Celebrating Global Engagement 2017

Academics and staff from across UCL joined President & Provost, Professor Michael Arthur, to celebrate UCL's range of successful international collaborations.

More than 150 academics and staff from across UCL joined President & Provost, Professor Michael Arthur, to celebrate the range of successful international collaborations that have been supported by the Global Engagement Office.

Attendees heard how academics had used funding streams including the Global Engagement and Global Leadership Funds to stimulate collaborations with partners.

Vice-Provost International Dr Dame Nicola Brewer, Pro-Vice-Provost International Professor Gudrun Moore, and UCL's network of Regional Pro-Vice-Provosts and Vice-Deans International also welcomed guests to the event.

Michael said: "When I think about our partnerships across the globe, I think we should be incredibly proud. It’s part of UCL’s ambition to deliver global impact - we can’t do that without the global engagement necessary.

"Web of Science data shows UCL academics have doubled their number of international collaborations over the past five years. We’ve got an even harder job post-Brexit to convince people we want to engage with the world in a positive context. We’re trying to redouble our efforts."

Facilitating global collaborations

Nicola explained that over the first three years of GEO's flagship funding stream, the Global Engagement Funds, GEO had allocated more than £500,000 to more than 400 UCL academics from over 80 departments. They went on to partner with 464 organisations in 79 countries worldwide.

In 2015-16, £180,000 worth of funding had led to academics bringing in £2,000,000 in external research grants.

"Even a small amount of funding can generate ideas and lead to bigger things," Nicola said. "We want to do everything we can to facilitate and then celebrate your role as UCL’s global ambassadors."

Guests heard from a range of beneficiaries during the event:

• Dr Amitava Banerjee (UCL Institute of Health Informatics) spoke about co-hosting a workshop on healthcare and big data at the Public Health Foundation of India
• Professor Anna David (UCL Institute for Women’s Health) described initiating a collaborative programme on foetal growth restriction with Paris Descartes University
• Dr Vivienne Lo (UCL History) explained how she had developed a new module in Health Humanities at the Peking University Yenching Academy, building on UCL's deep strategic partnership with the university
• Professor Nikos Konstantinidis (UCL Department of Physics & Astronomy) talked about his role as Vice-Dean International and how he had used the leadership funds to develop a new student summer research project exchange with Seoul National University.

Attendees were also invited to try out GEO's new interactive data dashboard, which displays the location of existing collaborations in countries worldwide, and to pin their activity onto a world map. Both showed the breadth of UCL's engagement around the world.

Open to all

Gudrun said: "The energy at the event reflected the appetite for global collaboration across UCL. One guest told us it was the first time in three years that she'd been to a UCL event where she'd been able to meet people from across the faculties.

"GEO can offer a range of funding, resources and country-specific expertise and I'd encourage any academic interested in working internationally to contact their faculty Vice-Dean International or Regional Pro-Vice-Provost to find out about the opportunities available."

The Global Engagement and Global Leadership Funds are part of a suite of GEO-facilitated funding opportunities that are open to all UCL academics:

Funding stream	Description
Global Engagement Funds (reopening 3 April 2018)	Awards usually up to £2,000 for academics to stimulate, facilitate and accelerate activity with global partners, that is, other academics based at an international HE institution, research institute, NGO/charity, governmental body or corporate entity. Additional funding may be available via the Global Leadership Funds, allocated by the Vice-Deans International and Regional Pro-Vice-Provosts.
Santander Research Catalyst Awards (reopening December 2017)	Awards of up to £4,000 per project to stimulate activity with Latin American partners, received from Santander Universities.
UCL-PKU Strategic Partner Funds (opening soon - see Funding Opportunities for details)	Awards of up to £10,000 per project to UCL academics in any faculty collaborating with colleagues based at Peking University (PKU), as part of the deep strategic partnership between the two institutions.
UCL-UofT funding stream (applications now closed)	Awards of up to £14,000 per project over two years to support collaborative research and education initiatives between UCL and University of Toronto.
Rome Regional Partnership Fund (open until 11 December 2017)	Up to £3,500 per workshop is available, or up £5,000 for joint bids from two or more academics working in different departments. Fund aims to support UCL academics collaborating with colleagues based at institutions in Rome, or UCL academics collaborating on research or teaching focussing on the region.