Hong Kong's Research Grants Council has allocated 403.5 million HK dollars (US$51.73 million) to support 748 academic research projects.

The selected programs were chosen from 1,874 applications from academic staff of the eight University Grants Committee-funded institutions, according to a government press release.

Of the projects to be funded, 316 projects were in the engineering disciplines, 138 in biology medicine, 146 in humanities, social sciences business studies, and 148 in physical sciences, chemical engineering mathematics.

Council Chairman Kenneth Young said that it is the council's policy to support as many worthwhile projects as possible. However,given a reduced budget this year, the council had to make some painful decisions by cutting the size of the project grants as well as supporting fewer projects.

"While the council understands the budgetary constraints that the government is faced with, the cut in research funding has caused significant problems and we hope that this reduced funding level will not be repeated," the council chairman said.

"Looking towards the next few years, the challenge for the council is to become even more vigilant in creating economies and to make the research dollars go even further."

However, in the longer term, research funding needs to be improved to a level commensurate with regional competitors and Hong Kong's own aspirations, Young added.

"As Hong Kong strives to enhance its overall competitiveness in the globalized economy, nobody would argue about the centrality of research in shaping the future of Hong Kong as a knowledge economy."

(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2004)