Hong Kong is stepping up its efforts to remodel right into a global tech hub, backing university-led commercialisation with a funding blitz spearheaded by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
Speaking at HKUST’s annual Unicorn Day occasion on Tuesday, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong mentioned the federal government had dedicated over HK$3 billion (US$382.8 million) to 73 tasks below the RAISe+ (Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus) scheme.
Launched in October 2023 below the Innovation and Technology Fund, the scheme affords up to HK$100 million per university workforce, requiring them to efficiently commercialise their analysis and improvement (R&D) outcomes inside 5 years.
Nineteen tasks from HKUST had secured RAISe+ funding, highlighting the university’s “strength in translating frontier research into real world applications”, in accordance to Sun.
That was the best quantity amongst all native establishments, mentioned HKUST president Nancy Ip, noting that she had “not seen such substantial investment by the government until the last few years”.
The scheme got here because the Asian monetary hub seeks to revamp itself into an innovation and know-how centre, with efforts together with elevated authorities funding, new knowledge centres for synthetic intelligence computing, and the Northern Metropolis megaproject that goals to develop an enormous know-how zone close to the town’s border with mainland China.