HKUST Annual Report 2018-19

21 HKUST RMB39 million to support the operations of the Center, sponsor the HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Zhongshan District Competition, and fund research projects supported by Zhongshan Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology over three years. Three HKUST pilot projects were awarded RMB500,000 each. In addition, Guangzhou HKUST Fok Ying Tung Research Institute formally established the International Smart Manufacturing Platform, with start-up funding support of RMB12.5 million from Nansha district government and Guangzhou municipal government. HKUST Nanhai Innovation Center (NIC) was set up with the Nanhai district government of Foshan City, aiming to facilitate collaborations between HKUST faculty members and Nanhai enterprises, and to identify start-up companies from Hong Kong interested in developing research and teams in Nanhai. This extends the collaboration with the HKUST LED-FPD Technology R&D Center at Foshan, launched with the Nanhai government in 2012, to deliver training, technology development activities, and exhibitions. In 2018-19, nine projects from 24 applications received funding through NIC. The 6,300-sq-m HKUST Futian Base in the Loop, Shenzhen, was jointly agreed with the HKUST Shenzhen Research Institute and Futian district government to facilitate application of HKUST faculty research outcomes. The Base will assist R&D needs, commercialization, entrepreneurship, and executive training activities. In research endeavors of its own, the HKUST Shenzhen Research Institute secured 34 government research projects, with total funding of RMB33.6 million from the Shenzhen Science Technology and Innovation Committee in 2018. Funding of RMB22 million was awarded for Alzheimer’s disease studies led by Prof. Nancy IP’s team at the Institute. A total of RMB40 million was secured from Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology. This project also involves leading Mainland universities and hospitals. EQUIPMENT ADVANCE In a first for Greater China, the University announced the building of a quantum optics camera using a novel approach to locate previously undetectable signals from billions of light years away and answer question in astrophysics and cosmology related to black holes and other deep space phenomena. The project is being led by the Quantum Optics for Astrophysics and Cosmology Lab under the guidance of Nobel laureate IAS TT & WF Chao Foundation Professor George SMOOT from the HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). HKUST researchers are also set to benefit tremendously from the purchase of a cryo-electron microscope (cryo- EM). This technological advance has recently transformed the field of structural biology by offering clearer detailing of biological samples and their structures, sometimes at near atomic resolution. The machine is being purchased with the support of a generous donation from the Lo Kwee Seong Foundation. The Supercomputing Service Platform at Guangzhou HKUST Fok Ying Tung Research Institute in Nansha enables HKUST faculty members and researchers to access the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou and Tianhe-2, one of the world’s fastest computers. The Institute has also been designated as the contact point for Tianhe-2 users from universities, government, NGOs, and commercial sectors in Hong Kong. As of June 2019, more than 75 million core-hours of supercomputing services had been supplied to local and overseas researchers. Support of $2.59 million was obtained to set up a mesocosm facility at the University’s Coastal Marine Laboratory under the RGC’s Joint Laboratory Funding Scheme. The lab forms part of a collaboration with the South China Sea Institute of Oceanography and Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. REALIZING INNOVATION Knowledge Transfer and Downstream Support The University has established a robust infrastructure to encourage the development of intellectual property (IP) and support the transfer of new knowledge from campus to community. Over the past year, this led to 147 inventions and the filing of 275 new patent applications for research at HKUST’s Clear Water Bay campus and Mainland platforms. With 112 newly granted patents, HKUST’s current IP portfolio now contains 1,488 active patents and patent applications. HKUST R and D Corporation Limited (RDCHK) is a platform linking and converting the University’s research capabilities and cutting-edge technology to business and industry applications. In 2018-19, RDCHK managed 213 research contracts, 11 consultancy projects and 341 testing services projects, generating cash basis income of $84.6 million. With cash basis income of $10.6 million from Mainland platforms, total cash basis income generated from projects amounted to $95.2 million over the year. In the reporting period, RDCHK managed 105 active patent and software licensing agreements with another three active licenses managed by Mainland platforms. These, together with income generated by Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), brought licensing cash basis income for 2018-19 to $7.2 million. In 2018-19, HKUST received 13 Proof-of-Concept Fund applications for pre-commercialization development of potential cutting-edge technologies, with nine receiving gap funding of $1.6 million in total. The HKUST Entrepreneurship Fund (E-Fund) advanced toward