Funding Success

The Faculty has recently been granted 32 projects by General Research Fund (GRF) & Early Career Scheme (ECS) with a total amount of almost HK$24 million. Congratulations to the following awardees!

List of Awardees of GRF/ECS in 2020/21

Dept	Name	Dept	Name
BIOL	Prof Xia Yiji	COMP	Dr Chen Li
	Prof Xiong Liming		Dr Han Bo
	Prof Zhao Zhongying		Dr Huang Xin
	Prof Zhang Jianhua		Prof Liu Jiming
CHEM	Prof Cai Zongwei		Prof Xu Jianliang
	Dr Hu Di		Prof Yuen Pong Chi
	Dr Lee Chi Sing	MATH	Prof Cheng Ming-Yen
	Prof Leung Sze Yin Kelvin		Dr Fan Jun
	Prof Li Hung Wing		Dr Kwok Wing Hong Felix
	Dr Ren Kangning		Prof Liao Lizhi
	Prof Wong Ka Leung		Prof Ling Leevan
	Prof Wong Man Shing Ricky		Dr Wu Wei
	Dr Yang Zhu		Prof Zhu Lixing
	Dr Zhu Xunjin	PHYS	Dr Huang Zhifeng Jeffery
			Dr Ma Guancong
			Prof Tang Leihan
			Prof Zhou Changsong
			Prof Zhu Furong

The number of awarded projects and the total awarded amount have increased significantly over the past three years.

The Faculty extends the congratulations to Professor Xia Yiji on receiving the Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) 2019-20! The amount awarded is HK$6,087,995.

Administered by the RGC, the Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) aims at encouraging research groups in UGC-funded universities to engage in collaborative research across disciplines and across universities with a view to enhancing the research output of universities in terms of the level of attainment, quantity, dimensions and speed. As the Project Coordinator, Professor Xia will collaborate with his team members from HKBU, CityU and CUHK to study the “Non-canonical NAD-capped RNAs in Arabidopsis: mechanisms of capping and decapping and molecular and physiological functions”.

RNAs (ribonucleic acids) convert the information stored in DNA (genes) into proteins and are also used as the genetic materials by many viruses such as the virus that causes Covid-19. Caps attached to some RNAs play a vital role for RNA’s functions. The NAD cap is the newly discovered non-canonical cap of RNAs. The Xia lab, in collaboration with Professor Cai Zongwei’s lab at Department of Chemistry, has developed a method for identifying and characterizing NAD-capped RNAs and are collaborating with several scientists in Hong Kong and overseas through this CRF project to study the function of the NAD cap in plants and other organisms. Some of our findings on NAD-capped RNAs have recently been published in PNAS (Zhang et al, 2019; Wang, et al, 2019) and Nature Protocols (Shao et al, 2020).

Project Coordinator	Project Title	Coordinating University/Collaborating University(ies)	Funded Amount (HK$)
Prof Xia Yiji	Non-canonical NAD-capped RNAs in Arabidopsis: mechanisms of capping and decapping and molecular and physiological functions	HKBU / CityU, CUHK	6,087,995

Source: https://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/funded_research/funding_results/19-20.html

Apart from GRF/ECS and CRF, the Faculty has also received other research grants. Again, congratulations to these awardees!

Dept	Name	Scheme	Awarded Amount (HK$)
MATH	Dr Kwok Wing Hong Felix	ANR/RGC Joint Research Scheme 2019/20	1.85M
BIOL	Prof Qiu Jianwen	Environment and Conservation Fund	0.50M
CHEM	Dr Lui Matthew Yuk-Yu	Environment and Conservation Fund	1.06M
BIOL	Dr Cheung Ka Loon Allen	Health and Medical Research Fund	1.50M
BIOL	Dr Kim Pan Jun		1.20M
CHEM	Dr Lung Hong Lok		1.44M
CHEM	Dr Wang Yi		1.50M
BIOL	Dr Zhao Jun	Innovation and Technology Fund - Partnership Research Programme	0.60M
CHEM	Dr Lee Chi Sing		0.52M
CHEM	Prof Leung Sze Yin Kelvin		1.50M
PHYS	Dr Ma Guancong	NSFC - Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau) 2019	1.30M (RMB)
MATH	Prof Tai Xue-Cheng	NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme	1.18M
PHYS	Prof Zhu Furong	NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme	1.17M