UCL - Tohoku University Strategic Partner Funds Submission Portal 2026

1. Summary of the call

Since 2019, UCL and Tohoku University (TU) have jointly supported an annual Strategic Partner Fund, establishing a strong foundation for research and education collaboration in areas of shared strength. Building on this success, in 2025, the two institutions agreed to significantly expand the partnership, with a strategic focus on Disaster Science, Neuroscience, and Quantum Science and Technology.

2. Aims of this call

To support this ambition, the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement) at UCL and the Global Strategy Office at TU are jointly contributing matching funds to support the expansion and scaling of collaborative education and research initiatives through this joint call for proposals. The call supports activities aligned with the shared institutional priority areas of Disaster Science, Neurosciences and Quantum Science and Technology.

Priority through this call will be given to proposals that are aligned with the UCL-TU vision to deepen the strategic partnership and provide a platform for long-term, large-scale and impactful collaboration. This might be achieved, for example, by facilitating the development of large-scale research partnerships, future joint education initiatives, and researcher mobility programmes (particularly for ECRs).

3. How to apply

1) Please read the guidelines carefully and use the application form to prepare a proposal. The guidelines and an application form template can also be downloaded from the fudnging page . Proposals that do not use the provided template may not be reviewed by the panel. Please use clear and accessible language, as panel members may not have specialist knowledge of the project’s field.

2) All proposals must be primarily in one of the priority areas: Disaster Science, Neuroscience, and Quantum Science and Technology. Interdisciplinary proposals that integrate one or more of these areas are also welcomed.

3) Proposals must be jointly led by a Lead Applicant from each institution and may include a broader team of collaborators from relevant departments and faculties at both UCL and TU, where appropriate to the proposed activities.

4) Applications should clearly demonstrate how the proposed project builds on existing or ongoing collaborations, or will establish new partnerships with strong potential to deepen collaboration and increase impact. The project should provide a robust foundation for developing a sustainable, long-term strategic partnership between UCL and TU.

5) Proposals should outline how the activities will strengthen the institutional partnership and provide a foundation for long-term collaboration, for example by deepening research collaboration, enhancing researcher mobility and exchange (including for ECRs), facilitating the development of applications for major external funding (e.g. Horizon Europe, JSPS, JST, AMED, and UKRI), and/or supporting collaboration with industry partners.

6) UCL lead applicants are invited to submit their proposals on behalf of their project team via this application portal. Please submit only one proposal for the project through this page.

7) The finalised application form in PDF format should be uploaded via this portal in Section 3.

8) Applications will be assessed by a combined UCL - TU panel.

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

4. Key dates

Deadline for application: 23:59 UK on Friday 9th October 2026.

Decisions communicated to applicants on or before: 30th November 2026.

Project Title

0/35

Area of Collaboration

History of Collaboration

Total UCL amount applied for in GBP

Total TU amount applied for in Yen

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

Please tick to confirm that both the UCL applicants have either an open-ended contract with their respective institution or a fixed-term contract which lasts until until the end of the project. If the proposed project end date is later than 31 July 2027, please confirm that the UCL and TU Lead Applicant’s contracts remains in effect until at least the end of the proposed project.

All anticipated costs in the attached application have been calculated according to any required UCL/*Partner* 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)

Please tick here to confirm that the lead applicant of this proposal did not receive GE seed funding as a lead applicant for a project taking place in the 2025/26 Academic Year OR that a special exception has been made due to strong potential for significant impact based on the outcomes of 2025/26 project activity.

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.

How did you hear about this Strategic Partner Fund? Select all that apply.

Other

A. UCL Applicant Information

Please note that applicants must have either an open-ended contract with their respective institution or a fixed-term contract which lasts until 31 July 2027 for UCL applicants or at least the end date of this project for TU applicants. Please read the guidelines for more details.

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 than 3 co-applicants, please list any additional names under section 1 in your project proposal attachment.

B. Tohoku University Applicant Information

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

Name of Lead Applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

E-mail

Role

Department (if applicable)

Faculty (if applicable)

Is there more than one applicant?

Name of TU Co-applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

Role

Department (if applicable)

Faculty (if applicable)

Is there second co-applicant?

Name of second TU Co-applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

Role

Department (if applicable)

Faculty (if applicable)

Is there third co-applicant?

Name of third TU co-applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

Role

Department (if applicable)

Faculty (if applicable)

If your group has more than 3 Tohoku University co-applicants, please list any additional partner in section 1d 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 5 pages. Please note that the proposal will be assessed by panel members who may not have expertise in your disciplinary area; therefore, we recommend the use of clear, accessible language.

The application form requires proposals to include the partnership history (Section 2), summary of the project (Section 3) and a-2 (below) in section 4 of the form, please ensure these subheadings are used on your application before submitting the form:-

a) Aims, Areas of Focus and Rationale

b) Strategy for scaling up the partnership

c) Project activities, timelines and outputs

d) Outcomes and impact

e) Next steps

Please upload your proposal here:

Click to Upload Proposal

UCL- Tohoku University Strategic Partner Funds 2026-27

Section 1: About the Project

Section 2: About the Project Team

Section 3: Application Upload