PAIR In-Depth Profile: One of Hong Kong's Largest Interdisciplinary Research Platforms

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) comprehensive information database · 04 Research module This profile focuses on PolyU's Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR): established in 2022, described by PolyU as one of the largest interdisciplinary research platforms of its kind in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. It reorganises research strength scattered across academic departments into a series of research institutes and centres grouped around "frontier themes." For flagship single-item achievements (aerospace, state key laboratories), see aerospace-and-space.md and state-key-laboratories.md; for an overview of research institutions, see institutes-and-labs.md. This article examines the organisational innovation at the "platform" level, and the specific research directions of each institute. Sources are primarily PolyU's official PAIR pages, press releases, and publications.

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# 1. Why Build an "Interdisciplinary Platform"

Research strength at traditional universities is organised by academic department (school/faculty) — engineering goes to engineering, design to design, health to health. But many of today's major challenges (carbon neutrality, ageing populations, smart cities, deep space exploration) are fundamentally interdisciplinary: solving "smart cities" requires engineering, but also design, data science, and the social sciences.

PAIR was created precisely to address this tension: it does not replace departments, but sits above them, providing a platform organised around "frontier themes" that gathers researchers from different departments into the same institute or centre to tackle shared problems.

According to PolyU's PAIR launch press release^※, PAIR was formally launched in 2022, positioned as a research platform to help build Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area into an international innovation and technology hub.

Source strength: PAIR's founding (2022) and positioning per PolyU's launch press release.

PAIR's current Director is Professor Qingyan Chen — Chair Professor of Architectural Thermal Science and a PolyU Fellow, ranked among the most-cited scholars globally in the "building and construction" category according to Stanford University's scholar citation database (per PolyU's Fellows page). According to PolyU's PAIR Director's Message page^※, he characterises PAIR as a hub that "promotes interdisciplinary research, transfers technology to stakeholders, catalyses interdisciplinary innovation, and collaborates with world-leading institutions" — responding to challenges such as climate change, food security, population ageing, and energy scarcity that a single discipline cannot solve alone. This self-description echoes the "organised by problem" analysis above.

# 1.1 Institutionalised "Disciplinary Jumping": The PAIR Young Fellowship Scheme

"Organised by problem" is not just a slogan — PAIR has written it into its concrete personnel system via the PAIR Young Fellowship Scheme. According to materials from PolyU's Human Resources Office and PAIR recruitment pages, the scheme targets young scholars within three years of completing a doctorate at a world-leading institution, and requires applicants to choose a "brand-new discipline" outside their doctoral field as their research direction, while securing two supervisors — a leading scholar in the target new discipline (principal supervisor) and a scholar from their doctoral field (co-supervisor) — who jointly guide them in preparing an interdisciplinary research proposal of no more than 10 pages. In other words, the scheme's design mandates a disciplinary jump; it does not let applicants simply tack an "interdisciplinary" label onto their existing specialism.

On compensation, per recruitment materials, successful PAIR Young Fellows receive an annual salary of no less than HK$850,000 (including research allowance and end-of-contract gratuity), plus a three-year start-up grant totalling HK$1.5 million. This combination — "mandatory disciplinary switch + dual supervision + three-year start-up funding" — is the concrete mechanism by which PAIR pushes "interdisciplinarity" down from a platform-level organisational exercise to the career pathway of individual researchers. A Young Fellow who takes up the scheme almost inevitably steers their career away from the comfort zone of their doctoral training.

Source strength: The Young Fellowship Scheme's eligibility criteria, dual-supervisor mechanism, salary and start-up funding are per PolyU's HRO recruitment pages and PAIR's official website.

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# 2. Scale: From 16 to 19 Units, More Than 450 Researchers

According to PolyU's 2022 materials, PAIR launched with 16 research institutes and centres and more than 450 senior researchers:

Over four years, PAIR's footprint has kept expanding. According to PolyU's PAIR organisation-structure page^※ (checked in 2026), PAIR now oversees 12 research institutes and 7 research centres, for a total of 19 units:

(*Note: PolyU's official page lists the above research centres; a few entries may have been added or adjusted depending on the time of publication. Refer to the official page for the definitive list.)

