I am pleased to inform you that Professor Julien Chaisse received funding from the Research Grants Council (RGC) under the Germany/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme 2022/23 in support of a greater collaborative research, as well as more research that can be translated into benefits to the community for a period of two years (2023-2025).

The title of his award-winning project is “Domestic National Security Regulation and Foreign Investment” and will be conducted in collaboration with Professor Christoph Herrmann (University of Passau). This research project will focus on the emerging legal issues at the center of national security-related screening mechanisms for foreign investment. A growing number of states are implementing or strengthening their foreign investment regulations, especially, by the initiation of new investment screening mechanisms. Consequently, states seek to attain two objectives, i.e., permit investments essential for economic advancement and reject or regulate investments that have the potential to endanger their national security or adversely affect their role in the global economy. It is quite ironic that by ‘weaponising interdependence’, states seek to, simultaneously, decrease the exposure to such weaponisation. This dilemma is also at the heart of the proposed research which objective is to comparatively analyze the regulatory models and specific mechanisms used for controlling foreign investments.

The Germany/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme is a highly competitive grant scheme which aims at granting extended time-off and supporting funds to the outstanding investigators in UGC-funded universities.

Congratulations to Julien!