Vice-Chancellor Professor Adam Tickell with Renmin University of China Chairwoman of the Council, Dr Nuo Jin, in March 2017 on a visit to Renmin where both universities agreed to establish the Joint Seed Fund.

The first awards have been made for a new strategic joint fund to support collaborative research between Sussex and Renmin University of China.            

The joint fund was launched by Sussex and Renmin University of China in Beijing, and will support a strategic partnership between the two universities. The fund is intended to bring together academics and resources, drawing on the strengths of both institutions to develop cutting-edge collaborative projects with impact. It is hoped that the fund will provide a stepping stone towards external funding.

Renmin is one of China’s most prestigious universities, and a global leader in humanities and social sciences. Since 2009 Sussex and Renmin have enjoyed a fruitful partnership, including student mobility, Sussex staff teaching on Renmin’s International Summer School as well as research workshops and joint panel discussions. Researchers collaborate in the areas of international law, corruption studies, international business, energy economics and intrapreneurship.

Funded activities may include visits for research groups to establish new contacts and explore possibilities for collaboration; preparing joint research bids; supporting internationally co-authored publications; and development of new interdisciplinary research programmes.

In the first round of the joint fund, two awards have been made. These will build on existing research collaborations in corporate entrepreneurship and finance.

Sussex’s Dr Monica Masucci and Renmin’s Professor Kangtao Ye have been awarded funding for a two-year project to design and carry out a cross-country survey. The project, led by the Intrapreneurship HUB, will look to identify how UK and Chinese companies from different sectors support corporate entrepreneurship and innovation, the challenges they face and the key enablers.

Dr Ding Chen, Lecturer in Finance at Sussex, and his Renmin collaborator Dr Biao Guo have been awarded a year’s funding for joint research in quantitative finance. They will develop a way to look at investor rationality on different financial instruments offered by the same company. The research will help investor strategies and risk management, which will improve market information and disclosure.

Congratulations to the successful applicants. For further information on the joint seed fund or the Sussex-Renmin partnership, please contact Georgie Chesman, International Partnerships Officer on g.chesman@sussex.ac.uk

Further information: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/studentrecruitment/internationaloffice/partnerships/ipdf