FDCT seeks scientific innovation through local projects

The Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) shall make adjustments to its subsidy details to focus more on the transfer and application of subsidized projects, the fund announced yesterday in a press conference.
The session was held to review the annual work done by the FDCT last year.
The FDCT will introduce “technological maturity” as an apparatus to evaluate a project’s eligibility for subsidies. The new apparatus will mainly be used to evaluate applied research and experimental development projects.
The fund hopes that through the new introduction, Macau can develop projects with the aim of scientific innovation.
When questioned about applications for research projects in Macau, the fund’s Executive Council member, Ip Kuai Lam, revealed that the city is lacking investors. Many projects, he admitted, are being developed in Hengqin, so the fund hopes to collaborate with Mainland authorities to attract larger enterprises to Macau.
With regards to human resources, Hengqin has more talented personnel available for research and development, which Ip said is beneficial to project applications. Marketization is also a challenge in Macau. The lack of which, according to Ip, is disadvantageous to project applications.
Last year, the FDCT received a total of 885 applications for subsidies, totaling to a monetary amount of MOP870 million. From all applications, the fund approved 553 projects, equating to a total subsidy of MOP210 million.
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which later deteriorated into a pandemic, quite a portion of the fund’s subsidies has been assigned to Covid-19-related projects.
The FDCT disclosed that a batch of such projects have already gone to the application process and reached an expected outcome.
For example, a system testing vehicle sterilization against SARS-CoV-2 and a sterilization system using nano-silver technology have entered marketization already. Moreover, a project aimed at developing robots to conduct cleaning and sterilization has also started test applications.
On the other hand, the fund stressed that it has also subsidized local scientific research projects and facilities last year. The fund subsidized the State Key Laboratory for Traditional Chinese Medicine Quality Research, as well as two other State Key Laboratories for analog and mixed signals and astronomical sciences.