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Structured Talent Development
A structured mechanism for developing the people who will carry sports science work between academia and industry.
Sports technology rarely fails because an idea was wrong; it fails because nobody in the room could carry it the whole way. The person who can measure a flow field, the person who can turn that into a product requirement, and the person who can explain it to an athlete are usually three different people — and a collaboration that cannot move work between those three skills stalls.
Alongside its research, the memorandum of understanding between HKUST and Li-Ning Group establishes a structured talent development mechanism to strengthen collaboration across industry, academia and research.
How it works in practice
- Postgraduate and research-staff projects defined around real industry questions, supervised within the Laboratory's own facilities.
- Placement and secondment between the University and Li-Ning Group's product and research teams, so both sides see the constraints the other works under.
- Joint supervision and guest lectures, bringing practitioners into the classroom and researchers into the design process.
- Undergraduate and summer research exposure, giving students hands-on measurement and analysis work early.
- Support for athletes and coaches to develop the technical literacy to use the outputs of sports science directly.
Why it matters to the Laboratory
The Joint Laboratory's stated aim is the effective translation of research outcomes into sports practice. Translation is a skill, and it is not a by-product of publishing. Building the mechanism alongside the research — rather than hoping people acquire it later — is what makes the rest of the remit achievable.