WUN Research Development Fund 2016

The 2016 round of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Research Development Fund (RDF) has opened. The WUN RDF offers grants to WUN member universities to build research collaborations across the network under four key areas identified as the Global Challenges, namely ‘Responding to Climate Change’, ‘Global Higher Education and Research’, ‘Public Health (Non-Communicable Disease)’, and ‘Understanding Cultures’. Seed grants of up to £12,000 (£10,000 in average) are awarded to each selected proposal, which will then be matched by funding provided by the lead and collaborating universities. Activities supported include exploratory research initiatives, targeted workshops, and faculty exchanges, among other activities.

For 2016, proposals in the following Global Challenge focus areas and having relevance to one of WUN’s developing cross-cutting themes (i.e. economics, big data, and regional programmes in China and Africa) will be given higher priority:

• Responding to Climate Change: Global research platforms and Resilience of human systems, related to food and environment security.
• Public Health: Lifecourse approach to healthy ageing; Health of migrants across the lifecourse; Resilience of adolescents and health workers in different cultural contexts; Schools as a setting for reducing risk factors associated with NCDs.
• Global Higher Education and Research: Access, mobility, and investment in higher education.
• Understanding Cultures: Migration and population; Two-way understanding of China; Global digital cultures; Transdisciplinary approaches to indigenous research; and Heritage.

RDF provides a great opportunity for faculty members to expand their network, and strengthen their career development and international exposure by building collaborations with scholars of similar or complementary interests. From 2012 to 2015, a total of eight projects led by CUHK were selected covering all four Global Challenges. In addition, over 30 CUHK faculty members have participated in RDF projects led by other member universities.

Interested applicants should refer to the Office of Academic Links’ website for further information on the internal nomination procedures. The application closes on 2 September 2016.