The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) at present efficiently hosted its annual “Unicorn Day,” one among Hong Kong’s flagship innovation and entrepreneurship occasions. The occasion introduced collectively over 1,800 members, together with college students, school, and alumni, in addition to worldwide and native authorities representatives, {industry} companions, traders, innovation and expertise 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 nations together with Australia, Chile, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, 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 practically 100 HKUST-nurtured startups, showcasing improvements and purposes spanning areas reminiscent of healthcare, electronics, and synthetic intelligence methods, in addition to new supplies, inexperienced vitality, 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 stated, “As we mark the 35th anniversary of HKUST this year, we also celebrate the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that has long been embedded in our DNA. Both the Technology Transfer Center and the Entrepreneurship Center were established in the University’s early years to support faculty and students in realizing their entrepreneurial aspirations and to promote the translation of research outcomes into practical solutions. Over the past 35 years, the University has forged ahead with determination, sowing the seeds of innovation and yielding remarkable achievements across multiple frontier fields. Today, HKUST continues to broaden its horizons, strategically positioning itself in key domains. One example is medical education. The establishment of the HKUST Medical School will integrate the life sciences with cutting-edge technologies to nurture a new generation of interdisciplinary medical professionals.
Concurrently, HKUST has been actively involved in national initiatives such as the Chang’E 8 lunar exploration mission and research projects for the Tiangong Space Station, and the launch of the first commercially viable aerospace project under the RAISe+ Scheme. These achievements exemplify HKUST’s enduring ‘can do’ spirit over the past decades and echo the theme of today’s event-‘From Ideas to Miracles-35 Years of Impact and Beyond’. Looking ahead, HKUST will continue to nurture bold ideas and action, working hand in hand with partners across different sectors to cultivate a vibrant innovation ecosystem, ensuring that research achievements benefit society and create lasting global impact.”
To help startups in increasing into world markets and to advertise cross-border collaboration, HKUST launched an “International Pavilion,” that includes startups and innovation organizations from varied nations and areas. Participants from Thailand and Korea have been amongst these represented, strengthening connections between Hong Kong, and nations and areas alongside the Belt and Road in expertise software and {industry} growth.
The occasion additionally noticed the signing of a number of partnership agreements, together with six strategic collaborations with:
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GPTX Investment Management Limited
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China Everbright Water Limited
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Jiangsu Daotop Environmental Technology
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Samsung R&D Institute China – Guangzhou
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CalmCar Physical AI Innovation Center
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InnoAngel
to advance expertise growth and industry-academia integration, and foster innovation-driven analysis and real-world expertise 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 data analytics group Elsevier. The report highlights HKUST’s excellent efficiency in innovation and entrepreneurship. Over the previous 5 years, analysis output has recorded a mean progress of 10%, roughly 9% greater than that of different native establishments. More than 65% of the analysis is concentrated in engineering and pc science, whereas 6.2% entails academia-industry collaboration, considerably greater than the worldwide common of two.7%. These collaborations have translated into impactful mental property, with roughly 1,670 patent purposes and 700 grants over the identical interval, and a excessive IP utilization fee of 31%.
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 instances the worldwide common. This underscores HKUST’s important contributions to advancing Hong Kong’s socioeconomic growth and enhancing its competitiveness in innovation and expertise.
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 purposes.