The University of Liverpool and McMaster University have announced an institutional strategic partnership.
As part of this, the two research-intensive universities have agreed a £300k/$500k seed fund that will support the development of collaborations in areas of complementary research strength.
This includes health research across life stages from paediatrics to healthy ageing and resilience, social sciences and humanities and research and development in port related activities.
The projects were announced at a celebration event hosted by McMaster University with representatives from the University of Liverpool including Professor Tariq Ali, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement and Partnerships, in attendance.
Professor Tariq Ali, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement and Partnerships at the University of Liverpool said: “I’m delighted that the University of Liverpool is entering into a strategic partnership with McMaster University. Both of our Universities have historic similarities and a shared understanding that collaboration in key areas could result in significant positive outcomes and impacts. Our partnership with McMaster is a key element of Liverpool’s strategic focus on increasing the global impact and reputation of our research and education. We have an impressive first set of joint projects funded through the new collaboration seed fund and I look forward to following their progress and outcomes.”
McMaster President David Farrar says the seed fund is the latest in a series of collaborative initiatives between McMaster and the University of Liverpool that aim to advance the institutions’ shared mission of excellence and impact in research and education.
“We’re proud to partner with the University of Liverpool to fund cutting-edge, collaborative research and foster knowledge exchange amongst our students and faculty. This first round of funding recipients includes a diverse range of experts who will advance research that supports knowledge creation and health and well-being in Canada, the UK and beyond,” he says.
The nine funded projects are:
- Scalable clustering approaches for multivariate longitudinal data Paul McNicholas, McMaster University and David Hughes, University of Liverpool
- Transport decarbonisation for next generation ports and port-city hinterlands Moataz Mohamed, McMaster University and Cagatay Iris, University of Liverpool
- Networking workshop between Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Ageing, McMaster University and Centre for Ageing and the Life Course, Liverpool University Anthea Innes, McMaster University and Susan Pickard, University of Liverpool
- Sustainable and Resilient Pavement Design for Port Areas Susan Tighe, McMaster University and Haopeng Wang, University of Liverpool
- Advanced Modelling and Simulations for Molten Salt Reactors Markus Piro, McMaster University and Anna Detkina, University of Liverpool
- Innovative antibiotic discovery to combat invasive Salmonella in Africa Brian Coombes, McMaster University and Jay Hinton, University of Liverpool
- Engineering perfusable vascular organoids for aging and chronic disease studies Boyang Zhang, McMaster University and Ruoxiao Xie, University of Liverpool
- Enhancing Environmental Sustainability and Resiliency of the Ports Saiedeh Razavi, McMaster University and Yuanjun Feng, University of Liverpool
- Developing pharmacogenetic polygenic risk scores using machine learning methods Guillaume Pare, McMaster University and Andrea Jorgensen, University of Liverpool
This institutional partnership builds on a history of collaboration between the University of Liverpool and McMaster University in a number of areas including law and social justice, biology and nuclear science. The two institutions also recently signed a memorandum of understanding for greater collaboration between McMaster’s Global Nexus and Liverpool’s Pandemic Institute.
Lead image caption: Professor Tariq Ali with McMaster colleagues and partnership fund recipients