The diversity of our educational mission is matched by the diversity of our research programmes. Strategic decision making is made complex because research work serves a number of overlapping objectives, including: establishing a leading role at an international level in an area of work; nurturing promising new areas; applying research results to support economic and social development; and refreshing and enlightening our teaching by scholarship at the cutting edge of disciplines and professional fields.
Selectivity to promote excellence
Creating research teams that can compete at an international level is a tremendous challenge given our limited resources. The funding made available to us for research and support for research postgraduate students falls short in comparison with some other local universities. Local funding is anyway dramatically lower than the support received by competing research teams in universities overseas.
Despite this disadvantage in several key areas CityU can challenge the best, including: nanostructured materials, applied mathematics, optoelectronics, environmental sciences, wireless communications, and Chinese linguistics and language information sciences. This relative success has been achieved by nurturing research across a fairly broad range, but focussing support on the most promising areas. Building on this effort we are now in a position to make firmer commitments to research teams that have shown that they can deliver results.
Sharpening our internal processes for selectivity must take into account the intention of UGC to sharpen the Research Assessment Exercise. The University has expressed its support for greater selectivity as long as it is based on transparent, fairly applied criteria. Our internal exercise in selectivity must also be transparent and fair.
In developing criteria for research priorities, three basic principles are relevant: research teams should be able to show that they have the potential to be internationally competitive, to be the best in Hong Kong and to maintain support through the RAE and other government funds; there should be a real prospect that in a relatively few years the team can emerge as world-class, with further opportunities to attract funding; and the work being undertaken should be capable of benefiting Hong Kong and the region as it makes the transition to a new economic base.
These criteria are designed to maximise the potential benefit to the region of our work. Competing in the global economy will require the local development of knowledge-driven, high value-added industries. Local applied research of international quality is the foundation of this effort.
Maintaining a broad research profile
However strong and relevant the work, not all research will be in the University's few high priority areas. Nevertheless work across a broad range has a huge payoff for the University and for the community.
Applied research projects currently underway in business, law, public policy, languages, education, social work, the sciences and engineering are of direct, real benefit to local firms, the Hong Kong government, social agencies and by extension to the region.
This research also underpins our teaching. Universities around the world struggle to find a balance in their emphasis on research and teaching. At CityU this balance is more easily struck because of our strong emphasis on applied research and the corresponding commitment to equipping graduating students to contribute to the local economy and society. This sets up a fruitful linkage between what we teach in our programmes and the work of discovery and application. An important example of this linkage is the option it provides for student internships, an option we will continue to develop. The dual commitment to professional education and applied research is rooted in our past and is a commitment in which we take pride.
Developing the next generation of researchers
A very direct educational contribution made through research is the development of young research talent working on research postgraduate degrees or as research assistants. Working as a young researcher at a university is one of the great learning adventures, a unique opportunity to test our own limits and to explore at the very edge of human knowledge and understanding. Ensuring that the learning experience we offer at CityU to research students matches this promise has been high on the agenda of all those concerned with the research programme. Over the planning period we intend to focus even more directly on the learning outcomes of a research education.
CityU has always regretted that the allocation of resources for research students is driven by "quotas" and not by merit and demand. We hope that over the planning period this situation will change, giving us an opportunity to make our full contribution.
Applied research, consulting, and R&D
The community increasingly calls on its universities to go beyond academic research and to contribute to the commercialisation and application of research results. CityU is already responding to this call. We have established an Industrial Business and Development Office to smooth the path of research application and consultancies. We have successfully launched a listed company on the foundation of home-grown technology. Many departments are deeply involved in work with local firms and agencies. We are also contributing to government efforts through the Innovation and Technology Fund, and plans for a Science Park.
The key issue is to find ways to enhance incentives for staff and departments to assist in the practical work of research and development and to collaborate with business partners. Smoothing out arrangements for cost and profit sharing, raising the profile of this kind of service in staffing decisions, and building up a culture that acknowledges and celebrates achievements in this area are necessary to strengthen CityU's contribution.
Institutional and international linkages
Driven by curiosity and respecting only the ability to contribute, researchers create networks that connect institutions and cross all boundaries. Such networks are key links between Hong Kong and its region and between the region and the international community. As we build up our research work, focussing resources where strengths have emerged, supporting our work in higher education, and applying research results for the benefit of the community, we will pay special attention to building regional and international links as part of Hong Kong's effort to enhance its role as a "world city".
Goals for Research
- Building on established excellence by focussing available resources on priority areas of applied research.
- Maintaining the research profile necessary to support community development and to underpin our teaching.
- Nurturing young research talent to provide the foundation for future economic and social development.
- Enhancing our ability to commercialise research results and to mobilise expertise for the community.
- Supporting linkages within the region and beyond through the networks created by active scholarship.
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