HK Innovation and Technology Fund Receives 103 ApplicationsA total of 103 applications for funding has been received as the third tranche of Hong Kong's Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) application invitation closed Wednesday.Of these, 58 and 25 applications have been received for the Innovation and Technology Support Program (ITSP) and the General Support Program (GSP) respectively under the ITF, while 20 applications were made in response to an earlier ITSP specific theme project solicitation exercise. This was announced by Wendy Cheung, assistant commissioner for innovation and technology, Thursday. "The total amount of funds requested by the ITSP applications is 415 million HK dollars (US$53.2 millions) and that by the GSP applications is 46 million HK dollars (US$5.9 million)," she said. All applications under these two programs will be considered by relevant assessment committees comprising industrialists, technologists, academics and government officials. It is expected that application results of the two programs will be announced in a few months' time. As for the solicitation exercise, projects on two specific themes, namely "electronic commerce using the Internet" and " secure Internet communications over a wireless network" were invited. The two themes are selected to solicit innovative research and development proposals that will bring about new methods and technologies to enable Hong Kong to better utilize the Internet as a platform for electronic commerce as well as providing a high level of security on wireless Internet communications. Among the 20 applications submitted, 14 applications on the former theme requesting for a total of 79 million HK dollars (US$10.1 million) and 6 applications on the latter theme requesting for a total of 39 million HK dollars (US$5 million) were received. Launched in November 1999, the 5 billion HK dollars (US$641 million) ITF aims to support projects that contribute to innovation and technology upgrading, as well as those that contribute to the future development of the local industry. |
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