A big congratulations to all FLASS colleagues for their successful GRF & ECS applications

Recipients of GRF, from left to right top row: Professor Philip Yu Leung-ho from MIT, Dr Leung Chi-fai from SES, Dr Song Yanjie from MIT, Dr Andy Tse Choi-yeung from HPE; from left to right middle row: Dr Chan Man-ho from SES, Dr Matsunobu Koji from CCA and Dr Anthony Suen Chun-kit from MIT. Recipients of ECS, from left to right bottom row: Dr Tiffany Bai Shurui from MIT and Dr Cheng Jinping from SES.

The Research Grants Council (RGC) announced on 27 June the funding results of the General Research Fund (GRF) and the Early Career Scheme (ECS) for 2024/25. This year, nine proposals from FLASS have been awarded a funding support totalling over HK$6.84 million, a 42% increase over total funding amount received in the 2023/24 academic year. The nine funded projects include seven projects receiving funding by GRF and two by ECS. Subject disciplines of the funded projects range from Education, Humanities and Arts, Physical Sciences to Psychology and Linguistics.

FLASS colleagues scored well in the nine funded GRF and ECS projects: six scored 4.5, and three scored 4.0 on a scale of one to five. Of all the projects the faculty submitted, 47 proposals have received a score of 3.5 or above, representing 87% of our submissions in 2024/25. These are excellent and encouraging achievements given the increased importance of these competitive grants to our future development.

Dean of FLASS and Research Chair Professor of Data Science Professor Li Wai-keung represents faculty management to extend his sincere gratitude and appreciation for all of the hard work and dedication demonstrated by the research teams during the submission preparation work for the 2024/25 funding exercise. “Over the years, colleagues have faced different challenges in conducting research due to various unexpected circumstances. We at FLASS highly appreciate the perseverance and effort our academic staff put in during this challenging period. The management would continue to support our colleagues in using innovative strategies to strengthen our research endeavours and in achieving academic excellence,” Professor Li said.

Lists of successful GRF and ECS projects:

General Research Fund (GRF)

Project Title	Principal Investigator	Department
Education
Examining Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presences and Learning Outcomes in the Metaverse via an Intelligent Multimodal Learning Analytics Approach	Dr Song Yanjie	MIT
Humanities and Arts
Exploring the Factors Related to Music Learners’ Adoption of Effective Practice Strategies: An Examination of Possible Hypotheses	Dr Matsunobu Koji	CCA*
Physical Sciences
On the Multiple-Regime Hysteretic (Buffered) Time Series Models	Professor Philip Yu Leung-ho	MIT
Detecting and Constraining Axion Dark Matter by Using the Data of the Inner Galactic Center	Dr Chan Man-ho	SES
Two-photon Excited Photocatalysts for Red/NIR-light Promoted CO2 reduction and Chromoselective Photoredox Transformation	Dr Leung Chi-fai	SES
Vanishing viscosity solutions to a family of active vector equations for modelling magnetic relaxation	Dr Anthony Suen Chun-kit	MIT
Psychology and Linguistics
How Walk Onset Influences Language Development in Children with Elevated Likelihood of ASD?	Dr Andy Tse Choi-yeung	HPE

Early Career Scheme (ECS)

Project Title	Principal Investigator	Department
Education
E-learning through Adaptive Gamification: Effects on Students' Course Engagement, Self-efficacy and Learning Performance	Dr Tiffany Bai Shurui	MIT
Physical Sciences
Unraveling the Dynamics of Antibiotic-Resistant Genes and Pathogens in Microplastic Biofilm in Marine Aquaculture Environment: Assemblage, Dissemination, and Associated Environmental and Health Implications	Dr Cheng Jinping	SES

Note*: CCA has departed FLASS and joined the Faculty of Humanities in September.