The Researcher Programme and the Postdoctoral Hub have been merged to become the Research Talent Hub to nurture more innovation and technology talents, the Innovation & Technology Commission announced today.

At present, the Researcher Programme and the Postdoctoral Hub provide funding support for eligible companies and organisations to engage two researchers and two postdoctoral talents to conduct research and development work.

In the past three years, the Researcher Programme has approved over 2,300 researcher positions with total funding of about $780 million, while the Postdoctoral Hub has supported over 1,030 postdoctoral talents with a total funding of about $603 million since its launch in August 2018.

The commission said the two programmes have been merged and collectively named as the Research Talent Hub, under which each eligible company or organisation can obtain funding support to engage up to four I&T talents with a bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree to conduct R&D work, thereby providing more flexibility for employers in engaging research talents.

The maximum engagement period for each research talent is three years in general. The maximum monthly allowances for research talents with a local bachelor's degree, local master's degree or doctoral degree are $18,000, $21,000 and $32,000.

All technology companies conducting R&D activities in Hong Kong, including incubatees and I&T tenants of the Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation and Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, as well as organisations and companies undertaking R&D projects funded by the Innovation & Technology Fund are eligible to apply.

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