Hong Kong Baptist University establishes sci-tech institute in Qianhai

The Hong Kong Baptist University Qianhai Institute for Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship was inaugurated May 29 at the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub. 

Guests attend the opening ceremony of the Hong Kong Baptist University Qianhai Institute for Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. Photos courtesy of HKBU

Jointly established by the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) and the Qianhai Authority, the institute is the latest major Hong Kong university-based technology commercialization platform established in Qianhai, following the launch of the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s InnoHub for New Quality Industries earlier this year.

The institute aims to be a sci-tech innovation incubation platform and will also function as a new-type research and development institution. Drawing on the HKBU’s innovation resources, including its state key laboratory and InnoHK research center, the institute will focus on building two major R&D centers in Qianhai: one for artificial intelligence and life and health, and another for sustainable development technologies.

More than 200 representatives from government, industry, academia and research attend the institute’s opening ceremony.

The institute will also set up a technology transfer and industrial empowerment base, a student employment and entrepreneurship base, and a joint exchange and cooperation platform for universities in China and abroad. In particular, it will strengthen scientific and technological cooperation with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, serving as a first stop for young people from Hong Kong seeking to start businesses on the mainland with an international outlook.

Dr. Sunny Chai, deputy chairman of the Council and the Court of the HKBU, said that by leveraging the university’s interdisciplinary strength, together with Qianhai’s strong industrial and supply chains, application scenarios and technology commercialization ecosystem, the HKBU will further deepen its ties with the the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and accelerate the journey of research achievements from the laboratory to the production line, offering impactful solutions to pressing economic and social challenges.

Representatives of the HKBU and Greater Bay Area Development Fund Management Ltd. sign a memorandum of understanding.

At the ceremony, the HKBU also signed memorandums of understanding with Shenzhen Angel FOF, Greater Bay Area Development Fund Management Ltd., Shenzhen Kehua Huijian Technology Co. and Bioching Capital, to establish strategic alliances that will provide companies entering the institute with full-life-cycle support, from angel investment to industrialization.

The first batch of 11 startups, founded by HKBU professors, alumni or students, participated in the move-in ceremony, and set up booths to showcase their innovation achievements to the attending guests.

In the sharing session, Dr. Chan Chiu-wing, CEO of MicroFlow Innovation Ltd., said that establishing a presence in Qianhai can help startups iterate rapidly within a thriving ecosystem of innovation, advance from their origin in Hong Kong to translation in the GBA, and ultimately gain access to the global market. She also encouraged young entrepreneurs to seize the opportunities in the GBA.

Qianhai, a national strategic platform, has built a “6+4+2” industrial system and developed industrial clusters worth hundreds of billions of yuan in sectors such as software and information services, AI and digital creativity. The launch of the institute is expected to create a strong synergy with Qianhai’s existing industrial clusters, further promoting Hong Kong-Shenzhen collaboration in academia, industry and research, enriching the ecosystem for cross-border commercialization of scientific achievements, and helping the two cities jointly foster new quality productive forces.