Tsinghua-UCL Partner Fund 2026/27

Summary of call

This call is intended to fund and support projects that have the potential to deepen and further the development of the strategic partnership between Tsinghua and UCL, in the thematic priorities below:

Hepatology
Ophthalmology
Computational Healthcare and Medical Imaging
Emerging areas such as Oncology and Neuroscience

Proposals should be co-led by a Lead Applicant at each institution and can involve a wider team of participants from each institution, as appropriate to the activities proposed.

How to apply

1) UCL lead applicants are invited to submit their proposals on behalf of their project team via this application portal.

2) A brief summary of the principal participants (from UCL and Tsinghua) and the summary project details are required.

3) The detailed application form should be submitted via a PDF upload. The form can be found on the UCL website. This must be submitted via this portal in Section 3.

4) Applications will be assessed by a combined UCL-Tsinghua panel.

5) For UCL staff, successful recipients will receive funds using the internal transfer process known as 'Inter-Departmental Transfer' (IDT). UCL Global Engagement will request the name of your department financial administrator for this transfer in the award notification email.

Key dates

Deadline for application: 23:59 UK time on Friday 4th September 2026.

Decisions communicated to applicants: late September.

Project Title

0/35

Total UCL amount applied for in GBP

Total Tsinghua amount applied for in GBP and RMB

Please tick to confirm that UCL activity is planned to be purchased and take place by 31 July 2027. All activity and expenditure MUST be completed within this activity window, after this funds will disappear and cannot be carried over by UCL Global Engagement into the next financial year

All anticipated costs in the attached application have been calculated according to any required UCL/Tsinghua expenses and travel policy (A Worktribe costing is not necessary)

Please tick here to confirm you will undertake the relevant and appropriate ethical approval and due diligence for the size and scope of your project (see guidance PDF for further details)

Are you an Early Career Researcher? This can be defined as within eight years of your PhD award or six years of your first academic appointment. However, there is flexibility within this definition, so please feel free to select 'Yes' if you feel Early Career Researcher applies to you. Please note that this is for monitoring purposes only and will not influence the outcome of your application.

A. UCL Applicant Information

Please note that applicants must have an open-ended UCL contract or a fixed-term contract which lasts until at least July 2027.

In line with UCL’s commitment to equality and diversity, we encourage applications from a range of backgrounds regardless of career stage, age, disability, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and religion.

Name of UCL lead applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

E-mail

Role

Faculty

Arts and Humanities Department

Brain Sciences Department

Bartlett Department

Engineering Sciences Department

Life Sciences Department

Maths & Physical Sciences Department

Medical Sciences Department

Population Health Sciences Department

Social & Historical Sciences Department

Institute of Education Department

Other

Lead applicant UCL Person Identifier (UPI) Number

This can be found on your UCL ID card in the bottom left corner.

Is there more than one UCL applicant?

Name of UCL co-applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

E-mail

Role

Department

Faculty

Is there a second UCL co-applicant?

Name of second UCL co-applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

E-mail

Role

Department

Faculty

Is there a third UCL co-applicant?

Name of third UCL co-applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

E-mail

Role

Department

Faculty

If your group has more UCL co-applicants, please list any additional names under section 1 in your project proposal attachment.

B. Tsinghua Applicant Information

Project must be in collaboration with one or more named colleagues from Tsinghua University.

Name of Tsinghua Lead Applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

E-mail

Role

Department (if applicable)

Faculty (if applicable)

Is there more than one applicant?

Name of Tsinghua Co-applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

Role

Department (if applicable)

Faculty (if applicable)

Is there a second co-applicant?

Name of second Tsinghua Co-applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

Role

Department (if applicable)

Faculty (if applicable)

If your group has more Tsinghua co-applicants, please list any additional partners in section 1 of your project proposal attachment.

The application form should be submitted as a PDF document via the button below. Please note submissions should be no longer than 6 pages (excluding CVs).

The application form requires proposals to include a-d (below) in section 2 of the form, please ensure these subheadings are used on your application before submitting the form:-

a) Project design and rationale (500 words max.)
Please state clearly the justification for the design and basis for collaboration.

b) Project impact (500 words max.)
Please summarise the activities envisaged as part of the project and what outputs you anticipate from the project. Outputs need to be directly linked with the project activities, such as joint papers, external funding applications, joint research with industry and proposals for policy recommendations, etc.

c) Impact of collaboration (200 words max.)
Is there a distinct advantage provided by this collaboration that is not possible by the two institutions working individually?

d) Capacity for future collaboration (400 words max.)
To what extent are future collaborations possible as a result of the proposed activities, such as plans for scaling up the research project in the future and opportunities for external funding applications?

Please upload your proposal here:

Click to Upload Proposal

Tsinghua-UCL Partner Fund 2026/27

Section 1: About the Project

Section 2: About the Project Team

Section 3: Application Upload