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Expression of Interest Form

Pilot Your Research at HKUST

The Living Labs Program supports research teams in testing innovative sustainability solutions in a real campus environment, with up to HK$800,000 in funding available for individual projects. The program provides approximately HK$3 million in project awards each year.

Why Apply?

  • Funding Support: Receive up to HK$800,000 to develop and test your research through a Living Lab project.

  • A Real-World Testbed: Use the HKUST campus as a setting to explore solutions to sustainability challenges. 

  • Proposal Support: Submit an EOI to engage with the Living Labs team, refine your idea, and strengthen your proposal before the full application.

  • Living Lab Support: Dedicated team in coordinating and facilitating your campus pilot project.

What Are We Looking For?

The HKUST Living Labs Program is explicitly open to any innovative ideas that contribute to making the campus more sustainable. We welcome ideas that address the HKUST 2028 Sustainability Challenges. Additional favourable weighting will be given to proposals responding to this year’s Challenge Statements. This year's challenge areas include:

  • Smart Campus Sensing: solutions that help to understand and study the movement of people through the HKUST campus; the information will help campus users plan where to get food, find places to study, and help campus designers understand crowd flows through our buildings.

  • Underground Digital Twin: non-invasive, low cost, accurate visualization of underground features, including pipes and geology. 

  • Water-Resilient Indoor Plant System: Indoor plants can improve the wellbeing of building occupants; a smarter, more water-resilient system that reduces labor-intensive watering can allow more plants to be placed indoors.

  • Next-Generation Passive Cooling: Advanced passive cooling for building facilities that protect occupants from extreme heat.

  • X-Ray Vision for Sustainable Events: AI-powered vision recognition to power smarter tools for estimating the carbon emissions from events.

👉 View the Challenge Statements and presentation slides

How to Apply?

1. Download: Get the Expression of Interest Form. 

2. Complete: Tell us about your research idea and how it could address a campus sustainability challenge. 

3. Submit: Send your completed form to livinglab@ust.hk by 27 November 2026.

4. Develop: Engage with the Living Labs team to fine-tune your proposal before the full proposal submission.

Ready to explore your idea?

For further information, please contact livinglab@ust.hk.

We look forward to seeing how your research could help shape a more sustainable HKUST campus.