Dear Members and Friends,

Welcome to the fourth issue of the Policy Research @ HKIAPS e-Newsletter. I hope that this newsletter will find you in good health and keep you connected with our efforts to raise the colleagues’ awareness on the policy impacts of our academic studies.

In a timely response to the new situations and challenges brought by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Policy Research @ HKIAPS has initiated the Research Initiative on COVID-19 and Novel Infectious Diseases in April this year. This Initiative aims to bring together various dispersed research efforts at CUHK on COVID-19 and to foster synergy among researchers from different disciplines. It facilitates policy impact and public engagement at the early stage of research, and generates greater social impacts through integrated, interactive, and collaborative research efforts. Forty-seven researchers have joined the Initiative and have identified six main research themes for collaboration. An internal online platform for sharing their own research as well as international resources and references on COVID-19 has been set up, which is helping to generate research discussions and explorations, as well as to share members’ latest research developments in the field.

Policy Research @ HKIAPS has also coordinated a series of academic activities. We have launched a COVID-19 Webinar Series since August and have so far invited ten scholars from different disciplines to take part in three webinars. The topics of the webinars cover bioethical issues, individual and policy responses to the pandemic, and factors in the spreading of COVID-19. These discussions have helped us to better understand the pandemic in the region.

Over the past year, members of Policy Research @ HKIAPS have published their research on economics, gender, politics, and society. Three of our international advisers have given keynote addresses and two of our honorary senior research fellows have participated in the roundtable discussion in the HKIAPS 30th Anniversary Conference on Mobilizing Regional Collaboration in Policy Research. We look forward to members’ continuing research efforts and new research projects on health, youth, and other subjects.

In the coming months, we will continue to encourage and support CUHK researchers to extend their interdisciplinary research that can inform public policy. Through participation at the local, national, and international levels, we aim to secure and strengthen the research impact of CUHK researchers. In November and December, we will scheduled two webinars related to supply chain risks and well-being of the elderly under COVID-19. Please stay tuned for details.

As the Convenor of the platform, I would like to extend a warm welcome to our new members joining this vibrant platform. We appreciate the continuing collaboration and support from our partners and friends. We look forward to working together to bring positive research and policy impacts to our society. I hope to see you at our upcoming events and work together on interdisciplinary scholarly exchanges in the future!


Fanny M. Cheung
Convenor, Policy Research @ HKIAPS
Senior Advisor, Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, CUHK
Senior Advisor, Faculty of Social Science, CUHK