The GRF aims to supplement the eight UGC-funded universities’ own research support to researchers who have achieved or have the potential to achieve research excellence, while the ECS is intended to nurture junior academics and to prepare them for a career in education and research.

This year, more than HK$10 million funding is awarded to 23 projects under the Faculty. Compared to last year, the Faculty is delighted to note that the application success rate of GRF projects increased to 44%. It is believed such an increase fosters dissemination and quality of research and brings impact to academia and beyond. Professor Gladys Tang, Associate Dean of Arts (Research), congratulates the grant recipients of GRF & ECS of 2023-2024 and wishes them every success in their endeavours to push the frontiers of arts and humanities research for the benefit of society.

Among the awarded projects in the Faculty this year, Professor Peggy Pik Ki Mok’s project “Human vs AI: Speech register and speech accommodation in human-machine interaction”, from the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, is granted HK$1.4 million. “This is an interdisciplinary project involving Arts (Linguistics) and Engineering. I will work closely with Professor Tan Lee from the Department of Electronic Engineering at CUHK on this interesting project”, shared by Professor Mok. This study compares the speech patterns of Cantonese speakers in human-human interaction (HHI) with those in human-machine interaction (HMI). It is hoped that this project can break new ground in the understanding of the intertwining complexity of human, society and technology from the speech perspective. 

The Faculty will continue to support the development of individual and collaborative research projects as well as programmes in order to extend their broad impact beyond academia.