HKUST Annual Report 2023-2024

44 Local to Global Expanding Impact Through Alliances to Catalyze Change Over the year, close to 70 academic exchange and research collaboration partnerships were renewed or initiated with universities and institutions around the globe. Among them, 25 were with new partners. By June 30, 2024, HKUST’s total partnerships stood at 315. The University’s Global Knowledge Network and International Conference Sponsorship Scheme were also launched. The first encompasses joint research seed grant programs to catalyze global research collaborations with prestigious institutional partners worldwide. Participating universities include Cornell University (US), KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) and the University of Queensland (Australia), with more institutions in the pipeline. The second assists schools and departments in organizing international conferences in key research areas. To date, 10 conference proposals ranging from climate change and zero carbon to computational geomechanics have received support. Regionally, HKUST is committed to deepening ties with leading institutions. HKUST was proud to serve as Asian Universities Alliance (AUA) Executive President for 2023-24 and to host the AUA Executives’ Meeting 2023 and AUA Youth Forum 2024. In further leadership recognition, HKUST was elected Chair of Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU) to drive development within the network of top research universities.