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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, at the Award Presentation Ceremony of the Early Career Scheme and the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Prestigious Fellowship Scheme today (November 29):
Chairman of the Research Grants Council Professor Benjamin Wah, distinguished guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to attend the Award Presentation Ceremony of the Early Career Scheme and the HSS Prestigious Fellowship Scheme and to celebrate the achievements of the awardees in person.
I came from the world of my previous corporate life in the hi-tech area and the banking area, recognising that research is vital to a city or a country or a region, both in terms of brain power as well as competitiveness. Research is vital to Hong Kong's future. The role of an academic is to discover knowledge and to transfer that knowledge to benefit the broader community. The Government is committed to supporting our academics and institutions to develop the research capacity through a steady stream of research funding generated from the Research Endowment Fund. According to the QS World University Rankings 2013, six of our city's universities were ranked as the top 300 universities in the world, while three of them were in the top 40. Furthermore, a recent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit announced that Hong Kong was ranked third among 80 cities as one of the best international education destinations in the world. Such remarkable achievements are only possible due to your and your colleagues' dedication, and I must commend you sincerely for that.
The RGC has done a great job by using a portion of the income from the Research Endowment Fund to develop two new schemes in 2012/13 - the Early Career Scheme and the HSS Prestigious Fellowship Scheme - to recognise the excellent research work undertaken by the junior academics as well as the outstanding HSS experts.
The Early Career Scheme is designed to nurture the development of promising research talents by supporting the research projects of junior scholars at the beginning of their academic career. The HSS Prestigious Fellowship Scheme is in recognition that research work in humanities and social sciences is different from that of science and engineering. The RGC has pledged to provide better research support for work in the humanities and social sciences areas. I must express my appreciation and gratitude to the RGC for your efforts in developing and implementing these excellent initiatives.
To our future stellar researchers, I am glad to see that your passion, endeavours and determination are recognised today. I am confident that with your continual improvement in various aspects, you will excel and shine in the international research arena.
To our experienced and renowned HSS experts, I hope that the research support in the form of extended time off and supporting funds would enable you to focus on your research work and writing.
Today, awards are given to you all in recognition of your perseverance, diligence and accomplishments in pursuing research. I wish you every success in transforming the frontier knowledge you discovered into quality curricula and in strengthening research and teaching for the benefit of our students. Thank you.
Ends/Friday, November 29, 2013
Issued at HKT 20:10
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