UCL - The Chinese University of Hong Kong Strategic Partner Funds Submission Portal 2026/27

Summary of the call

University College London (UCL) and The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have identified each other as strategic partners to foster deep collaborations in research and education. The Office of the Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement) at UCL and the Office of Academic Links at CUHK have established the UCL-CUHK Strategic Partner Fund to support collaborative education and research initiatives through a joint call for proposals.

Proposals from all fields are welcome but those related to the following fields are particularly encouraged:

Clinical and translational medicine (e.g. oncology, cardiology, ophthalmology, medicine, and gene and cell therapy)
Health and healthcare (e.g. computational healthcare and global population health)
Life sciences (e.g. neuroscience, brain science and biology)

Examples of previous projects can be found at the bottom of the Partner Funds page.

How to apply

1) Please read the guidelines carefully and use the application form to prepare a proposal.

2) A proposal must be co-developed by UCL and CUHK researchers. UCL lead applicants are invited to submit their proposals on behalf of their project team via this application portal. Only proposal should be submitted for a project.

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

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

5) Applications will be assessed by a combined UCL-CUHK panel.

6) 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.

Key dates

Deadline for application: 11:59pm (UK Time) on Friday 19 June 2026

Decisions communicated to applicants on or before: 31 July 2026

Project Title

0/35

Total UCL amount applied for in GBP

Total CUHK amount applied for in HKD

Please tick to confirm that UCL activity is planned to be purchased and take place between 1 August 2026 and 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/CUHK 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 an open-ended UCL contract or a fixed-term contract which lasts until at least July 2027. If an applicant has a fixed-term contract that does not last until July 2027 they can apply if their contract covers the dates in which the project is due to take place and have a co-applicant who is a UCL staff member with an open-ended contract. In this case, the co-applicant will be responsible for reporting outcomes to UCL Global Engagement.

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 three co-applicants, please list any additional names under Section 1d in your project proposal attachment.

B. CUHK Applicant Information

Project must be in collaboration with one or more named colleagues from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Name of Lead Applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

E-mail

Role

Department (if applicable)

Faculty (if applicable)

Is there more than one applicant?

Name of Co-applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

Role

Department (if applicable)

Faculty (if applicable)

Is there second co-applicant?

Name of second Co-applicant

PrefixFirst NameLast Name

Role

Department (if applicable)

Faculty (if applicable)

If your group has more than three CUHK 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 6 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 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)

b) Project impact (500 words max)

c) Impact of collaboration (200 words max)

d) Capacity for future collaboration (400 words max)

Please upload your proposal here:

Click to Upload Proposal

UCL - The Chinese University of Hong Kong Strategic Partner Funds 2026/27

Section 1: About the Project

Section 2: About the Project Team

Section 3: Application Upload