Hong Kong universities were urged on Monday to step up the transfer of their research to grasp the opportunities arising from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development.

Local officials and researchers made the suggestion after Vice-Premier Han Zheng called on Hong Kong to seize the opportunities available in the nation's next stage of development during a meeting with Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Friday.

Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang, who accompanied Lam to Beijing, said during a forum on Monday that the Hong Kong government will continue to encourage local researchers to commercialize their applied research to transform the city into an international innovation center.

Sit said that during their visit in Beijing and Guangdong province, various ministries and provincial and municipal government officials had emphasized the importance of Hong Kong in scientific research and development.

The government's Technology Start-up Support Scheme has been providing funding to local universities to support "knowledge transfer" — turning knowledge generated in laboratories into products and services capable of delivering economic and social benefits to society. As of September, the program had provided over HK$200 million (US$25.8 million) in grants to 293 startups.

Sit made a video speech at a media conference for Our Hong Kong Foundation, a local think tank. The think tank released a report on Monday recommending that local universities strengthen "knowledge transfer" to foster a vibrant innovation ecosystem and position themselves as international innovation powerhouses.

But it pointed out that Hong Kong universities have been trailing behind the world's top universities by different knowledge transfer indicators.

For example, in 2019, each Hong Kong university had established no more than 29 associated companies for transferring their research into reality. The University of Cambridge has 109, and the University of Oxford has 145.

The report stated that the special administrative region government, as the primary funder of universities, is responsible for fostering a culture conducive to knowledge transfer. For example, the government may allocate funding based on an assessment of universities' performance in knowledge transfer.

The report also suggested adjustments in the distribution of intellectual property. Currently, patents created by faculty members and staff are owned by universities unless inventors buy out the patent at unaffordable prices. Some global institutions allow inventors to assume full ownership if the invention is independently commercialized.

Wong Kam-fai, associate dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, recommended that Hong Kong universities incorporate the results of technology transfer and its social impact into an assessment of their scientific researchers to enhance their motivation. At present, an appraisal of the scientific researchers is mainly determined by the quantity of papers published and their citations.

Dennis Lo Yuk-ming, the associate dean (research) of the Faculty of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that it would create more flexibility for faculty members to commercialize their research if Hong Kong universities relaxed their outside practice regulations. Currently, academic personnel in Hong Kong are only permitted four days per month for outside practice, according to an Our Hong Kong Foundation report.