A project to improve women’s safety in public spaces and another exploring sustainability in the apparel industry are among the first to receive grants under the new UNSW-Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) Collaborative Research Seed Funding Scheme.
Ian Jacobs, UNSW president and Vice-Chancellor, and H. Vinod Bhat, Vice-Chancellor of MAHE, announced the 10 joint grant recipients at an event here on Saturday.
Prof. Jacobs said, “I am excited by the potential of the MAHE-UNSW partnership. These new grants will help academics at both universities bring the collaboration to life. They will link brilliant minds to jointly address complex and important global research challenges.”
Echoing the sentiments of the president of UNSW, Dr. Bhat said, “This partnership between the two premier institutes would transform lives of students, prepare them for a better future and promote India and Australia relations.”
The seed funding scheme is part of the landmark partnership for education the two institutions announced last year. The partnership seeks to deliver an uplift in articulation programmes, pathways and grant revenue, while improving scope for knowledge exchange, visiting fellowships and staff career development for students and staff from both institutions.
UNSW and MAHE jointly committed $AUD5 million of joint funding to 2025 to deliver tangible outcomes and ensure the success of the partnership. The UNSW-MAHE Landmark Partnership was established in December 2018 during Dr. Bhat’s first visit to UNSW.
This followed a visit to MAHE by UNSW Pro-Vice Chancellor International and CEO of UNSW Global, Laurie Pearcey and the Dean of UNSW Engineering Professor Mark Hoffman in July of the same year. During 2019, UNSW Faculty delegations visited MAHE on two occasions.
The first round of the Research Seed Funds offer 10 grants valued at $20,000 each. The scheme was launched in August 2019 and attracted 44 UNSW-MAHE joint applications from across seven UNSW faculties.
