• A total of 10 projects funded by the General Research Fund (GRF) of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) with colleagues of the Faculty of Education serving as Principal Investigators (6 GRF projects received funding in 2010-11 exercise).

• Two Public Policy Research projects funded by the RGC (Faculty colleagues serving as Principal Investigators).

• Research projects of international scale, including the "Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA; funded by the Hong Kong Education Bureau) and "Parent Behavior and Child Adjustment across Culture" (funded by the National Institute of Health and Duke University, the United States).

• Projects funded by competitive funding sources such as Quality Education Fund (QEF), and Health and Health Services Research Fund.

• Projects that seek to understand and assist in school and teacher development (e.g., school improvement projects funded by the Hong Kong Education Bureau).

        Participating in funded projects is critical to research activities in the Faculty of Education. Through various competitive funded projects, colleagues engage in applied and basic research studies, contribute to theory and knowledge generation, and experiment with innovative educational practices and approaches. In addition to projects that are globally affiliated with the various departments of the Faculty, colleagues also address related issues and themes to cater for local needs, such as in language education, policy and development, holistic development of Hong Kong students and educational assessment and school improvement.

        Looking into the future, building success in obtaining competitive research grants will be an important direction of the Faculty of Education, especially research grants administered by the Hong Kong RGC. Our efforts will be strategic, so that funded projects will make a timely contribution to education in Hong Kong. Our efforts should also make an impact beyond our boundaries, positively influencing Chinese Mainland and the wider world community.

        We included here the abstracts of six research projects that have recently received funding from the General Research Fund of the RGC. Big cheers to colleagues for receiving support for these projects, the outline of research in the following section can also provide our stakeholders a "snapshot" of research studies that are currently being conducted in the Faculty of Education.