Lingnan University President S. Joe Qin welcomes the HKSAR’s First Five-Year Plan and 2026 Policy Address

Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science at Lingnan University, welcomes Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan and the 2026 Policy Address delivered by Mr John Lee, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and has responded as follows:

President Qin said that Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan, which devotes considerable attention to policy measures relating to the Northern Metropolis, education, talent development, and innovation and technology research, sets out a comprehensive plan for Hong Kong’s development over the next five years. He considers this an important practical step in helping Hong Kong to actively integrate into the overall development of the country, in alignment with the National 15th Five-Year Plan, with the 2026 Policy Address further setting out concrete policy measures to progressively implement the relevant development directions. The two documents are closely connected and make full use of Hong Kong’s strengths and complementary advantages, particularly by strengthening collaboration in higher education, innovation and technology, and talent development, thereby making use of Hong Kong’s unique advantages and contributing to long-term, high-quality economic development.

(1) Support for the capacity expansion and quality enhancement of post-secondary education

President Qin welcomes the HKSAR Government’s plan to increase the number of University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded research postgraduate places by approximately 30 per cent, from the current 7,200 to 9,600, by the 2030/31 academic year, and the annual quota of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme from 400 places in the 2027/28 academic year to 550 places in the 2029/30 academic year.

He pointed out that postgraduate students are an important force in driving knowledge innovation and research development. At Lingnan, for example, six outstanding PhD students from the Chinese Mainland, France, Russia, the US, and Bangladesh have been awarded the Hong Kong PhD Fellowships in the new academic year, marking a record high. In addition, Lingnan has for two consecutive years received the greatest number of awards and gold awards of any Hong Kong higher education institution at the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival. Due to the capacity expansion of post-secondary education, Lingnan will be able to increase postgraduate participation in interdisciplinary research projects, including “liberal arts + technology” and “AI+”, enabling young scholars to work closely with professors in research, innovation, and development, to address real-world challenges, and to nurture more research-oriented talent for the HKSAR and the country.

(2) Support for the Hong Kong Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Institute to advance upstream research and development

As a member of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Institute (AIRDI), President Qin welcomes the HKSAR Government’s support for the AIRDI in applying high-performance computing (HPC) power for cutting-edge research, accelerating innovation breakthroughs, enhancing original research capabilities and outputs in artificial intelligence (AI), and promoting the transformation of research outcomes in the HKSAR and on the Chinese Mainland. He also welcomes the injection of HK$1 billion into the Artificial Intelligence Subsidy Scheme to further support AI research and development, as well as innovation breakthroughs.

The President explained that to seize the opportunities presented by AI development, Hong Kong should continue to advance upstream research and the translation of research outcomes, while placing greater emphasis on education and talent to establish an AI system linking research, education, and applications across society. As a member of the Board of Directors, he would bring Lingnan’s practical experience in AI education, talent development, and research over the past few years to the AIRDI, and contribute to Hong Kong’s AI progress at different levels, from upstream research to AI education and talent development.

President Qin said that Lingnan has more than three years of practical experience in “AI+” education and was one of the first universities in Hong Kong to integrate AI elements comprehensively across different disciplines. Since 2023, all students, faculty, and staff have had free access to ChatGPT, with DeepSeek subsequently added as an option promoting AI literacy. Since the 2024/25 academic year, the University has made generative AI a compulsory common core course for all first-year students, systematically developing their ability to coexist and collaborate with AI, and to use it responsibly.

In nurturing outstanding talent, Lingnan’s first cohort of approximately 15 students in the Samuel C.C. Ting Elite Class, named after Nobel Laureate in Physics Prof Samuel C.C. Ting, was formed in the 2026/27 academic year. The students will participate in AI training provided by multinationals, and receive priority access to frontier research, thereby cultivating AI expertise, research capabilities, and innovative thinking.

In terms of research infrastructure, Lingnan HPC NexT, the University’s HPC Data Centre, is comparable to the world’s top 100 supercomputers. Its capacity reduces the time required for certain AI research projects from several months to just a few hours. The second phase has introduced Hong Kong’s first high-efficiency, energy-saving spray cooling system, which further increases its computing performance and energy efficiency.

President Qin said that Hong Kong’s AI development requires the simultaneous advancement of research, education, and talent, and that AI training should be accessible to people across different sectors. Building on Lingnan’s experience over the past few years, the University will expand AI training and nurture talent at every level.

(3) Accelerating the development of the Northern Metropolis University Town

President Qin welcomes the HKSAR Government’s efforts to expedite the development of the Northern Metropolis University Town and the integration of Hong Kong’s areas of academic strength in post-secondary education with industry. He particularly noted that the Hung Shui Kiu University Town will begin to allocate campus sites in 2026, with institutions moving in from 2027 to 2028.

The President said that, as the university closest to the Hung Shui Kiu University Town, Lingnan has in recent years strengthened its alliances with leading institutions in the Chinese Mainland and overseas, including exchanges and collaborative programmes with Tsinghua University’s Xinya College and Peking University (PKU)’s Yuanpei College. In the summer of 2026, Lingnan and Tsinghua University’s Xinya College organised the “LUXY Lab”, training future leaders to think creatively and to have a sense of social responsibility. The University also jointly organised the Lingnan-Yuanpei STEM Summer Academy with Yuanpei College of PKU in the summer of 2026 for the third year running, enabling young people from Beijing and Hong Kong to combine state-of-the-art scientific innovation with the humanities and transform creative thinking into commercially viable, socially responsible solutions.

Lingnan has been committed to accelerating innovation collaboration across the government, industry, academia, research, and investment. In August 2026, the University established the innovation and entrepreneurship platform “LU Xcelerator” (LUX), with “AI + X” as its core focus. The platform explores applications of Agentic AI across different industries, and combines data science and interdisciplinary research to advance high-end research, innovation, and the transformation of research outcomes. Lingnan has also signed MoUs with the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneur Hub and iFLYTEK (Hong Kong) to promote start-ups, investment matching, and the commercialisation of research outcomes.

In terms of patents, Lingnan scholars were granted six times as many patents in the HKSAR, the Chinese Mainland, and the US in the 2025/26 academic year as in the previous year, a record for the University, which has also secured funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Environment and Conservation Fund, the Lantau Conservation Fund, and the Innovation and Technology Commission for teams turning research outcomes from the laboratory into practical applications.

President Qin said that as the Northern Metropolis University Town grows, Lingnan will actively establish partnerships with more leading research institutions and industries, and extend its strengths in research areas including AI and data science to the development of the Northern Metropolis.