Key Laboratories and Research Institutes (Part II) — 15 Research Institutes, InnoHK Centres and Academic Honours

This article follows on from Key Laboratories and Research Institutes (Part I) — Three State Key Laboratories and the Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study^※, and surveys HKUST's 15 interdisciplinary research institutes, its government-backed InnoHK centres, its joint laboratories with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the mechanisms the University uses to credential talent — academician honours, named professorships and research prizes.

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# 1. Research Institutes (15 in total)

According to the Office of the Vice-President for Research and Development^※, as of the 2025–26 academic year, HKUST operates the following 15 research institutes:

The Cheng Kar-Shun Robotics Institute (CKSRI) (see Robotics and AI^※) received its name in 2021 following a HK$100 million donation from the Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation^※, in honour of the Foundation's honorary chairman Dr Henry Cheng Kar-shun. Several unicorns, including DJI, trace their origins to the Institute (see HKUST's Entrepreneurship and Unicorn Ecosystem (Part II)^※). The Big Data Institute (BDI) was founded in February 2016, with strategic directions spanning smart cities, business intelligence, healthcare and robotics design.

The 15 institutes were not established in a single wave; the gap between the oldest and the youngest spans roughly a decade. The Energy Institute (EI) belongs to the earlier cohort: according to the Director's message on the Institute's website^※, its founding director was Prof. Tianshou Zhao, and the current director is Prof. Minhua Shao^※; a University press release dates the opening ceremony to 2014^※. By the Institute's own account, more than 90 faculty members across the University conduct energy-related research, covering fuel cells, biofuels, hydrogen, photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, battery storage and supercapacitors^※. At the other end of the spectrum, the Institute for Financial Research (IFR) is among the youngest institutes on campus: according to HKUST news^※, the IFR officially launched on 23 August 2024^※, with Prof. Dong Lou of the Business School as its founding director, overseeing four research centres: technological innovation, environmental and social responsibility, wealth management, and macro-finance and geopolitics^※. The launch summit, themed "A New Era of Global Finance: Challenges, Opportunities and Innovation," attracted more than 200 participants from government, business and academia^※, with Prof. Keyu Jin of the London School of Economics and Krishnamurthy Subramanian, then an Executive Director of the IMF, among the speakers. A university founded on engineering that sets up a dedicated finance institute — and brings in an IMF official to open it — says much about HKUST's recent ambitions in business and fintech (see also Deep Dive: The Business School^※).

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# 2. InnoHK Research Centres (Government-Backed)

Under the Hong Kong SAR Government's InnoHK initiative, HKUST leads or participates in five research centres^※:

Together, the five centres draw on partner resources from Stanford, UC Berkeley, the National University of Singapore (NUS), ETH Zurich and the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (for the full map of AI- and robotics-related centres, see Robotics and AI^※).

One centre, the Hong Kong Space Robotics and Energy Centre (HKSREC), added a significant feather to its cap in 2024. According to HKUST news, after the China National Space Administration issued its call for international cooperation opportunities for the Chang'e 8 mission in October 2023, the University's proposal was selected in November 2024^※, making HKUST the lead of an international cooperation project to build a multifunctional lunar surface robot weighing about 100 kg, tasked with scientific exploration, instrument deployment and installation, and capable of wirelessly charging lunar equipment^※. The project's principal investigator is Prof. Yu Hongyu of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, with Prof. Sun Qingping directing HKSREC and Prof. Yu serving as deputy director^※. Local partners include PolyU, HKU, CUHK and CityU; mainland partners include the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, Dalian University of Technology and Shenzhen University; and the overseas partner is the South African National Space Agency. The mission is expected to launch around 2028, with the goal of establishing long-term uncrewed facilities at the lunar south pole as part of the International Lunar Research Station^※. For a centre that began as one more "AI robotics" item under the InnoHK programme to end up leading an international cooperation project for China's lunar exploration programme is a remarkable ascent — one that complements the University's satellite and space programme^※ in low Earth orbit (the HKUST-FYBB#1 remote-sensing satellite and the MUSICO payload on the Tiangong space station). One targets the Moon, the other low Earth orbit and the space station: together they map the two ends of HKUST's reach into space.

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# 3. Joint Laboratories with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

The School of Engineering maintains joint laboratories with a number of CAS research institutes, supported by the joint funding mechanism of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC)^※:

In addition, in 2025 HKUST signed a framework agreement^※ with the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization of the CAS (CSU.CAS) to advance joint laboratories, talent development, equipment sharing and space engineering research.

