Key Milestones
2004
A team of researchers, led by CityU’s Prof. Rudolf Wu, Chair Professor in the Department of Biology and Chemistry, was awarded HK$45 million under the UGC's Areas of Excellence Scheme, for the establishment of "The Centre for Marine Environmental Research and Innovative Technology", laid a solid foundation for the establishment of SKLMP.
2005
The Centre for Marine Environmental Research and Innovative Technology was officially opened.
2007
Prof. Rudolf Wu submitted a proposal to the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology to form the partner State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution (SKLMP).
2009
CityU obtained an approval from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China to set up Partner SKLMP.
2010
Partner State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution (City University of Hong Kong) was established. Prof. Paul Lam took up the Directorship of P-SKLMP.
2010
SKLMP co-organised the “International Conferences on Marine Pollution and Ecotoxicology” (ICMPE) in 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019. ICMPE has been a signature event in the international arena of marine pollution research with over 25 years of history.
2011
The Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) provided an annual funding of HK$2 million for SKLMP.
2012
The Research Centre for the Oceans and Human Health (H2O), a satellite division of SKLMP in mainland China, was established in Shenzhen with the approval of the Shenzhen Municipal Government.
2012
SKLMP members Prof. Xiaoyan Li won the 2012 First Class award in the Natural Science category at the Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) from the Ministry of Education of China, while Prof. Paul Lam and Dr. James Lam won the Second Class award.
2013
The Research Centre for the Oceans and Human Health (H2O) was officially opened.
2013
The Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) increased the amount of funding support to SKLMP from HK$2 million to HK$5 million each year.
2013
SKLMP (CityU and Xiamen University) co-established the "Centre of Major Equipment and Technology (COMET)" to strengthen management and facilitate the sharing of major instruments among members. The success of COMET contributed to MEL being ranked first in the Assessment on Open Information and Sharing of Scientific and Technical Resource for National Key Laboratories undertaken by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China.
2015
SKLMP co-organised the International Conference on Underwater Science, Technology and Education (ICUSTE), which aimed to promote academic exchange and collaboration in marine environmental science.
2016
SKLMP member Prof. Xiaoyan Li and his research team received a large-scale grant from RGC Theme-based Research Scheme for the study of " Enhanced Separation and Sludge Refinery for Wastewater Treatment - Solving the Nexus of Pollution Control and Resource Recovery in Mega Cities".
2017
SKLMP member Prof. Jianping Gan and his research team received a large-scale grant from RGC Theme-based Research Scheme for the study of "Ocean Circulation, Ecosystem and Hypoxia around Hong Kong waters (OCEAN-HK)
2018
SKLMP was rated "Outstanding" in the re-assessment of the existing Partner State Key Laboratories organised by the Innovation and Technology Commission.
2018
The Ministry of Science and Technology approved the renaming of "State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution (City University of Hong Kong)".
2018
The Education University of Hong Kong joined SKLMP as a Member Institution and injected HK$15 million to set up a research hub.
2018
SKLMP was relocated to the fifth floor of the Yeung Kin Man Academic Building at CityU.
2019
SKLMP members Prof. Paul Lam and Dr. James Lam won the 2019 Second Class award in the Natural Science category at the Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) form the Ministry of Education of China.
2019
SKLMP annual funding was increased from HK$5 million to $10 million provided by the Innovation and Technology Commission of the HKSAR.
2020
SKLMP member Prof. Tong Zhang and his research team received a grant from RGC Theme-based Research Scheme for the study of "Assess Antibiotic Resistome Flows from Pollution Hotspots to Environments and Explore the Control Strategies".
2020
SKLMP celebrated its 10th anniversary.
2021
SKLMP initiated a ten-year "Global Estuaries Monitoring (GEM)" Programme, which was endorsed by the United Nations (UN) as an “Ocean Decade Action Programme” under the "UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)” in June 2021. It was the only endorsed proposal from Hong Kong and one of the 66 endorsed programmes in the world during the first round of the call.
2022
On 27 July 2022, the Partnership Council of the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA; http://pemsea.org/about-PEMSEA) officially endorsed SKLMP as a Regional Centre of Excellence (RCOE) in Marine Pollution. As a PEMSEA-RCOE, SKLMP automatically became a member of the PEMSEA Network of Learning Centres, and would regularly organize training opportunities for people in the region regarding pollution monitoring and assessment, underwater survey and ecological restoration technologies. It was a great honour for SKLMP to be conferred as a RCOE in the region.
2023
On 5 April 2023, the State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution (SKLMP) of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) received unanimous support from Member States at the 14th Intergovernmental Session of the IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) (4-6 April 2023, Jakarta, Indonesia) to host the first UNESCO Regional Training and Research Centre on Coastal Contaminant Monitoring and Marine Innovative Technologies (the RTRC-Coastal COMMIT) for the Western Pacific region in Hong Kong. This is the third UNESCO Regional Training and Research Centre in China and the sixth in the Western Pacific region.