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12 Apr 2019

Lingnan University honours outstanding research and knowledge transfer achievements

 



Officiating guests take a group photo with all the awardees at the Ceremony

 

Today (12 April), Lingnan University honoured more than 20 faculty members in the Research and Knowledge Transfer (KT) Excellence Awards Presentation Ceremony for their achievements in eminent research outputs, KT projects of high social relevance and impact, and success in obtaining competitive funds from the Research Grants Council under the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme (HSSPFS), General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS).

 

In his opening address in the ceremony, Mr Simon IP Shing-Hing, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Lingnan University, highlighted that the University’s ranking has further moved up in the QS Asia University Rankings 2019 with its research achievements. “Lingnan’s ranking in scholars’ citations per paper has made a jump of 29 places to the 88th in the League Table. This is further to the big jump of 140 places last year which demonstrates our University’s continuous advancement in academic standing and research impact,” said Mr IP.

 

In his welcoming remarks in the awards presentation ceremony, Prof Leonard K CHENG, President of Lingnan University thanked the University community for their contributions in enhancing the University’s research and KT excellence. He also revealed that the University would launch a new strategic plan in the near future. “The University will soon roll out the new Strategic Plan for 2019-25 with a number of key strategic areas, one of which is to promote research excellence and knowledge transfer. With the concerted efforts of our colleagues, I am confident that we will continue to sustain and pursue our excellence in research and knowledge transfer.” 

 

In the 2018/2019 year of the ECS applications, the University topped the chart with the success rate of 66.7%, which is considerably higher than the sector-wide average of 40.2%. The University also came first in the Humanities and Social Sciences Panel, with an application success rate of 83.3% compared to the sector-wide average of 38.1%; while in the subject discipline of Humanities and Arts under this panel, the University achieved a remarkable application success rate of 100% compared to the sector-wide average of 48.7%. As regards the HSSPFS, the University’s application success rate was 50%, with one of the only seven successful projects among the 22 applications from all eight UGC-funded universities.

 

One of the KT projects awarded, “Job seeking practices of South Asian youths in Hong Kong – Evaluation of employment support services” led by Prof Lisa LEUNG of Department of Cultural Studies, achieved policy impact by taking its research findings to relevant government and public platforms. It also received extensive media coverage and aroused public awareness on the issue.

 

Another award-winning project, “Developing intergenerational education partnership to encourage conservation of reptiles and amphibians in Hong Kong”, is led by Prof Mark McGINLEY and Prof Jonathan FONG of the Science Unit. The project connected intergenerational participants with the mother nature and trained them as Citizen Scientists in experiential learning in conservation work to increase their awareness and knowledge of the local biodiversity, fostering a biodiversity-friendly momentum in the community.