The Hong Kong government plans to add HK$20 billion (US$2.6 billion) to a research endowment that's aimed at bolstering innovation, the South China Morning Post reports.
The Research Endowment Fund, it adds, is one of the main means through which Hong Kong supports competitive research, and that this plan from Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor aims to double its resources. In all, this would bring the fund's coffers up to HK$46 billion.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong's Lam Hon-ming tells the Morning Post that the HK$20 billion increase was "better than expected."
At the same time, the city also plans to implement a matching program in which it would use HK$3 billion over three years to match donations from private companies toward research, and it is planning to start a new fellowship scheme at the cost of HK$190 per year. This would enable it to fund 50 additional postdoctoral fellow positions as well as 10 associate professors, and between 10 and 15 professors.
According to the Morning Post, a group representing the city's public universities welcomed the funding boost.