The COVID-19 situation seems to be getting better, but unfortunately, experts say it may become endemic and never go away. Moreover, chances are that other diseases will emerge in future. Exploring solutions that can help mitigate the health, social, economic, environmental and other impacts of COVID-19 and other novel infectious diseases is crucial. This is what the HK$150 million funding under the One-off Collaborative Research Fund Coronavirus Disease and Novel Infectious Disease Exercise 2020/21, administrated by Research Grants Council (RGC), is intended for.

Three projects of which faculty members of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) serve as Co-Principal Investigators have received over HK$11.6 million of grants under this exercise. The project teams are going to pursue interdisciplinary research across universities to enhance the level of attainment, quantity, dimensions and speed of research outputs.

Public Policy Professor Linda LI Che-lan serves as Co-Principal Investigator of the project “Hong Kong Insolvency and Experts in Restructuring Law and Policy in Times of COVID-19 and Beyond”. It seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the current insolvency and restructuring laws in rescuing otherwise economically viable businesses. It involves experts in political science, laws, accounting, finance and business from CityU and the University of Hong Kong.

Media and Communication Chair Professor Christine HUANG Yihui and Assistant Professor Dr HUANG Guanxiong are the Co-Principal Investigators of the project “(Mis)communication, Trust and Information Environments: A Comparative Study of the COVID-19 ‘Infodemics’ in Four Chinese Societies”. Working with scholars from two other local universities, the project team will examine the emergence and spread of false and misleading information about the COVID-19 pandemic on digital media in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

Many older adults suffer from loneliness due to social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The same may happen again during future health crises. The project “Protecting Older People from Loneliness during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Other Novel Infectious Disease Pandemic”, of which Social and Behavioural Sciences Associate Professor Dr Dannii YEUNG serves as Co-Principal Investigator, will examine two interventions aimed at reducing loneliness among older adults together with scholars from two other universities.

CLASS is committed to conducting high-standing interdisciplinary research studies on various humanities and social sciences issues. The research output is expected to contribute to knowledge building and transfer, and to the betterment of society.