Acknowledgement: The project is fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No.: UGC/IDS(R)24/20).

Research Centre for Green Energy, Transport and Building (RCGETB) was set up on 1 January 2021.

Introduction

Despite of the very small land area of only 1,108 km2, extremely high population density of 6,777 people per km2 and seriously lacking natural resources especially energy, Hong Kong is remarkably maintaining herself as the international city with most successful economic development that creating the GDP per capita of $47,200 in 2018. The most serious threat to the survival and prosperity of Hong Kong is directly related to the large population of 7.44 million including “How to satisfy the huge annual energy demand of 289,219 TJ and safeguard the health of our citizens from various kinds of pollution led by the use of energy?”. Perhaps, application of “Green Technology” to the following sectors of our community can provide feasible and sustainable solutions of the problems:

Target Group	Essential Contents	Impact to
Green Energy	Renewable energy such as solar energy; Non-polluting energy including hydrogen; Waste-to-Energy such as use of biofuel.	All HK Citizens
Green Transport	Transportation vehicles with less pollutant emissions by using alternative energy source including electric car; Transportation infrastructure to conserve energy such as green train.	All HK Citizens
Green Building	Energy conservation building using energy efficiently; Building applying essentially renewable energy such as solar energy; Building having good internal environmental quality.	All HK Citizens

To help Hong Kong nurturing expertise in the application of “Green Technology”, PolyU SPEED will develop the “Research Centre for Green Energy, Transport and Building (RCGETB)” to promote and enhance research activities in these areas. We are aiming to achieve the following OBJECTIVES in these areas within the 3-year cycle:

1. To procure funding from various sources to support research projects/activities in dealing with the community and environmental problems.
2. To provide consultancy services to the Government/industry sectors in solving related community and environmental problems and providing relevant seminars/conferences.
3. To enhance our research network through performing joined research projects with leading scholars/researchers of other universities.
4. To contribute new knowledge to academic sectors by presenting research findings via international conferences or refereed journals.
5. To underpin teaching with knowledge created from research and development works. Efforts will be made to:
1. provide final year projects;
2. update and improve subject syllabuses and programme curricula.
6. To nurture research students and undergraduate students with research experience.

In the first 3-year cycle (1/2021–12/2023), the RCGETB plans to achieve the following DELIVERABLES by implementing the tasks:

1. Procurement of external research funding in every year by submitting at least six proposals to various funding bodies especially the Faculty Development Scheme (FDS). Aiming at a minimum successful rate of 30%.
2. Presentation of research outputs in every year by:
1. publishing at least sixteen quality journal and conference papers; and
2. organizing at least three workshops/seminars and one international conference annually.
3. Provide supervision to at least fifteen research and undergraduate students annually.
   
4. Underpin teaching by research via updating/improving of the programme curricula and subject syllabuses and providing final year projects annually.
   
5. Development of collaborative research network with other universities and the industry by performing joint research/consultancy projects.
   
6. Nurture competent and active researchers, in quantity and quality, in applying “Green Technology” to the areas of energy, transport and building.