Among these, the Research Institute for Quantum Technology (RIQT) is one of PAIR's more recently established institutes — according to PolyU's PAIR press release^※, RIQT was formally established on 1 September 2024. It epitomises PAIR's expansion from 16 units in 2022 to 19 in 2026, and confirms that PAIR is not a one-off arrangement but a living architecture that keeps adding units in response to emerging frontiers in academia and industry.

More than 450 senior researchers and now 19 institutes/centres — on this scale, PAIR serves as PolyU's "showcase window" for its research strength, and occupies a prominent position in interdisciplinary research in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.

Source strength: The 2022 figure of 16 institutes/centres and 450+ researchers is per PolyU's early PAIR materials; the 2026 figure of 12+7=19 units and RIQT's founding date are per PolyU's official PAIR organisation-structure page and press release.

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# 3. Frontier Themes: From Carbon Neutrality to Deep Space

According to PolyU's PAIR official page^※ and its interdisciplinary research pages, PAIR's frontier areas include, in part:

Representative institutes/centres include: Research Institute for Smart Ageing (RISA), Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI), Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE), Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations (RCDSE), and Research Centre for Resources Engineering towards Carbon Neutrality (RCRE), among others.

Source strength: Frontier areas and the institute/centre list are per PAIR's official page.

# 3.1 From "Theme List" to "Concrete Projects": Three Categories of Representative Cases

Theme lists risk staying abstract. According to PolyU's publication Excel & Impact, PAIR cover story^※, PAIR set out concrete research projects spanning three broad categories at launch — a useful illustration of how "themes" become "projects":

PolyU President Professor Jin-Guang Teng noted in PAIR-related remarks: "Solutions to many of the world's challenges can no longer be found within isolated disciplines, but require interdisciplinary efforts — and this is where PAIR comes in" (per PolyU's publication). The then Deputy President and Provost (Research and Innovation) Professor Christopher Chao (now Senior Vice President) described PAIR as "a pioneer among platforms of its kind in the region" (per PolyU's publication). These two remarks address, respectively, "why PAIR is needed" and "PAIR's place in the region" — echoing the "organised by problem" framework set out in Section 1.

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# 4. In-Depth Profiles of Seven Institutes

Apart from the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations (RCDSE; see aerospace-and-space.md and deep-space-exploration-research-centre.md), PAIR's other institutes each have their own focus:

# 4.1 Research Institute for Advanced Manufacturing (RIAM)

The Research Institute for Advanced Manufacturing (RIAM) is PolyU's interdisciplinary hub for manufacturing technology. According to PolyU's PAIR official website, RIAM's research priorities include additive manufacturing (3D printing) and integrated forming of composite structures; Industry 4.0 intelligent production (robotic automation, digital twins, in-line quality inspection); and ultra-precision manufacturing and micro/nano fabrication processes (with research collaboration with the State Key Laboratory of Ultra-Precision Machining Technology; see state-key-laboratories.md). RIAM partners with industry bodies such as the Hong Kong Science Park and the manufacturing committee of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC), aiming to transfer PolyU's manufacturing research to SMEs.

# 4.2 Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT)

The Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT) focuses on deploying edge computing and embedded AI systems in urban sensing; low-power sensor networks (LoRaWAN, NB-IoT) and data fusion; and application scenarios in smart buildings, smart transport, and industrial IoT. According to PolyU materials, RIAIoT's research outputs have been piloted with several major property management organisations and industrial estates in Hong Kong.

# 4.3 Research Institute for Quantum Technology (RIQT)

The Research Institute for Quantum Technology (RIQT) is one of PolyU's newer research directions, covering quantum communication and cryptography (QKD, quantum key distribution), quantum sensing and precision measurement, and the preparation and characterisation of quantum materials. According to PolyU materials, RIQT maintains academic exchanges with quantum research bodies at other Hong Kong universities and actively involves postgraduate students in quantum laboratory projects.

