University has cast forward with willpower, sowing the seeds of innovation and yielding outstanding achievements throughout a number of frontier fields. Today, HKUST continues to broaden its horizons, strategically positioning itself in key domains. One instance is medical schooling. The institution of the HKUST Medical School will combine the life sciences with cutting-edge applied sciences to nurture a brand new technology of interdisciplinary medical professionals.
Concurrently, HKUST has been actively concerned in nationwide initiatives such because the Chang’E 8 lunar exploration mission and analysis initiatives for the Tiangong Space Station, and the launch of the primary commercially viable aerospace venture beneath the RAISe+ Scheme. These achievements exemplify HKUST’s enduring ‘can do’ spirit over the previous a long time and echo the theme of right now’s occasion—’From Ideas to Miracles—35 Years of Impact and Beyond’. Looking forward, HKUST will proceed to nurture daring concepts and motion, working hand in hand with companions throughout completely different sectors to domesticate a vibrant innovation ecosystem, guaranteeing that analysis achievements profit society and create lasting international affect.”
To help startups in increasing into international markets and to advertise cross-border collaboration, HKUST launched an “International Pavilion,” that includes startups and innovation organizations from numerous international locations and areas. Participants from Thailand, Singapore and Korea have been amongst these represented, strengthening connections between Hong Kong, and international locations and areas alongside the Belt and Road in know-how utility and {industry} growth.
The occasion additionally noticed the signing of a number of partnership agreements, together with six strategic collaborations with:
- GPTX Investment Management Limited
- China Everbright Water Limited
- Jiangsu Daotop Environmental Technology
- Samsung R&D Institute China – Guangzhou
- CalmCar Physical AI Innovation Center
- InnoAngel
to advance expertise growth and {industry}–academia integration, and foster innovation-driven analysis and real-world know-how translation.
HKUST’s I&T Strength Driving Economic Growth
In addition, HKUST additionally launched the report
Driving Socioeconomic Impact Through Research and Innovation: Insights from HKUST, commissioned by the University and ready by the worldwide analysis info analytics group Elsevier. The report highlights HKUST’s excellent efficiency in innovation and entrepreneurship. Over the previous 5 years, analysis output has recorded a median development of 10%, roughly 9% larger than that of different native establishments. More than 65% of the analysis is concentrated in engineering and laptop science, whereas 6.2% includes academia-industry collaboration, considerably larger than the worldwide common of two.7%. These collaborations have translated into impactful mental property, with roughly 1,670 patent functions and 700 grants over the identical interval, and a excessive IP utilization fee of above 30%.
Prof. Tim Cheng famous that the findings display HKUST’s steadily strengthening capabilities in analysis translation and academia-industry collaboration. HKUST’s publications achieved a Field-Weighted Citation Impact of 4.40, indicating that their quotation affect is 4.4 occasions the worldwide common. This underscores HKUST’s vital contributions to advancing Hong Kong’s socioeconomic growth and enhancing its competitiveness in innovation and know-how.
In addition, a “Marketplace” was additionally featured, showcasing merchandise already launched by startups, together with AI analytics instruments, healthcare applied sciences, and good metropolis options, demonstrating the progress of translating analysis into sensible functions.
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