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# 4. Research Centres at a Glance (Selected)

HKUST maintains more than 40 topic-based research centres^※ across a wide range of fields. Selected representative centres by area:

• Display research: Center for Display Research
• Neuroscience: Daniel and Mayce Yu Molecular Neuroscience Center
• Artificial intelligence: Center for AI Research (CAiRE), Center for Physical AI, and the AI Robotics Centre for Space Sustainable Autonomous Systems
• Clean energy: Research Center for Decarbonization Technologies
• Environment and climate: Otto Poon Center for Climate Resilience and Sustainability
• Financial technology: Center for Securities Analysis and Financial Technology
• Marine science: centres related to ocean dynamics (Nansha campus)
• Wireless communications: Center for Wireless Information Technology (CenWIT)

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# 5. Academician Honours at a Glance

# 5.1 Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

In the 2011 election, three HKUST professors were elected Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences^※ — one of the most significant collective honours in the University's history:

Nancy Ip (Yip Yee-yu) is also a CAS Academician; the exact year of her election is recorded in her official HKUST profile^※.

# 5.2 US National Academy of Sciences (NAS)

• Nancy Ip: elected as a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences^※ while serving as Dean of Science — one of 21 foreign associates elected that year.
• Prof. Luk Kam-Biu: IAS Paul C W Chu Professor of Physics, elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2026^※, recognised for his leadership of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment.

# 5.3 American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)

Nancy Ip: elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences^※ while Dean of the School of Science; her official HKUST profile also lists her as a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)^※.

# 5.4 Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (HKAES)

Several professors from the School of Engineering have been elected Fellows of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences^※, including Prof. Qian Zhang (Chair Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering), Prof. Khaled B. Letaief (Chair Professor, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering; an internationally recognised authority in wireless communications), and Prof. Zhang Limin (Head and Chair Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, elected a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering in January 2025^※).

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# 6. Named Professorships

HKUST uses its Named Professorships programme^※ to attract and retain leading scholars. Representative named chairs include:

At the IAS naming ceremony in November 2013, three named professorships were inaugurated simultaneously^※ (for the history of IAS, see Key Laboratories and Research Institutes (Part I)^※). Since then, IAS has repeatedly conferred named professorships on senior visiting scholars, on one occasion bestowing the title on ten senior fellows and visiting professors at once^※. According to the University's research website^※, in the 2025 Stanford University list of the world's top 2% of scientists, 21% of HKUST professors appeared^※.

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# 7. Major Research Prizes (Selected)

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# 8. Named Research Centres (Selected)

Several HKUST research centres carry the names of their donors, reflecting the close integration of academic resources and philanthropic giving:

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# 9. Who's Who: Directors of the 15 Research Institutes (2026)

According to the Office of the Vice-President for Research and Development^※, as of 2026 the directors of the 15 research institutes amount to a cross-faculty "roll of professors" — a snapshot in itself of each institute's leading scholar:

The list is itself a miniature map of the University's faculties: Dong Lou of the Finance Institute comes from the Business School, Minhua Shao of the Energy Institute from Chemical and Biological Engineering, Yuan Xie of the Institute of Integrated Circuits and Systems from Electronic and Computer Engineering, while the Brain and Intelligence Research Institute spans the life sciences and medicine. That the directorships of the 15 institutes fall to professors from science, engineering, business and the life sciences alike is a practical demonstration that HKUST's "interdisciplinary matrix" is not just a slogan but an institutional reality.

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# 10. Conclusion: Three Layers of Institutional Fabric Supporting HKUST's Research Reputation

Read the two parts together, and a three-layer structure emerges. State Key Laboratories provide national-level accreditation and access to national research resources; IAS + the 15 research institutes + InnoHK centres + CAS joint laboratories constitute the interdisciplinary matrix; and academician honours + named professorships + research prizes form the incentive system that attracts and retains top talent. Stacked one on another, these three layers have allowed a university founded barely three decades ago to establish itself quickly on the international academic map.

The mix of old and new within this fabric shows that the system is still growing. Decade-old institutions such as the Energy Institute and the Cheng Kar-Shun Robotics Institute sit alongside the Institute for Financial Research, which only launched in 2024; and HKSREC under InnoHK has grown from a "regional special-purpose centre" into the lead of an international cooperation project for China's lunar programme. The three layers are not a static skeleton assembled once, but a dynamic matrix that keeps expanding in response to national strategy and the frontiers of scholarship.

Note: The directors, establishment years, funding amounts and partnership details in this article are as stated in the cited source pages and are time-sensitive. The leadership and funding arrangements of individual institutes change continuously; please refer to the latest official HKUST announcements before citing.

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# Related Reading

• Key Laboratories and Research Institutes (Part I) — Three State Key Laboratories and the Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study^※ — the preceding article, on national-level accreditation and the IAS
• Robotics and AI^※ — the technological landscape of the Cheng Kar-Shun Robotics Institute, the Von Neumann Institute and the AIR@InnoHK centres
• The Interdisciplinary Institute Cluster^※ — deep dives on the Institute for Emerging Market Studies, the GREAT Smart Cities Institute and the William Mong Institute
• Satellite and Space Programme^※ — beyond HKSREC's Chang'e 8 lead, HKUST's FYBB#1 satellite and Tiangong MUSICO payload in low Earth orbit
• HKUST's Entrepreneurship and Unicorn Ecosystem (Part II)^※ — the Cheng Kar-Shun Robotics Institute's links to DJI and other unicorns

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