# 4.4 Research Centre for Chinese Medicine Innovation (RCMI)

The Research Centre for Chinese Medicine Innovation (RCMI) is the PAIR centre most closely combining traditional medicine with modern biotechnology. Its research priorities include isolation, identification, and pharmacological mechanism of active compounds in Chinese herbal medicines; clinical evidence research on Chinese medicine for chronic diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular disease); and collaboration with the Hong Kong Chinese Medicine Hospital (opened in 2024) at the clinical-data level.

# 4.5 Research Institute for Sports Science and Technology (RISports)

The Research Institute for Sports Science and Technology (RISports) focuses on sports performance science and injury prevention — sports biomechanics and motion-capture analysis, athlete rehabilitation and protective equipment design, and wearable sports sensors with real-time data analysis platforms. According to PolyU materials, RISports has cooperation agreements with the Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI) and several Hong Kong national team programmes, providing technological support to elite athletes.

# 4.6 Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI)

The Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI) is headed by Professor John Wenzhong Shi — Chair Professor of Geographical Information Science and Remote Sensing, Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Urban Informatics, and President of the International Society for Urban Informatics (ISUI) (per PolyU's SCRI official website). According to PolyU's press release of 6 August 2025^※, SCRI co-hosted with ISUI a Global Smart Cities Summit in August 2025 and released the Smart City Index 2025 — an index assessing 73 cities worldwide using open data across six dimensions (citizens, environment, social fabric, economy, infrastructure, and governance) and 97 indicators. Hong Kong ranked 8th globally and 2nd in Asia on the index, performing strongly in the environment, economy, and governance dimensions. PolyU President Professor Jin-Guang Teng said on the occasion that "through SCRI under PAIR, the University will further integrate its interdisciplinary research capabilities to advance sustainable development" (per PolyU's press release) — a statement that directly signals the relationship between SCRI and its parent platform: SCRI is one of PAIR's flagship institutes addressing smart-city issues.

# 4.7 Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE)

The Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) is led by Professor Shengwei Wang — Chair Professor of Building Energy and Automation and Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Smart Buildings (per PolyU's RISE official website). RISE focuses on smart building energy management, renewable energy system integration, and energy automation technology. According to PolyU's RISE news page^※, Professor Wang received the ASHRAE Hong Kong Chapter Technology Award 2025 (existing commercial buildings category) in 2025 for contributions to building energy technology (per PolyU's RISE official website) — a concrete instance of international professional recognition for RISE in building energy efficiency.

Notably, SCRI and RISE are both endowed and named after the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation — and the same foundation, in April 2025, separately funded the establishment of the Otto Poon Research Institute for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure (RICRI), headed by Professor Xiang-Dong Li, Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (also PolyU's Director for the State Key Laboratory of Climate Adaptation for Coastal Cities; see state-key-laboratories.md). RICRI focuses on four directions: climate change and extreme weather, resilience of urban infrastructure, rural communities and disaster prevention/mitigation, and climate-resilience policy and implementation (per PolyU's RIO press release). RICRI, SCRI, and RISE are not the same institute, but all three share the same philanthropic funding source — together sketching PolyU's landscape of multiple institutes advancing in parallel on "city–energy–climate" interdisciplinary themes, backed by external funding.

Source strength: Each institute's research priorities, industry collaboration, director information, and recent achievements are per PolyU's PAIR/individual institute official websites and PolyU press releases.

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# 5. PAIR and National/Greater Bay Area Strategy

PAIR's themes — carbon neutrality, deep space exploration, smart cities, smart energy — align closely with national science and technology strategy and the building of a Greater Bay Area innovation and technology hub. According to PolyU materials, PAIR aims to contribute to making Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area an international innovation and technology hub.

