Project led by Professor Dragan Gašević awarded RGC’s Theme-based Research Scheme Funding to advance Research on Productive Human–AI Interaction

We are delighted to share that the team led by Professor Dragan Gašević, Chair Professor in the Faculty of Education and the School of Computing and Data Science, has been awarded funding from the Research Grants Council’s (RGC) Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) 2026/27 for the project “Development and Assessment of Human Capacities for Productive Human-AI Interaction”.

This collaborative research project, involving investigators from The University of Hong Kong (HKU), The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), seeks to establish the foundations for understanding and strengthening learners’ regulatory capacities for productive interaction with AI. These capacities enable learners to monitor their comprehension, judge quality of their learning, and make informed decisions about when and how to use AI productively and when sustained independent effort is required.

The project will focus particularly on learners aged 9 to 15, a developmental period that is crucial for the growth of regulatory capacity and coincides with students’ increasing independent use of AI technologies. Through collaboration with schools, students, teachers, and parents in Hong Kong, the research team will examine current practices and needs, collect exploratory evidence of learners’ regulatory capacity during human–AI interaction, and explore the feasibility of measuring these capacities through digital data.

Findings from the project are expected to inform the development of evidence-based educational practices, assessment approaches, AI-enabled learning technologies, and policy recommendations. The project will also strengthen Hong Kong’s capacity to lead cutting-edge research at the intersection of human learning, education, and human–AI interaction.

TRS aims to focus academic research efforts of UGC-funded universities on themes of strategic importance to the long-term development of Hong Kong. More information about TRS is available at: https://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/funding_opport/trs/index.html. 

We warmly congratulate Professor Gašević and the research team on this remarkable accomplishment.