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International Research Collaborations
CUHK is committed to encouraging faculty members and students to build international research collaborations with a view to raising its international standing and advancing the frontiers of research and technology. The University undertakes a wide range of research programmes in many subject areas and actively pursues collaborations with institutions throughout the world to strengthen and complement its research excellence. It has over the past years established a number of institutional-level research collaborations that are of strategic value. The following is a highlight of some of the current collaborations.
Baylor College of Medicine, USA
BCM is recognised for its excellence in medical genetics. CUHK and BCM have been collaborating in clinical genetic training, prenatal diagnosis and related areas. The CUHK-BCM Joint Center for Medical Genetics undertakes cutting-edge research in genetic and genomic technology; screening, diagnosis and therapy of genetic disorders; and discovery of the underlying genetic mechanism of diseases. It has developed FetalSeq v1.0, a more comprehensive, new and precise fetal DNA testing method which is used in Hong Kong for prenatal and postnatal diagnosis of virtually all of the known microdeletion and microduplication syndromes. A new study of the Joint Center established a fundamental role for genetics to help people with infertility by using low-pass genome sequencing to look for chromosomal abnormalities in couples with recurrent miscarriage.
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Collaboration Areas Genetic, genomic & precision medicine Additional Information |
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ETH Zurich, Switzerland
ETH Zurich is one of the world’s top engineering institutions and a pioneer in nanotechnology. The two universities have been dedicated to the development of healthcare innovation and biomedical engineering, especially nano-robotics, over the years. A couple of alliances are in place to jointly develop innovative technologies and achieve medical advances to benefit patients. Apart from this, the two universities collaborate in research related to smart cities and architecture.
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Collaboration Areas Innovative medical devices; Smart & sustainable cities/architecture Additional Information
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Imperial College London, UK
Imperial is regarded as one of the leading universities in the world with immense strengths in medicine and engineering. CUHK collaborates with the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial on healthcare solutions and technological innovations that can reshape the future of patient care and wellbeing.
Collaboration Areas
Innovative medical devices
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Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
LMU Munich is one of the most prestigious universities in Europe. CUHK is a member of the LMU-China Academic Network (LMU-CHaN) which aims to build collaborations in different scientific areas, particularly in medicine. LMU Munich is also a member of the CUHK-initiated Global Alliance of Medical Excellence (GAME). The two Faculties of Medicine are working together to advance research in childhood asthma and liver injury.
Collaboration Areas
Genetic, genomic & precision medicine; English; Journalism and communication; Political studies
Additional Information
The University of Manchester, UK
CUHK and Manchester offer a joint research fund comprising a seed-corn fund and a strategic research fund to foster research collaborations of various scales between the two universities. Twelve seed-corn projects have been awarded to promote collaborations in areas including advanced materials, cancer, energy and climate change, environment and public health, and future cities, while three projects in translational biomedicine as well as environment and sustainability have been awarded under the strategic research fund.
The fund has enabled researchers to address some of the global challenges. One noteworthy example is in urbanization where researchers explore the dynamics of urban change and its impact on the neighbourhoods and communities in the cities of Manchester and Hong Kong.
Collaboration Areas
Brain & mind; Chemistry; Climate change; Smart & sustainable cities
Additional Information
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The University of Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne is one of the leading universities in Australia and enjoys high standing in education and research. CUHK and Melbourne have undertaken different levels of teaching and research activities. Besides offering training to community mental health services jointly with Peking University, the two universities launched two MOOCs on Coursera and a multi-country study on Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
Collaboration Areas
Brain & mind; Computer science; Digestive disease
Additional Information
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The University of Sydney, Australia
CUHK has long and close collaboration with Sydney in various research areas including cardiology, cities, diabetes, and law. Besides, both universities are members of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities. The two universities run the Analytic and Clinical Cooperative Laboratory for Integrative Medicine to bring new technologies and practices for the development of treatments that combine western and Chinese medicine, and the USyd-CUHK Partnership Collaboration Awards to support joint initiatives that strengthen the two universities’ strategic priorities. Ten projects in a variety of areas including bioengineering, genetics, marine ecosystem, planetary health, and migration have been supported.
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Collaboration Areas Big data & integrative medicine; Cardiovascular disease; Diabetes Additional Information
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University of Cambridge, UK
There have been multi-faceted collaborations at different levels between CUHK and Cambridge, including the Clare Hall Visiting Fellowship Programme, a joint laboratory in bilingualism, research collaboration in autism neuroscience, cooperation in CUHK’s Global Physician-Leadership Stream of the MBChB Programme, and most recently, global humanities. The Cambridge-CUHK Joint Laboratory for Bilingualism aims to promote research in bilingualism with a focus on the acquisition of Mandarin Chinese in linguistically diverse bilingual and multilingual contexts. It was found that preschool heritage children (in overseas communities such as the UK and US) are able to develop bilingualism and attain native proficiency in Cantonese and Mandarin as heritage languages, but language shift from Chinese to English was documented when they reach school age and English input becomes predominant. The study sheds new light on language attrition and maintenance across acquisition contexts.
Collaboration Areas
Brain & mind; Humanities
Additional Information
University of Exeter, UK
Exeter is world-leading in the fields of climate, environment and health education. Notable collaborations between the two universities include the PROTECT Study in Hong Kong and the CUHK–Exeter Joint Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Resilience (ENSURE).
PROTECT is a cohort study between Exeter and King’s College London aiming to understand how the brain ages and investigate which factors in mid-life would affect the risk of dementia. In collaboration with CUHK, the study will enable researchers to look at any cultural differences and key lifestyle factors that would help tailor interventions specifically to the city’s population. ENSURE is the first-of-its-kind joint centre in Hong Kong which aims to tackle emerging issues related to a changing environment and human health and wellbeing.
Collaboration Areas
Environment & sustainability; Brain & mind
Additional Information
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University of Oxford, UK
CUHK and Oxford have been working closely on different fronts of teaching and research. There are collaborations in China and Hindu studies; bioethics; neuroscience; personalised medicine, as well as a range of works in the public health domain, including disaster response and a multi-lateral research programme in air pollution and health outcomes with Fudan University and Peking University.
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Collaboration Areas Ageing; Bioethics; Brain & mind; China studies; Climate change; Disaster & medical humanitarian response; Environmental health; Genetic, genomic & precision medicine Additional Information |
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University of Southampton, UK
Both CUHK and Southampton are members of the Worldwide Universities Network and there have been active collaborations in public health and data science under the auspices of the Network. The two universities run a CUHK-Southampton Joint Laboratory for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine to conduct high impact research in the areas of stem cells, developmental biology, and regenerative medicine.
Collaboration Areas
Stem cell biology & regenerative medicine
Additional Information
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Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Research collaborations between the two universities have been robust. There is a CUHK-UU Joint Centre for Language, Mind and Brain, a CUHK-University Medical Center Utrecht Joint Research Laboratory of Respiratory Virus and Immunobiology and a joint research programme in musculoskeletal research and regenerative medicine. A tripartite partnership was formed among CUHK, Utrecht, and University of Toronto to address issues related to public health, cities, and migration.
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Collaboration Areas Autism & neuroscience; Immunobiology; Smart & sustainable cities; Migration; Public health; Stem cell biology & regenerative medicine; Youth development Additional Information
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For enquiries on the collaborations with the abovementioned overseas institutions, please contact Ms. Shally Fan, Director of Academic Links.