The Hongkong Bank Foundation supported the "Zippy's Friends" project with a very generous donation. The then HSBC Chairman, Mr David Eldon, at the presentation.

Applied Research for Community Advancement

With increasing recognition for its applied research capabilities, the Institute received a total budget award of around $11,700,000 for 57 projects from the Teaching Development Grants for 2004-05. During the year, about $4,000,000 was also received from the Quality Education Fund (QEF) for three Institute projects - "Assessment for Productive Learning: Developing a Holistic Conception of Assessment's Contribution to Student Learning", "A Curriculum-based Child Assessment Model for Quality Early Childhood Programme" and "Enhancing School Leadership Capacity for Accelerated School Improvement in Primary Schools". With close to another $4,000,000 from the QEF, a collaborative project with the Centre for Health Education and Health Promotion, Faculty of Medicine, the Chinese University of Hong Kong; a three-year project in early childhood education, entitled "Capacity Building for Preschool Children: Health Promoting Kindergartens" also commenced during the year.
Professor Ruth Hayhoe, President Emeritus, shares her views on transformative developments in early childhood.
Promoting the mental health and emotional well-being of children around the world, irrespective of gender, race, culture or ability, the "Zippy’s Friends" project has developed over the past seven years in Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, India, Lithuania and Norway. Hong Kong became the first Chinese-speaking community to launch the project. With a generous donation of $3,560,000 from the Hongkong Bank Foundation, the five year (2004-09) project, developed by the Institute upon the invitation of the organiser, was formally launched in November 2004. An information dissemination seminar was held on 6 May 2005 and attended by more than 700 teachers and staff from around 350 kindergartens and primary schools. At the end of the five-year project, more than 1,000 teachers are expected to be able to run the programme with at least 10,000 children having benefited from the project.