HKBU researchers awarded the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)/Research Grants Council (RGC) Joint Research Scheme (JRS) 2023/24

Three remarkable HKBU researchers, Dr Liao Pan and Professor Yuen Pong-chi from the Faculty of Science and Dr Yu Rongjun from the School of Business, have been awarded the NSFC/RGC JRS by the University Grants Committee (UGC) to support their research projects related to life science/medicine and information technology. The three projects secured over HK$3 million in total.

Biological scientist Dr Liao is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Biology. In his awarded research project "Screening, functional identification and transport mechanism study of tanshinone transporters in Salvia miltiorrhiza", Dr Liao will utilise the funding to investigate Tanshinone, a key medicinal component produced in a powerful Chinese medicinal plant "Salvia miltorrhiza", with his long-term collaborator from Zhejiang Chinese Medical University.

Professor Yuen, Chair Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Associate Dean of Science (Teaching and Learning), was awarded the funding for his project entitled "A Privacy-Preserving Generalised Heterogeneous Federated Learning Framework for Biometrics Verification". He will develop several novel approaches with his collaborator from Wuhan University to solve the major problems with federated learning in real-world applications.

The awarded project of Dr Yu, Associate Professor of the Department of Management, Marketing and Information Systems, is named "Brain Connectome of model-based learning and cognitive flexibility in gifted individuals". In this joint project with a researcher from Beijing Normal University, they will take model-based learning and cognitive flexibility as the breakthrough point, and use multi-dimensional and cross-modal technology and methods to systematically depict the full-dimensional psychological behaviour characteristics of the gifted population.

The NSFC/RGC JRS supports research proposals that are jointly submitted by researchers from mainland China and Hong Kong. The Scheme also offers up to two conference grants to sponsor conferences held in Hong Kong, with the six focus areas including Information Technology, Life Science, New Materials Science, Marine and Environmental Science, Medicine, and Management Science.

This commendation from the UGC serves as a powerful catalyst, inspiring our researchers to persistently push the boundaries of knowledge and continue fostering a culture of innovation and relentless pursuit of research excellence.