Prof. Phang, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Postgraduate) with Ms. Poorani Krishnan, Ms. Maithili Vasudevan and Ms. Cassandra Tam from the British High Commission.

Ms. Maithili Vasudevan, Newton Fund Strategic Manager, British High Commission briefing the academics on the Newton Fund.

Ms. Maithili Vasudevan and Ms. Poorani Krishnan from the British High Commission gave excellent briefings on the many opportunities offered by the British High Commission as well as other UK government agencies.  96 UCSI academics attended this very informative session and engaged in queries on the various funding schemes, as well as discussions on how priority areas are formulated. The Newton Fund was launched in April 2014 as part of UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment. The Newton Fund builds research and innovation partnerships with 17 partner countries to support their economic development and social welfare, and to develop their research and innovation capacity for long-term sustainable growth. The academics were informed of two funding schemes currently open for application; namely the Newton Fund Impact Scheme (closing date is 13 September 2019) and the Newton-Ungku Omar Fund Grand Challenge (closing date is 16 October 2019), where UK-MY business partnerships are invited to apply for funding to develop innovative solutions to urban challenges in the mobility and waste-to-wealth sectors. This year, the British High Commission is sponsoring two workshops; namely “Steering towards a Digital World: Research and Innovation in AI”, on 11 September 2019 at Sunway University; and “People, Plastics and Our Planet: Venturing for Solutions”, on 16 – 20 December 2019 in Kuala Lumpur. Those interested can contact Ms. Poorani Krishnan via email at [email protected]  

Further information can be obtained from Newton Fund's official website,  www.newtonfund.ac.uk or Facebook page, facebook.com/bhckl