PolyU research projects also draw on relevant funding schemes — per PAIR materials, PolyU research projects have received support from the RAISe+ Scheme, among others. This alignment makes PAIR not merely an internal organisational innovation but also an institutional channel through which the University plugs into the region's and the nation's innovation systems (for the Greater Bay Area landscape, see 09 International · Mainland and GBA).

# 5.1 The RAISe+ Scheme: From "Research" to "Start-up"

The Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme (RAISe+) was launched by the Hong Kong SAR Government in 2023 to provide matching funding to university research teams with entrepreneurial potential — according to PolyU's press release of 20 June 2025^※, each approved project may receive between HK$10 million and HK$100 million, and the scheme aims to support no fewer than 100 research teams across UGC-funded universities in Hong Kong. In the scheme's second batch of selections, PolyU had four projects approved, including Professor Rui Chen's "high-speed 3D-stacked AI vision sensor," Professor Min-Yuan Lee's "novel nutraceuticals for treating neurodegenerative diseases," Professor Hongxia Yang's "Reallm: enterprise-grade generative AI infrastructure solution," and Professor Changyuan Yu's "metasurface-based tunable laser chips" (per PolyU's press release).

# 5.2 The Carbon Neutrality Funding Scheme: PAIR Researchers Leading "Campus as Living Lab"

PolyU has run a Carbon Neutrality Funding Scheme since 2022, encouraging researchers to trial carbon-reduction technologies on the campus itself. According to PolyU RIO news of 16 April 2026^※, in the 2025/26 round a total of seven research projects were approved, with combined funding of more than HK$12.5 million, all of them led by PAIR researchers (per PolyU RIO) — individual projects can receive up to HK$2 million (including faculty/department matching funding), for up to two years, with evaluation criteria covering carbon-reduction potential, effectiveness in addressing social concerns, and the capacity to produce tangible university R&D outputs (per PolyU RIO). This detail makes clear: carbon neutrality is not merely one item on PAIR's "theme list" — it has become a concrete channel through which campus funding actually flows to PAIR researchers.

# 5.3 InnoHK's Third Research Cluster: PAIR Themes Extending into Energy and Space Manufacturing

According to PolyU's press release of 26 March 2026^※, PolyU will join the Innovation and Technology Commission's third InnoHK research cluster, "SEAM@InnoHK," advancing research in sustainability, energy, and space technology. PolyU will establish a Research Centre for Intelligent GRID and Energy Technologies (I-GET) at the Hong Kong Science Park, in collaboration with École des Ponts ParisTech, King's College London, National Technical University of Athens, Oxford Suzhou Centre for Advanced Research, the University of Sheffield, Suzhou National Laboratory, and Tsinghua University, among others; PolyU is also a major partner of the Centre for Space Manufacturing Technology (CSMT), which joins the Hong Kong Institute of Science & Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to extend PolyU's strengths in advanced manufacturing and materials to space applications (per PolyU's press release). PolyU's Senior Vice President (Research and Innovation) Professor Christopher Chao said I-GET will "pioneer frontier research in sustainability and energy" (per PolyU's press release). These new centres are not on PAIR's current 19-unit list, but their themes — energy, space manufacturing — closely echo PAIR's Smart Energy Institute (RISE), Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations (RCDSE), and Advanced Manufacturing Institute (RIAM), further evidence of PAIR's "theme-based" footprint extending into externally funded schemes.

Source strength: The Greater Bay Area innovation-hub positioning is per PolyU's PAIR materials; the project lists, amounts, and dates for RAISe+, the Carbon Neutrality Funding Scheme, and the third InnoHK cluster are all per PolyU's official press releases.

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# 6. Frequently Asked Questions (Q&A)

Q1: Does PAIR directly train postgraduate researchers?

Yes. According to PolyU's PAIR official website, the institutes and research centres host a number of postgraduate places, primarily for PhD students. Students conduct their doctoral thesis research in the institutes' laboratories, supervised by faculty from different departments — which is exactly the core of PAIR's "interdisciplinarity": a PhD student may be jointly supervised by faculty from engineering, medicine, architecture, and other departments (for the Graduate School and doctoral scholarships, see graduate-school-and-phd.md).

