The Research Grants Council has awarded significant funding to the University of Hong Kong in its latest 2026–27 exercise. The funding recognises HKU’s research excellence across pioneering fields while reaffirming the University’s leading position in global research and strengthening international collaborations.
The funding, awarded across the Areas of Excellence Scheme, the Theme-based Research Scheme, and the Strategic Topics Grant, recognises interdisciplinary projects spanning biomedical engineering, artificial intelligence, wildlife conservation, power delivery technology, and public mental health.
Areas of Excellence Scheme
Principal Coordinator: Professor Ed Xuekai Wu, Chair of Biomedical Engineering, Lam Woo Professor in Biomedical Engineering
Project Title: Centre for Next Generation Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technologies for Accessible Healthcare
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) represents one of the most transformative medical innovations in modern healthcare, offering a non-invasive way to gain sensitive and specific insights into tissue structures and pathological changes. Despite its fundamental importance in diagnosing conditions ranging from strokes to cancer, global accessibility remains severely constrained by high installation and operating costs, which can reach up to HK$25 million per unit. In Hong Kong, this barrier manifests as an average waiting time of 12 to 18 months for patients seeking standard diagnostic scans.
To address this critical bottleneck, Professor Ed Xuekai Wu, Chair of Biomedical Engineering and Lam Woo Professor in Biomedical Engineering, is leading the newly funded Centre for Next Generation Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technologies for Accessible Healthcare. This initiative brings together leading experts from Hong Kong and around the world across MRI physics, engineering, image computing, artificial intelligence, and clinical medicine. The primary objective of the Centre is to develop simplified yet intelligent MRI technologies, creating a new class of affordable, patient-centric, and computing-powered scanners capable of transforming healthcare delivery locally and globally.
Principal Coordinator: Professor Juha Merilä, Chair Professor, School of Biological Sciences
Project Title: Centre for Safe, Sustainable and Legal Wildlife Trade
Addressing the severe threats posed to global biodiversity, public health, and ecosystem integrity by the unsustainable, unregulated, and frequently criminal wildlife trade, the newly established Centre for Safe, Sustainable and Legal Wildlife Trade aims to pioneer cutting-edge solutions designed to support a secure, legally compliant, and disease-free trade ecosystem.
Led by Professor Juha Merilä and hosted by HKU’s Conservation Forensics Laboratory, the initiative brings together a multidisciplinary alliance of world-class experts spanning ecology, computer science, law, public health, sociology, and non-governmental organisations. Its strategic goals are built upon three foundational pillars: establishing legality through forensic science, safeguarding public health via advanced disease screening, and ensuring long-term trade sustainability. By integrating advanced technology with community and policy engagement, the Centre intends to establish Hong Kong as a regional exemplar and global leader in biodiversity management and safe bio-trade.
Theme-based Research Scheme
Principal Coordinator: Professor Han Wang, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project Title: 3D-Integrated Power Delivery Technology for Advanced AI Chip Modules
As global demand for artificial intelligence data centre infrastructure continues its rapid expansion, power consumption is increasing exponentially, creating an urgent necessity for more efficient and compact power delivery technologies. Traditional power architectures serving AI data centres face fundamental limitations in overall efficiency, thermal management, and integration density.
A new research initiative led by Professor Han Wang aims to overcome these limitations through a holistic 3D-integrated power delivery solution. The project combines gallium nitride power semiconductor devices, 3D integration, miniaturised passive components, advanced power electronics, and novel cooling technologies. By targeting a multi-kW/mm² power delivery density for AI data centre chip modules, the initiative aims to reduce power conversion losses by more than 50%, marking a paradigm shift in energy efficiency for high-performance computing. Critical for future infrastructure, the research expects to deliver key technological know-how with strong economic value, establish close collaboration with leading global semiconductor manufacturers, and chart a clear pathway toward sustained gains in computing performance and environmental sustainability.
