COM Faculty awarded in Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) in 2025/26

08 Jan 2026 (Thu)

The Department of Media and Communication (COM) at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) is delighted to share that the research project “Understanding & Fighting Scams: Psychological and Social Perspectives & Effective Interventions,” coordinated by Prof. Shuhua Zhou, Chair Professor of COM, has been awarded the 2025/26 Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) grant of HK$5.90 million by the Research Grants Council (RGC). This achievement highlights the department's excellence in communication research and its commitment to establishing itself as a leading global research hub.

The research team, under the leadership of Principal Coordinator Prof. Shuhua Zhou, includes the Co-Principal Investigator from COM, Prof. Xinzhi Zhang and Prof. Vincent Xiaohui Wang and faculty members from CityUHK, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Additionally, the team comprises Prof. Fen Lin, Prof. Li Crystal Jiang, and Prof. Xiaofan Liu, who served as a Co-Investigator in this project. Collaborators also include the Hong Kong Police Force, China Unicom, and Singapore Management University.

Over the next three years, the project seeks to develop an innovative, unified framework to address the growing issue of scams worldwide. Key outcomes include a public scam repository, a Scam Risk Index for policymakers, pre-tested anti-scam communication tools, and AI-powered technological solutions such as a scam simulation generator and an interactive training game.

"This grant is a powerful endorsement of our team's innovative, interdisciplinary approach," said Prof. Shuhua Zhou. "We are moving beyond siloed efforts to build a complete bio-psycho-social and socio-technical model of scams. Our goal is to shift from reacting to scams to proactively preventing them through science and technology."