Hong Kong Research Portal

The Public Policy Research Funding Scheme and the Strategic Public Policy Research (SPPR) Funding Scheme are government-financed funding schemes dedicated to fostering and supporting public policy research in Hong Kong. Both Schemes aim to promote public policy research and evidence-based research to facilitate public policy discussion.  Specifically, the SPPR Funding Scheme aims to support longer-term public policy research on strategic themes, build up research capacity and facilitate collaboration among institutions/think tanks on the strategic themes.

The Education Bureau is responsible for formulating, developing and reviewing policies, programmes, and legislation in respect of education from pre-primary to tertiary level. The Bureau is committed to supporting academic research in the higher education sector through the University Grant Council.

The objective of the Environment and Conservation Fund is to promote individual behavioural and lifestyle changes to protect the environment and achieve sustainable development, and develop or introduce innovative technologies and practices to improve the environment and conserve resources. The key funding schemes are Community Waste Reduction, Environmental Education and Community Action and Environmental Research, Technology Demonstration and Conference.

The Health and Medical Research Fund aims to build research capacity and to encourage, facilitate, and support health and medical research to inform health policies, improve population health, strengthen the health system, enhance healthcare practices, advance standard and quality of care, and promote clinical excellence, through the generation and application of evidence-based scientific knowledge derived from local research in health and medicine. It also provides funding support for evidence-based health promotion projects that help people adopt healthier lifestyles by enhancing awareness, changing adverse health behaviours or creating a conducive environment that supports good health practices. 

The Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF), administered by the Innovation and Technology Commission, aims to increase the added value, productivity, and competitiveness of our economic activities. The Government hopes that, through the ITF, Hong Kong companies could be encouraged and assisted to upgrade their technological level and introduce innovative ideas to their businesses. There are different programmes under the ITF, providing funding support aimed at supporting research and development, facilitating technology adoption, nurturing technology talent, supporting technology start-ups, and fostering an I&T culture.

The University Grant Committee provides recurrent funding to universities for research projects and activities through two main sources: block grants deployed for research activities; and earmarked research grants through the Research Grants Council (RGC) on a competitive basis.  The research element of the block grant funding is primarily designed to ensure the existence of appropriate research infrastructure in universities to facilitate research-informed teaching, and research itself – through the provision of academic staff, technical/support staff and equipment/resources.  Individual earmarked grants through the RGC allow the pursuit of research projects of a size that cannot be accommodated under the block grant.