Principal Coordinator: Professor Dragan Gašević, Faculty of Education and School of Computing and Data Science
Project Title: Development and Assessment of Human Capacities for Productive Human-AI Interaction
The growing ubiquity of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT is reshaping how young people learn, solve problems, and create. While AI can significantly boost productivity and performance, its widespread adoption raises serious concerns regarding overreliance and the production of work that appears polished on the surface while masking weak underlying understanding. Such outputs risk creating an illusion of competence, potentially leading learners to overestimate their knowledge and reducing their propensity to question AI responses or actively monitor their comprehension.
Professor Dragan Gašević is leading a project to investigate how the adoption of AI tools at home and in school impacts young learners during the crucial developmental period between ages 9 and 15. Professor Gašević and his interdisciplinary team – spanning education, psychology, assessment, learning analytics, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and ethics – aim to establish the foundations required to understand and strengthen the regulatory capacity supporting productive human-AI interaction. Working in close partnership with Hong Kong schools, students, teachers, and parents, the team will survey current practices, identify future requirements, and inform subsequent educational practice, technology development, and policy.
Strategic Topics Grant
Project Coordinator: Professor Tatia Lee Mei-chun, Chair of Psychological Science and Clinical Psychology, May Professor in Neuropsychology
Project Title: An Integrated AI Solution for Large-Scale Improvement of Emotional Health among Older Populations: Risk Assessment of Depression and Intervention for Ageing Needs, Challenges, and Empowerment System (RADIANCE)
The increased prevalence and incidence of depression among the rapidly ageing population in Hong Kong and the wider Greater Bay Area represents a pressing healthcare issue, exacerbated by a critical lack of large-scale digital solutions capable of providing systematic screening, monitoring, and contingent interventions for at-risk older adults.
Addressing this imminent healthcare challenge, Professor Lee’s team has proposed a multi-tiered, agentic, deep learning-based system titled the Risk Assessment of Depression and Intervention for Ageing Needs, Challenges, and Empowerment System, or RADIANCE. The system leverages contemporary artificial intelligence approaches to process and learn from large-scale multimodal data to conduct automated risk assessments and targeted interventions for elderly individuals. Designed as a comprehensive AI solution, RADIANCE overcomes significant scalability and accessibility obstacles inherent in existing mental healthcare frameworks. Over the long term, the initiative seeks to unlock emerging opportunities in cross-border healthcare innovation, AI-enhanced mental health services, and preventive care strategies tailored to the demographic realities of the region.
In addition to its strong performance in the various funding schemes for collaborative research, HKU also sustained excellence in the RGC’s fellowship schemes and core annual funding exercises announced earlier.
Three distinguished HKU researchers were honoured under the RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme and Research Fellow Scheme for the 2026–27 academic year. Professor Shunlin Liang from the Department of Geography received a Senior Research Fellowship to advance multimodal AI for socioeconomic mapping using satellite and geospatial data. Professor Nicholas Xuanlai Fang from the Department of Mechanical Engineering was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship to pioneer patient-specific, bioprinted metagel phantoms for early cardiovascular screening and surgical training. Additionally, Professor Lixin Dai from the Department of Physics received a Research Fellowship to model super-Eddington accretion physics in black hole astrophysics, establishing predictive models for major international space observation missions.
In the 2026–27 General Research Fund exercise, HKU captured the largest share of overall funding and the highest number of approved proposals among all local institutions, securing HK$256.2 million across 287 approved projects out of 869 submissions. HKU achieved top positioning across three out of five major competitive subject panels, leading in Biology and Medicine, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Physical Sciences.
Furthermore, HKU led all local institutions in the Early Career Scheme, securing HK$31.8 million across 43 projects for emerging researchers. Individual scholarly excellence was further highlighted by the recognition in the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme of Professor Travis Kong of the Department of Sociology and Professor Benjamin Becker of the Department of Psychology.
Together, these achievements underscore the University’s comprehensive research strength and its continuing contribution to global scientific and societal advancement.
