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ACTIVE INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT
To strengthen ties with industry, a Cluster Technology
Acceleration Initiative was started with a two-year trial. This
initiative seeks to engage domain experts in coordination
at School level and to help cross-disciplinary faculty groups
engage with industry and develop large-scale research
projects. The University expanded and continued significant
strategic industrial partnerships with major companies,
including TCL, Lenovo, Thales and Rohde & Schwarz HK Ltd.
Global healthcare leader Sanofi sponsored an open innovation
workshop at HKUST to build understanding between Sanofi’s
R&D needs and HKUST’s top scientists’ research directions
in drug discovery, leading to a mutual partnership with the
Sanofi R&D China team and collaborative projects supported
by the Innovation and Technology Fund.
The Shenzhen Research Institute invited the Shenzhen New
Material Association to meet faculty members and visit
laboratories at the Clear Water Bay campus in June 2015.
The Institute also co-organized the 2015 Pan Pearl River
Delta Integrated Circuit Market Promotion and Innovation
Development Summit Forum.
VIBRANT ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE
The Proof-of-Concept Fund provided gap funding to enable
pre-commercialization development of promising, cutting-
edge technologies emerging from the University’s research.
In 2014-15, seven projects were recommended by the
selection committee for a total funding of $1.353 million.
Five technology licenses were granted to HKUST start-ups.
In response to the Technology Start-up Support Scheme for
Universities (TSSSU), launched in Fall 2014 by the Innovation
and Technology Commission, a platform was formed to
encourage the University community to establish start-up
companies to apply funding from the scheme with HKUST
technology. The scheme attracted 13 HKUST applications
in the government’s financial year of 2014/15, with seven
start-ups being funded in 2014/15.
Several university-wide forums on different aspects of
knowledge transfer and innovation were also held, featuring
speakers from Harvard University, Technion – Israel Institute
of Technology, and Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de
Janeiro, HKUST entrepreneurs, and a Kleiner Perkins Caufield
& Byers venture capital firm partner.
The HKUST Entrepreneurship Program continued to assist
University start-ups, with a total of 39 active companies,
including 10 firms currently being incubated.
At the Shenzhen Research Institute, the Incubator Express
program and newly established Entrepreneur Center
encouraged further activity. Fourteen start-ups established
by HKUST professors or alumni are located in the HKUST
IER Building, covering biological recognition, mobile health,
internet finance, automatic control, biological medicine, and
integrated circuits, among others. EasyHin Technology, the
first mobile medical start-up in Mainland China, successfully
secured Series A venture capital funding of US$10 million
in May 2015.
