The collaboration between the two universities can be traced back to 2007 when the Steering Committee on Collaboration was set up to explore areas for deep cooperation. The 1^st Committee meeting was held in SYSU in 2008. Collaborations were in six areas including Oncology, Chinese Medicine, Computer Sciences, Regional History, Biochemistry and Student Affairs. At the meeting held on 27 November, members from the six areas reported the progresses of the joint projects and reviewed the possibilities to facilitate high level collaboration. The Regional History team obtained approval of funding from the University Grants Committee in the Areas of Excellence (AoE) for its project concerning historical anthropology of Chinese Society. This is the first time AoE has allocated funding to a Humanity and Social Sciences project.  A Memorandum of Understanding was signed to engineer the collaboration of this AoE project which will involve CUHK, SYSU and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.