HKBU researchers awarded National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) /Research Grants Council (RGC) Joint Research Scheme (JRS) 2024/25

Our heartiest congratulations to Professor Chen Li (Department of Computer Science) and Dr Bi Yang (Department of Biology) for being awarded over HK$2.1 million in the latest round of the NSFC/RGC JRS.

Professor Chen received the fund for her project named “Research on Key Technology for Modeling Cross-Domain Sequential Behaviors in Recommender Systems”. Her research focuses on developing innovative Transfer Learning (TL) techniques and an Unbiased Learning (UL) framework to model cross-domain sequential behaviours (CDSB) in recommender systems. By addressing challenges like preference diversity and cross-domain fairness, it aims to enhance the accuracy and fairness of personalised recommendations across various domains. 

Dr Bi will utilise the fund to support his project entitled “Elucidating the molecular basis of sugar-mediated PTMs ofNLP7 in regulating carbon-nitrogen metabolic coupling inplants”. He aims to improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in crops by explaining the regulatory mechanisms of nitrate signaling and its interaction with carbon metabolism. Understanding these processes can lead to more sustainable agricultural practices, reducing environmental impact and enhancing crop productivity.

The NSFC/RGC JRS aims to promote collaboration between researchers or research teams in Hong Kong and the Mainland, based on the complementary strengths of both sides. This scheme supports research proposals jointly submitted by researchers from Hong Kong and the Mainland, offering up to two conference grants to sponsor conferences held in Hong Kong. The six focus areas under the Scheme include Information Technology, Life Science, New Materials Science, Marine and Environmental Science, Medicine, and Management Science. 

Such endorsement of our research endeavours affirms our research community’s dedication to scholarly excellence and societal contribution. Congratulations again to our remarkable researchers!