Hong Kong springboards new R&D hub

Eligible firms may receive monthly allowances up to $32,000.

The Innovation and Technology Commission has merged the Researcher Programme (RP) and the Postdoctoral Hub (PH), turning it into the Research Talent Hub, a press release revealed.

At present, the RP and the PH provide funding support for eligible companies and organisations to engage two researchers and two postdoctoral talents, respectively, to conduct research and development (R&D) work.

Under the Research Talent Hub, companies will be able to obtain funding support to engage up to four innovation and technology (I&T) participants with a bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree to conduct R&D work. Eligible firms include incubatees and I&T tenants of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company, as well as firms undertaking R&D projects funded by the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF).

The Research Talent Hub under the ITF aims to encourage university graduates to pursue careers in the I&T field and nurture more I&T talent. The maximum engagement period for each research talent is three years in general.

The maximum monthly allowances for research talent with a local bachelor's degree, a local master's degree or a doctoral degree are $18,000, $21,000 and $32,000, respectively. The press release added that in the past three years, the RP has approved over 2,300 researcher positions with total funding of about $780m, whilst the PH gave $603m of funds to over 1,030 postdoctoral talent since its launch in August 2018.