Q2: What comparative advantages does PolyU's PAIR have over similar platforms at other universities (e.g., HKU's ZIRI)?

PAIR's distinctive feature is its "university-wide coverage" — from deep space exploration, quantum technology, and AIoT to smart energy, Chinese medicine, and sports science, spanning science, engineering, and interdisciplinary fields. Its "research institute + research centre" two-tier architecture lets larger-scale interdisciplinary projects (at institute level) and more focused thematic research (at centre level) coexist, avoiding the weakening of cohesion that can come with an overly large organisation. HKU's ZIRI and HKUST's institutes each have their own emphases; PAIR's advantage is its fit with PolyU's "applied science and technology" tradition and its historical strengths in manufacturing, design, and health sciences.

Q3: Does PAIR's expansion from 16 units in 2022 to 19 in 2026 mean "bigger is better"?

Not necessarily. According to PolyU's PAIR organisation-structure page, the expansion has been concentrated in emerging/frontier areas — for example, the Research Institute for Quantum Technology (RIQT), established in September 2024, responds to directions such as quantum communication and quantum precision measurement that have only recently gained viable application prospects; the additions of Future Food (RiFood), Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR), Photonics (PRI), and Land and Space (RILS) likewise correspond to specific emerging themes rather than general growth. In other words, PAIR's expansion logic remains "add units by problem," not simply to grow in size (an inference from official organisation-structure changes, not a principle expressly stated by PolyU).

Q4: How do PAIR's institutes obtain funding?

According to PolyU's public materials, PAIR institutes/centres draw on multiple funding sources: philanthropic endowment (e.g., the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation supports the two institutes SCRI and RISE, plus the separately established RICRI); government scheme matching funding (e.g., the RAISe+ Scheme offers HK$10 million to HK$100 million to teams with entrepreneurial potential); internal university schemes (e.g., the Carbon Neutrality Funding Scheme disbursed over HK$12.5 million to seven PAIR-researcher-led projects in 2025/26); and Innovation and Technology Commission InnoHK cluster funding (e.g., the I-GET and CSMT research centres established in 2026). This multi-track model — "philanthropic donation + government scheme + internal funding + InnoHK cluster" — is one of the funding foundations for PAIR's growth from 16 to 19 units in four years (an inference based on publicly documented funding cases).

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# 7. Placing PAIR in PolyU's Research Landscape

The relationship between PAIR and PolyU's other research pillars can be understood as follows:

• State Key Laboratories (ultra-precision machining, climate adaptation for coastal cities): national-level depth in specific fields (see state-key-laboratories.md);
• Space instruments (sampling systems, Mars camera): flagship single-project engineering achievements (see aerospace-and-space.md);
• PAIR: the interdisciplinary platform that horizontally integrates the above strengths by theme.

If the State Key Laboratories and space achievements are the "points" of PolyU research, PAIR is the platform that joins these points into a "plane." It represents the evolution of PolyU research from "single-point breakthroughs" toward "platform-based, interdisciplinary, regionally aligned" development.

Set side by side, the facts surveyed in this article show PAIR's path over four years as one of "organisational expansion + institutionalised talent + multi-track funding" advancing simultaneously: organisationally, from 16 units in 2022 to 12 institutes + 7 research centres = 19 units in 2026; on the talent front, the Young Fellowship Scheme writes "interdisciplinarity" into the mandatory terms of individual career paths; on funding, philanthropic endowment (the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation's support of SCRI, RISE, and RICRI), government matching (RAISe+), internal schemes (the Carbon Neutrality Funding Scheme), and InnoHK cluster funding run in parallel, preventing any single funding source from skewing research directions. Three threads together underpin the self-description of "one of the largest interdisciplinary research platforms of its kind in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area" — not just a slogan, but a claim backed by concrete organisational, personnel, and funding mechanisms.

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