HKUST and UCLA Join Hands in China Projects

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) today (12 October 2009) announced a new program of collaborative research and postgraduate training in the humanities and social sciences to create innovative international and interdisciplinary connections among scholars and students researching topics related to China.

The multi-year workshop and conference project program, to be organized by HKUST's School of Humanities and Social Science and UCLA's Asia Institute starting 2010, will form the foundation of broader networks of scholars at HKUST, UCLA and beyond who share related research interests. All HKUST and UCLA professorial faculty are eligible to apply and each project should be led by two Principal Investigators (PIs), one from each university.

Project awards are for a 3-year period and will fund a planning meeting in Year 1 at HKUST or UCLA for PIs to organize postgraduate training and faculty research on a specific topic; a workshop in Year 2 at UCLA on the research and training topic; and an international conference in Year 3 at HKUST to present the completed work. Total workshop and conference expenses will be supported for up to HK $700,000 or US $90,000 per project. Additional support for postgraduate student exchanges related to the projects is also available. Each project should result by the end of the 3-year period in manuscripts for an edited volume or as a dedicated journal issue of a relevant major scholarly journal. A request for proposals with additional details will be distributed this fall.

Prof James Z Lee, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science at HKUST, said, "HKUST and UCLA already have a number of ties in the humanities and social sciences. To give but one example, one tenth of the entire SHSS professorial faculty earned their PhD at UCLA. This new program will take advantage of such existing ties, and help establish new ones."

Prof R Bin Wong, Director of the UCLA Asia Institute, said, "This program represents an exciting opportunity for UCLA to develop research collaborations in the humanities and social sciences which we hope will bring the study of China more fully into the mainstream of social science and humanities research and bring more mainstream humanities and social sciences to China."

For media enquiries, please feel free to contact :

Ross Lai

Tel: 2358 6306 / 9103 2928

Email: rosslai@ust.hk

Donna Wong

Tel: 2358 6317

Email: donnaw@ust.hk