The University of Sydney (USyd) and Fudan University (Fudan) have formed a strategic partnership to foster deep collaborations in research and education. The Brain and Intelligence Science Alliance (BISA) has been established as a platform to raise the research impact of both institutions through inter-disciplinary translational research in fields related to data science, neuroscience and intelligence. The ultimate goal of BISA is to train research leaders, advance technological innovation and scientific research, and secure practical applications for science and technology research.The Universities have set up an alliance fund to support collaborative activities including, but not limited to, flagship research programs, partnership collaborations awards, academic and student mobility programs, joint ethics projects and joint workshops and forums.

Jointly funded by the alliance fund,the USyd-Fudan Brain and Intelligence Science Alliance Partnership Collaboration Awards (BISAPCA)aims to facilitate and support joint initiatives that will strengthen the two universities’ strategic priorities as well as develop multi-disciplinary cutting-edge research to create academic and societal impact under the themes identified by BISA.

The BISAPCA grants will be awarded to teams of researchers fromUSyd and Fudan who are expected to collaborate on high-impact projectsthat have strong potential fortangible research outcomes and societal impact. These projects shouldfoster new ideas and projects for collaboration including potential BISA Flagship Research proposals and leverage national and international funding.Educational and teaching initiatives may also be included as part of a larger collaborative research proposal. Projects which are multidisciplinary in nature, extend beyond one-to-one collaboration and support development of postgraduate students and Early and Mid-Career Researchers (EMCR) are encouraged.

In this round,up to five proposalswill be funded through thePartnership Collaboration Awards(each with one lead Chief Investigators from USyd and one from Fudan). Each successful proposal may receive up to the equivalent of AUD $20,000 (approximatively RMB¥96,600 subject to exchange rate) from each university for a totalup to the equivalent AUD$40,000 (approximately RMB¥193,200subject to exchange).