Academics and the city: what's in it for HK?

Utrecht University close ties with Hong Kong that extend well beyond the academic sphere: given that the city is such an international hub for knowledge and innovation, how could it not? Through student and staff exchanges with local universities including CUHK, joint research projects that result in practical applications, and UU alumni working in a wide range of sectors, UU’s presence in Hong Kong serves as a bridge between academia and the wider world.

UU and CUHK: fruitful cooperation

When Utrecht University started working together with 10 Chinese universities back in 2006, we soon realised that the Chinese University of Hong Kong offered myriad opportunities for close cooperation.

A lively exchange programme has since blossomed: over the past 5 years each university has hosted over fifty of the other’s students. But it doesn’t end there. Both universities constantly invest in their cooperation by providing grants for the exchange of doctoral candidates and faculty members to share their knowledge and expertise. This provides fertile soil to feed the other aspect of this cooperation: a range of joint research projects.

Forward-looking global partners

For many of their research projects, UU and CUHK have joined hands with a third partner: The University of Toronto. Together, they work on questions related to how we live, work, and interact with our physical and social environment. Joint research topics include:

• Cities
• Public health
• Migration

In these collaborative projects, researchers examine urban issues and public health challenges like pollution, inequality, travel and activity patterns, etc. The Cities project also aims to create a big and open urban data infrastructure for the partners to facilitate further research and the development of innovative solutions.

Joint teaching, student and staff exchange, and joint grant applications all serve to strengthen these ties.

Life Sciences: focus on real-world applications

UU’s Medical Faculty, part of UMC Utrecht, and CUHK also cooperate closely in the field of Life Sciences, always with practical applications in mind. For example, they have set up the Joint Centre for Language, Mind and Brain. With its interdisciplinary approach, the Centre hopes to create an international platform to advance our understanding of the biological basis of language learning, language structure, communicative and literacy disorders, cognitive neuroscience, and speech-language therapy. The unique prenatal genetics expertise of CUHK offers insights into early diagnosis of microdeletion and microduplication syndromes including Autism and Epilepsy.

Making a difference to medicine

Aside from the Joint Centre, UU-UMCU and CUHK also pursue joint efforts in the area of regenerative medicine, particularly orthopaedics, both bilaterally and in larger academic networks. Joint teaching, student and staff exchange, and joint grant applications all serve to strengthen these ties. In order to develop practical applications based on our research findings and bring them to market, we work together with the industry as well as SMEs, and sometimes create spin-off companies. One of these spin-offs, MRIguidance, is making a difference to medicine already: their radiation-free bone MRI technology now offers a more holistic view of the human body by bringing bones into the picture, while traditional MRIs only show soft tissue in high-level detail. This allows doctors to work more efficiently and helps reduce the number of scans patients must undergo.

The value of an alumni network

Hong Kong is a popular choice for relocation among Utrecht University alumni: many former UU students living in China – a top-10 destination for UU alumni – are in the South of China around Hong Kong. To promote connections between all those in Hong Kong with links to Utrecht University, UU’s international alumni office supports local initiatives to organize events and create a network. The UU alumni network in Hong Kong is still relatively young, but it is growing steadily and holds several events every year, ranging from informal drinks and formal dinners to Music & Science events in cooperation with the Dutch Harp Festival. The diverse alumni community includes all ages and seniority levels, as well as an array of nationalities aside from Dutch and Hong Kongese.

Fostering cooperation beyond academia

Since UU alumni are active in various fields, the international alumni network in Hong Kong spans a wide range of industries and applications. To widen the scope of our network and activities, we also engage with relevant visitors and speakers from UU, CUHK, and other parties that are linked to Utrecht or the Netherlands, such as businesses and the Dutch Consulate-General in Hong Kong. Through these activities, we hope to strengthen the ties between academia and the wider community in Hong Kong, corporate and otherwise, fostering further cooperation to benefit all.

Text: Emma van Opstal
This article appeared in the magazine of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong