The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) was ranked the most innovative university in Hong Kong and 21st in the Asia-Pacific region by the latest “Reuters Top 75: Asia’s Most Innovative Universities”. Universities listed in the table are doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies, and help drive the global economy. The rankings are determined according to their innovative capacity and achievement as demonstrated by paper and patent outputs.
Prof. Fanny Cheung, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) of CUHK, said, “We are encouraged to have been ranked #1 in Hong Kong on Reuters’ list of innovative universities in Asia. The ranking reaffirms the University’s drive for research excellence and innovation. Leveraging our advantage as a comprehensive research university, CUHK equips its faculty members and students with entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to translate their research outputs into innovative solutions and create start-ups that deliver sustainable social and economic impact.”
Currently, CUHK has over 600 granted patents in different jurisdictions worldwide, amongst which 40% are in the field of diagnostic technologies. A majority of these patents have been licensed to industrial leaders in the relevant fields who have brought the University’s innovations to the marketplace to benefit society. In 2015–16, CUHK received 83 granted patents and secured 165 patent applications for inventions developed in the areas from medical technology, biotechnology, information technology, telecommunications, to materials science.
In 2014, the University introduced the Pre Incubation Centre (Pi Centre) and the Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities which support staff and students starting companies to commercialise technologies. Since then, 14 start-ups have been launched in areas range from novel diagnostic platform to vision guided robotics.
CUHK’s high-quality basic and applied research in all disciplines underpins the first-class education it offers. The prowess, variety and impact of research at CUHK can be further demonstrated from its establishment of five state key laboratories, past and ongoing Areas of Excellence research projects, and the many research institutes and collaborations with eminent overseas research institutions. It is a world leader in non-invasive prenatal testing theory and method, biotechnological improvement of rice strains, and network coding theory that revolutionised data transmission and network applications. In its latest strategic plan, four areas of research priorities have been identified including China Studies, Translational Biomedicine, Information and Automation Technology and Environment and Sustainability.
For more information on Reuters’ ranking, please click here.
