RIF Project Kick-off Meeting: Jointly Shaping the GEM Phase Two Action Plan

In December 2025, the Global Estuaries Monitoring (GEM) Programme Phase Two was selected and funded by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR Government through its Research Impact Fund (RIF) scheme. On May 27, 2026, the RIF kick-off meeting was successfully convened, with all Co-PIs in attendance. Prof. Kenneth Leung, the Principal Coordinator of the RIF project, presented the overarching concept and action plan, divided into four packages.

Package 1 emphasizes ecotoxicology, aiming to establish a web lab leveraging the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Health. Using common marine model organisms, toxicological tests will be conducted to ascertain the toxicity of typical contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) to marine species. This will help establish predicted no-effect concentrations, supporting precise ecological risk assessments in monitoring estuarine CECs globally.

Package 2, focusing on innovative passive samplers, aims to monitor typical pollutants in global estuaries. The project team will develop new sampler sponge materials and integrate them into next-generation artificial mussels for cost-effective pollution monitoring in estuaries. The developed passive samplers are expected to significantly reduce monitoring costs, particularly beneficial for marine environmental monitoring in developing regions and small island nations.

Package 3 intends to employ estuarine sediment monitoring to track residual levels of emerging pollutants, assess the current state of pollution in global estuarine surface sediments along with seasonal variations, and evaluate their impact on benthic organisms and ecosystems.

Package 4 concentrates on solution development with stakeholder engagement on a global scale. Using GEM webinars and prominent international marine conferences, stakeholder engagement will be enhanced. Building on the research outcomes of Packages 1-3, solutions to global estuarine environmental pollution will be proposed, contributing to cleaner and safer estuaries worldwide.

The engagement of all participating researchers sparked energetic and fruitful discussions toward refining the research proposals, resulting in well-defined research plans. Following this meeting, the official launch of the RIF Project will be accompanied by detailed discussions with the research teams from each package. Over the next five years, leveraging the RIF project, the GEM Programme is anticipated to achieve greater results and groundbreaking advancements, collaborating with global partners to realize the vision of the Ocean Decade.