Chinese Academy of Sciences to set up Hong Kong unit

It will focus on healthcare technologies, AI and robotics.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam and Chinese Academy of Sciences president Bai Chunli have inked a memorandum of understanding to establish an affiliated institution in Hong Kong in a move that marks deepening educational ties with the Mainland. 

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To be set built at the Hong Kong Science Park, the affiliated unit will facilitate the Academy’s Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine & Health and Institute of Automation which will focus on healthcare technologies and on artificial intelligence and robotics technologies.

It will also promote transfer and translation of scientific research results, coordinate collaboration between the academy and local universities, and undertake technological education and promotion activities.

"Welcoming the two academy research institutes' participation in the two research clusters, the HKSAR Government will continue its publicity and promotion efforts to encourage more top-notch research centres to join the research clusters,” CE Lam said in a statement.

The affiliated institution will also serve as the secretariat of the Greater Bay Area Academician Alliance which will also be set up in Hong Kong. The alliance aims to encourage academicians of the sciences and engineering to actively participate in developing the GBA.

Lam also announced the setting up of the the Joint Laboratory Funding Scheme by the University Grants Committee with the one-off provision of up to $30m for the 2018-19 academic year as a research subsidy to joint laboratories approved by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.