Expanding our academic understanding of green finance has been one of our core focuses to support Hong Kong’s sustainable global growth in the business realm. We are thrilled to receive major funding support from the 11th round of the Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) 2021/22 for our project entitled “Developing Hong Kong as a Global Green Finance Centre.”

Organized by the Research Grants Council (RGC), the funding results were announced on July 13. Eight research proposals, including ours, were awarded a total funding amount of $415 million.  Our proposal on green finance is the only funded project under the TRS’s sub-theme “Enhancing Hong Kong's Strategic Position as a Regional and International Business Centre.”

Although green finance is rapidly growing, its intellectual progress is still behind the current industry development. Our project will gather an interdisciplinary team of academic specialists in the areas of finance, environmental science, public policy, and technology, as well as former policymakers and experienced practitioners, to address fundamental research questions of green finance through a series of cohesive studies.

Professor Chu ZHANG, Head of Finance Department and Project Coordinator said, “Over time, this transformative project will have a positive impact on policymakers, academia, industries, and professionals. Our research team represents six main research areas and will contribute towards helping various stakeholders achieve the ‘brown to green’ transition. Adopting a ‘think and do’ approach, we will also gather academic insights, work with industry partners and government units, and guide them in implementation and execution phases of a broad range of green finance tasks.”

“Our School has taken up green finance as a major endeavor,” said Professor Kar Yan TAM, Dean of HKUST Business School, “Not only will our project greatly expand the world’s academic knowledge of green finance, the cross-disciplinary nature of our research also emphasizes the importance of collaboration across various industries and discplines to ensure the success of building and financing better solutions for our planet. The project is the first of its kind in nature and scale that will enhance Hong Kong’s position as an international green financial center and generate lasting global impacts.”

Click here to find out more about our project and other funded projects by HKUST and other local universities.