Four large CERG grants to CityU
Peter Ho
Four grants of over HK$1 million each were awarded to CityU in the latest round of Research Grants Council (RGC) applications. Three projects are related to linguistics and language information sciences, while the fourth is about marine biology.
A project entitled "Developpment and Site Vertification of a Virus Cleaner (Internationally Designed for SARS Triage Wards)" by Dr Albert So of the Building and Construction Department was also chosen for special grants dedicated to the urgent and important research needed to tackle the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). This special category of allocations, with a total of HK$10 million, was distributed as part of the 2003-04 Competitive Earmarked Research Grant (CERG) exercise.
In total, 101 CityU applications were funded this year for a total of HK$51.2 million, compared with 109 and HK$56.8 million in 2002-03. The University's success rate stands at 40.4%, on par with the sector-wide average. The Faculty of Science and Engineering continued to perform well, with a 73% share both in terms of the total number and value of grant obtained by the University.
CityU’s four HK$1 million-plus projects are:
| Project (Amount) | Principal Invigilator |
| Chinese Semantic Networks and Construction of a (Pan-)Chinese Thesaurus (HK$1,106,000) | |
| Phonetics and Phonology of the Chinese Dialects: | |
| A Semantic and Syntactic Investigation into Quantification, Eventuality, Focus and Modality-With a Special Reference to Cantonese Post-Verbal Particles (HK($1,056,000) | |
| Reactive Oxygen Species Produced by a Red Tide Causative Species: An Investigation on Oxidative Stress and Damages in Fish and Mussels (HK$1,661,000) |
In total, the RGC approved 798 applications with HK$462 million in funding for all universities this year.