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KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER INTO THE
COMMUNITY
The University fosters knowledge transfer by
encouraging faculty members and students
to participate in a range of activities, including
an Entrepreneurship Day, IP training, patent
preparation and technology review. It also
proactively explores collaborative opportunities
with industry through open innovation activities,
such as research and development workshops
and networking sessions. In addition, professors
share their innovative research insights with
the general public through interviews and
regular columns in newspapers, and talks to
business leaders. The University’s Open Research,
Innovation and Collaboration Network (ORION)
also provides an online platform for HKUST to
engage with the public and external stakeholders.
Open innovation enables HKUST and research
partners to collaborate at an early stage to
develop research that has a direct impact on
industry. In addition, the University provides a
Proof-of-Concept Fund to encourage researchers
to undertake pre-commercialization development
of inventions with commercial potential. In
2012-13, HKUST researchers filed 78 invention
disclosures. A total of 35 new patents were
granted to the University, making a cumulative
total of 396 granted patents.
During 2012-13, the HKUST R and D Corporation
Ltd (RDC) – a separate not-for-profit legal vehicle
wholly owned by the University – signed 140 new
projects commissioned from Hong Kong (51%),
the Mainland (43%) and overseas (6%), amounting
to a total of $79.3 million. RDC handled a total of
260 R&D projects, serving the needs of industry
(52%), government (29%) and other sectors.
Examples of current high-impact innovative
technologies include development of sensors
and solid state light emitters based on aggregate-
induced emission, acoustic metamaterials with
soundproofing capability, wireless data access in
harsh environments, and drug discovery based on
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In 2012, the
Center for Chinese Medicine R&D was set up at
HKUST, with a grant of $5 million from the Hong
Kong Jockey Club to provide professional TCM
testing, quality control and certification services
in Hong Kong.
Research Development