The Faculty of Arts at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is delighted to announce that the research project “Optimizing Early Childhood Development of Children from Low-Resource Settings by Leveraging Technology and Biological Data,” led by Professor Patrick Wong Chun-man, Stanley Ho Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, has been awarded HK$10 million under the 2025/26 RGC Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme. This funding will support the project’s first year as an exploratory initiative designed to yield significant preliminary results.
Professor Wong’s project is one of only three exceptionally distinguished proposals selected for this highly competitive and prestigious scheme. The project focuses on developing and implementing cost-effective early childhood development intervention strategies, leveraging the team’s distinguished research and service records, interdisciplinary expertise in the humanities and developmental science, and extensive community-based research experience with numerous non-profit organisations in Hong Kong and Mainland China. The anticipated success of this project is expected to bring considerable economic and societal benefits to both local and national levels.
The Faculty extends its heartfelt congratulations to Professor Wong on this exceptional achievement. Through our commitment to research excellence and interdisciplinary collaboration, our humanities scholars will continue to generate new ideas and knowledge in response to societal needs and changing times.
About the Areas of Excellence Scheme
The Areas of Excellence Scheme provides support to UGC-funded universities to build upon their existing strengths and develop them into areas of excellence. To ensure that only the highest quality projects are chosen, a project must demonstrate world-leading excellence by international standards and clear potential to become an Area of Excellence.
