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and correspondence leading eventually to a set of fully detailed proposals; these were considered at length by the Trustees who regarded them as interesting and important on the following grounds:-
a. Ocean Engineering is of particular interest in view of the developing oil exploration in
the South China Sea.
b. The possibility of using solar energy for e.g. air-conditioning is a matter of considerable
interest to Hong Kong.
c. Improvements in educational methods for engineers are important since oil exploration and other developments can offer considerable employment possibilities for highly trained Hong Kong engineers.
d. Cooperative research involving institutions in Hong Kong, the People's Republic of
China and the United Kingdom is something the Trustees wish to encourage.
The Trustees therefore agreed to grant a total of HK$1,123,000 over a period of four years to support the following projects:
I. Ocean Engineering: Wave characteristics in the South China Sea under typhoon
conditions
HK$362,000.
II. Ocean Engineering: Numerical modelling of hydrodynamic circulation, pollutant and
HK$342,000. sediment transport in coastal waters
―
III. Solar Energy: Phase 1 to occupy 2 years — HK$169,000. At the end of this time a further Phase 2 would be considered if the preliminary Phase 1 study had established real feasibility.
IV. Computer-based education in civil engineering: an amount of HK$250,000.
Of other proposals made for joint research in ocean engineering the Trustees felt that, in the absence of a definite assurance that access to ocean rigs would be available, they could not give their support to a project on Structural Dynamics but would be prepared to support the. project if such a guarantee of access were given.
A proposal for student exchange with the South China Institute of Technology and the Hong Kong Polytechnic was rejected as falling outside Foundation policy since it had no research content and concerned only undergraduate activity.
2. Special Grants for Major Items of Equipment
Through an application from the Chinese University for a large grant to purchase a major piece of equipment a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer
without which important research in scientific and medical fields could not be undertaken, the attention of the Trustees was drawn to the inability of the universities and the polytechnic to provide such major items which are of value to more than one department (and indeed to more than one institution) in the present period of financial stringency. As a general rule the Foundation does not supply equipment for general use, and confines its activities in this respect to equipment necessary for a specific piece of research; however, in the present circumstances the Trustees saw merit in departing from their normal practice and offering to each of the three institutions (Chinese University of Hong-Kong, University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic) on a once only basis a grant to purchase a major item of equipment to be used by more than one Department and costing not more than HK$1,500,000.
The following grants were accordingly authorised.
Chinese University HK$1.25 million for a high resolution nuclear magnetic reasonance spectrometer and accessories.
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