Research output, named institutions, and knowledge transfer: from endowed professorships to spin-off unicorns

Assessing a university's research means looking not only at what it produces and how much funding it secures, but also at how it moves discoveries beyond the laboratory. This article traces CUHK's research landscape along four threads — money, people, output, and translation — covering Areas of Excellence (AoE) grants and RAE performance, named research centres and endowed professorships, top-tier international honours, and representative spin-off companies that have walked out of the lab. Figures and dates are cited in place.

# 1. Areas of Excellence (AoE) and major grants

The Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme is a dedicated funding stream the University Grants Committee (UGC) provides for outstanding research projects at local institutions. According to a CUHK press release^※, in the 2025/26 round of AoE and the Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS), four CUHK-led projects received a combined total of over HK$220 million:

As the same press release notes, CUHK led two of the three AoE projects awarded in that round. Over the years CUHK has led multiple AoE projects spanning soybeans/agriculture, network coding, regenerative medicine, and more. Among them, Lam Hon-ming's research on sustainable agriculture and food security also received AoE recognition, continuing a two-decade research lineage, according to a CUHK press release^※ (see Agricultural biotechnology for details).

# 2. Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2020 performance

According to the results of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2020 released by the UGC^※, across the eight UGC-funded institutions in Hong Kong roughly 70% of assessed research was rated by international experts as "internationally excellent" or above (with 25% rated "world leading" and 45% "internationally excellent"). According to CUHK in Touch^※, CUHK achieved the highest proportion of 3-star and 4-star ratings in several assessment panels, with particularly strong showings in engineering (94%), electrical and electronic engineering (87%), law (83%), and education (68%); the engineering discipline posted the highest proportion of 4-star ratings among all institutions.

# 3. Named research centres and endowed professorships

CUHK's naming architecture knits together founding figures, benefactors, and the highest academic distinctions: institutes and centres carry institutional memory, while endowed chairs recognise senior scholars.

# Selected named institutes and research centres

Many of CUHK's institutes and research centres are named after founding figures or benefactors. Examples include:

• Simon F. S. Li Marine Science Laboratory — marine ecology research; see China studies · social-science think tanks · earth and space.
• Centre for Soybean Research / State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology — Lam Hon-ming's team; see Agricultural biotechnology.
• Institute of Chinese Studies (1967) and its subsidiary Art Museum (1971) — established on the initiative of founding Vice-Chancellor Li Choh-ming, according to CUHK information^※; see China studies · social-science think tanks · earth and space.

For InnoHK centres (such as the Centre for Novostics, the Multi-scale Medical Robotics Centre), see State Key Laboratories.

# Named / Endowed Professorships

Named professorships are among the highest academic honours a university can confer on its senior scholars. CUHK maintains several named series, the most prominent being the Choh-Ming Li Professorship (commemorating the founding Vice-Chancellor Li Choh-ming) and the Wei Lun Professorship. According to CUHK in Focus^※, at the inauguration ceremony in March 2025, CUHK conferred a new cohort of Choh-Ming Li and Wei Lun Professors; according to a CUHK press release^※, teaching and research awards were presented to multiple staff members on the same occasion. Raymond Yeung Wai-ho, a founder of network coding, has long held the Choh-Ming Li Professor of Information Engineering title, according to the IEEE Information Theory Society^※.

Note: The list of scholars who have held named chairs over the years is extensive; for the current roster, refer to the official inauguration ceremony announcements.

# 4. Research honours: top-tier international awards

The highest-level international honours won by CUHK scholars spotlight world-class standing in several disciplines:

These honours mark three world-class disciplinary threads — physics, medicine, and information theory. For their background and context, see Overview of research achievements, Breakthroughs in life sciences and medicine, and Breakthroughs in information and engineering.

# 5. The knowledge transfer mechanism: ORKTS

Knowledge transfer at CUHK is coordinated by the Office of Research and Knowledge Transfer Services (ORKTS), which handles patents, technology licensing, spin-off incubation, and related functions. ORKTS maintains an Innovation & Impact section that systematically documents representative start-up stories born at CUHK.

# 6. Representative spin-off unicorns

# SenseTime

According to CUHK ORKTS^※, SenseTime was founded in 2014 by a team led by Tang Xiao'ou of the Department of Information Engineering, emerging from breakthroughs in facial recognition at its Multimedia Laboratory (MMLab); the company subsequently listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and ranks among the world's iconic AI unicorns. For technical and biographical detail, see Breakthroughs in information and engineering.

# SmartMore

According to CUHK ORKTS^※, SmartMore was founded in late 2019 by Professor Jia Jiaya, a computer vision researcher, focusing on industrial optimisation and automation (IOA) for smart manufacturing. According to CUHK in Focus^※, SmartMore reached unicorn status — a valuation exceeding US$1 billion — in roughly 18 months, with a workforce of over a thousand, more than 70% of whom hold a master's or doctoral degree.

# Insighta (multi-cancer early detection)

According to a CUHK press release^※, CUHK's NIPT inventor (Professor of Chemical Pathology) and Prenetics established the joint venture Insighta in 2023, in a transaction valued at US$200 million — described as one of the largest private life-science deals in Hong Kong's history. The technology originates from the Centre for Novostics under InnoHK and targets multi-cancer early detection (see Breakthroughs in life sciences and medicine for details).

# 7. Key takeaways at a glance

• Grants: In the 2025/26 AoE/TRS round, four CUHK-led projects secured a combined total of over HK$220 million.
• Assessment: In RAE 2020, CUHK led on the proportion of 3-star and 4-star ratings in engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, law, and education panels.
• Honours: The Nobel Prize (Charles K. Kao), the Lasker and Breakthrough Prizes (the NIPT inventor), and the Shannon Award (Raymond Yeung) mark three world-class disciplinary threads.
• Translation: Coordinated by ORKTS; representative unicorns include SenseTime (2014), SmartMore (2019), and Insighta (2023).

Related reading: Overview of research achievements, Breakthroughs in information and engineering, Breakthroughs in life sciences and medicine, State Key Laboratories, Agricultural biotechnology.