Vice-Chancellor gives Fulbright lectures and explores multi-faceted collaborations in the US

Awarded as the 2014 Fulbright Hong Kong Distinguished Scholar, Prof. Joseph Sung, Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK, traveled to the US from 20 to 23 January 2015 to deliver a lecture titled 'Plague, SARS, Avian Flu and Ebola, have we learned anything yet?' at Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of Washington; and University of California, Los Angeles. The lectures drew a wide-ranged audience at the four universities, from medical students to eminent scholars in the areas of public health and global health.

Prof. Sung also took the opportunity to meet with leadership and researchers at the four universities with a delegation that comprised Prof. Justin Wu, Associate Dean of Medicine (Development); Prof. Gabriel Lau, Director of the Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability; Prof. Susanne Choi, Vice-Chair of the Department of Sociology; Prof. Amos Tai, Assistant Professor, Earth System Science Programme; and Ms. Shally Fan, Director of Academic Links. A number of areas of common interest were identified for future collaboration, including integrative medicine, global health, brain mapping research, gut microbiota research, migration studies, food security in China, and energy and environment.

Last but not least, Prof. Sung visited Coursera and renewed the University's partnership with the online education platform. Since 2013, CUHK has formed partnership with Coursera, a leading massive open online course platform, to bring CUHK's courses online worldwide and available to everyone for free. The renewed partnership will deepen CUHK's relationship with Coursera in the coming years.

Vice-Chancellor speaks on global health at Russell Group – China Summit

Prof. Joseph Sung, Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK, and Prof. Sian Griffiths, Special Adviser (International Academic Development), took part in the Russell Group – China Summit on Public Health Opportunities and Challenges held at the University of Glasgow (Glasgow), UK on 4 February 2015.  The Summit examined some major challenges to public health and the provision of public health services in China. The keynote speaker, Prof. Sung, spoke on 'China's Contribution to Global Health'. Besides, he chaired the Public Health Opportunities session in which Prof. Sian Griffiths was one of the speakers.

During his time at Glasgow, Prof. Sung also took the opportunity to meet with leadership and researchers to explore ways to deepen ties, including Prof. Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice Chancellor; Prof. James Conroy, Vice Principal for Internationalisation; and Prof. Anna Dominiczak, Vice Principal and Head of the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences. A number of areas were identified for future collaboration, including medicine and health, big data, ageing, law, and Chinese art and art history.

CUHK-Sussex Cancer Science Workshop

Following the visit by Prof. Joseph Sung, Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK, to the University of Sussex (Sussex), UK in March 2014, the two universities agreed to jointly organise workshops on cancer science and neuroscience as a step towards furthering the partnership. Against this backdrop, the CUHK-Sussex Cancer Science Workshop was held on campus on 3 December 2014.

Organised by CUHK's School of Biomedical Sciences and Sussex's School of Life Sciences , the CUHK-Sussex Cancer Science Workshop took place at the Lo Kwee-Seong Integrated Biomedical Sciences Building where around 50 academics, researchers, and postgraduate students participated with a view to identifying common areas of interest. A team of four researchers from Sussex were joined by their CUHK counterparts to present their research findings, covering a range of topics including drug targets, disease biomarkers, cancer epigenetics, viral carcinogenesis, and DNA damage. The workshop was officiated by Prof. CHAN Wai Yee, Director of the School of Biomedical Sciences, and Prof. Anthony Chan, Chairman of the Department of Clinical Oncology, CUHK. To view the workshop programme, please click here.

Another joint workshop on neuroscience will be held at Sussex on 9 March 2015. Four CUHK researchers from the Schools of Biomedical Sciences and Life Sciences, and the Departments of Medicine and Therapeutics, Psychology and Psychiatry, will take part in the event.

Internationalisation Faculty Mobility Schemes 2015-16 open for applications

The University has in place a number of internationalisation faculty mobility schemes to promote the international exposure of its faculty members and the development of strategic and research partnerships with overseas universities. Application for these schemes is now open for 2015-16. CUHK's faculty members are invited to apply to these schemes to undertake/host research visits during 1 August 2015 - 31 July 2016. Completed applications should reach the Office of Academic Links by Tuesday, 31 March 2015. Details of the schemes are as follows:

1. International Partnerships Development Programme

The programme aims to promote the development of strategic partnerships by encouraging faculty members and their academic units concerned to initiate visits to the University's selected partners overseas for development of institutional/faculty/departmental-level collaborations. Some of the partners under this scheme include: Brown University, Karolinska Institutet, University of Cambridge, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Oxford. Selected faculty members will be granted return airfare and accommodation support for up to one week. For more details, please click here.

2. Outbound Research Mobility Scheme

The scheme encourages international research partnerships with leaders in frontier research in different fields through enabling and supporting outbound research visits to universities and institutions overseas. Selected faculty members will be granted return airfare and accommodation support for up to two weeks. For more details, please click here.

3. Inbound Research Mobility Scheme

The scheme encourages international research partnerships with leaders in frontier research in different fields through enabling and supporting inbound research visits from universities and institutions overseas. Hotel/on-campus accommodation for up to two weeks will be provided. For more details, please click here.

4. Short-term Faculty Exchange Programme

The programme aims to expand CUHK's network with selected international partners for joint research collaborations. It also fosters stronger ties between faculty members of CUHK and its partner institutions for academic and research exchange. Selected faculty members will be granted return airfare while the host institutions will provide accommodation for up to one week. The partners of this scheme are: Brown University, the University of Sydney, University of Bristol, University of Leeds, Utrecht University and Waseda University. For more details, please click here.

Global Scholarship Programme for Research Excellence and PhD Student Exchange Programme open for applications for 2015-16

The Global Scholarship Programme for Research Excellence and PhD Student Exchange Programme are now open for applications for 2015–16. Both programmes aim to enhance research excellence at CUHK through building and strengthening the University's ties with leading research universities and institutes around the world and to increase the visibility of CUHK as a world-class research university through student mobility. The research visits should be conducted between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016. Completed applications should reach the Office of Academic Links by Friday, 24 April 2015. Details of the schemes are as follows:

1. Global Scholarship Programme for Research Excellence

The programme supports PhD students of CUHK to undertake short-term research visits for three to six months under the supervision of top scholars from leading institutions around the world, including Brown University, The University of Sydney, University of Oxford and Utrecht University. In addition, it supports PhD students from those institutions to undertake short-term research attachments for at least one month at CUHK. CUHK PhD students will receive funding support and inbound PhD students will receive free on-campus accommodation. For more details, please click here.

2. PhD Student Exchange Programme

The programme supports PhD students of CUHK to undertake short-term research visits for one to six months at selected partner institutions including Brown University, Karolinska Institutet, University of Bristol, University of Leeds and Utrecht University. Funding support will be provided to the awardees to cover part of their travel cost and living expense at the host institution. For more details, please click here.

Faculty members awarded under the Short-term Faculty Exchange Programme 2014-15

Three faculty members were newly selected to participate in the programme to explore joint research collaborations with Brown University, the University of Sydney and Utrecht University. Through a one-week visit at the host institutions, the awarded faculty members will attend a series of academic activities relevant to their research interests and meet with scholars and researchers to explore research collaboration. To view the list of awardees, please click here.

PhD students awarded under the PhD Student Exchange Programme 2014-15

Under the PhD Student Exchange Programme for 2014-15, three CUHK PhD students were newly selected to undertake research attachments of three to six months at the University of Bristol and Utrecht University under the supervision of a host supervisor. To view the list of awardees, please click here.