Inaugurated on 1 August 2019 and locally based in Hong Kong, this programme facilitates cross-disciplinary collaboration under the auspices of the Art Museum, CUHK. The aim is to maximize the University’s academic resources across the fields of history, archaeology, art and materials science to collate, research, publish and promote locally unearthed or circulating artefacts in partnership with local cultural institutions; to investigate the maritime trade role played by Hong Kong in the historical context of the Maritime Silk Road in the Pearl River Delta and Southeast Asia in association with leading entities and scholars both at home and abroad; and to engage with the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, for not only joint research projects but also presentations of the latest and the most important archaeological findings to the Hong Kong community.