Dr. Stanley Ho Medical Development Foundation (SHMDF), founded in January 2005, is a non-profit juridical person which has been declared of public administrative utility, registered at the Identification Department of the Government of the Macau Special Administrative Region. Donations to the Foundation are deductible from the donor’s income up to 2% of the gross revenue generated by sales/services.

The aim of the Foundation is to promote, develop and finance socially beneficial, educational, academic, economical, charitable, cultural, recreational, athletic, scientific and technological research activities, whereby the knowledge level and quality of the above activities may be enhanced ─ especially those activities relating to improving the quality of medical service in Macau and other regions in China and financing the training of medical practitioners and workers in the techniques and technologies in their areas of expertise.

To celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the University of Macau (UM), the Foundation established a designated fund titled “Set Sail for New Horizons, Create the Future” Grant which was first opened for applications in 2021, granting MOP 1 million per year for 10 years. The allocated funding is to support the nurturing of talents in the areas of health sciences and big data healthcare applications, and to support young scholars to venture into innovation and breakthroughs in their research areas.

Since 2022, UM and the Foundation have jointly held the Distinguished Scholars Forum for the awardees to share their research achievements under the grant programme. In addition, experts and scholars from China and abroad have been invited to deliver talks on their latest research results. These academic exchange activities provide a platform for experts and scholars to showcase the latest research progress and applications, as well as an opportunity for researchers and students to interact and explore collaboration with scholars from home and abroad.