Call for proposals 2026 within NTU-UGA-UT Trilateral Center

 

Joint Initiatives in Research and Education

Call for proposals 2026 within NTU-UGA-UT Trilateral Center

 

 

Aims of Cooperation and Possible Formats 

Based on the MOU signed on Oct 4^th, 2024 between National Taiwan University (NTU), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), and University of Tsukuba (UT), each university has respectively appointed a Director (NTU: Prof. Cheng-Liang Liu; UGA: Prof. Redouane Borsali; UT: Prof. Shinji Kuroda) to oversee the joint research and educational initiatives, strengthening the strategic partnership for a period of five years. The funding will support seed research projects, mission travels and costs associated with the organization of workshops/events as well as mobility of students from the three institutions to deepen their understanding of complementary interests and strengths.

The present grant is a new initiative to support researchers from NTU/UGA/UT to facilitate and support collaborative projects of common interest in developing multidisciplinary cutting-edge research to create academic and societal impact.

 

NTU, UGA, and UT have committed to fund up to NTD $5,000,000, EUR €150,000, JPY ¥25,000,000/Institution/year. Priority will be given to applications jointly submitted by the three universities (NTU, UGA and UT). Bilateral applications involving two universities will be considered. NTU-UGA-UT Trilateral Center will administer the program with a total budget for the tri-center of about 450K€/year for the next year.

 

1. Program Formats for Cooperation

• 1.1 Cooperation research project
• 1.2 Short-term exchange student internship
• 1.3 Research workshop
• 1.4 Graduate or undergraduate summer/winter school program
• 1.5 Other formats of common interest could be included if identified by the 3 partners during the period of this strategic cooperation (such as in-residence scholar exchange, etc..).

 

When applying a proposal, please select one of the above categories 1.1-1.5.
1.2 Short-term exchange student internship can be applied together with 1.1 Cooperation research project by the same joint group.

 

2. Priority Areas

• 2.1 For the program format 1.1 and 1.2, all academic fields covered jointly by NTU, UGA and UT are included in the present call, and interdisciplinary projects are encouraged.

 

• 2.2 Priority focus areas for the program format 1.3 and 1.4 will be either on:
  • Any topic within 1.1.
  • Semiconductor, data science and AI, green and energy material, sustainability and environmental science.

 

3. Eligibility

• 3.1 Each project should preferably be jointly proposed by all three universities. Bilateral applications involving two universities will also be considered.

 

• 3.2 Applications for continuation projects of those adopted in the year 2025 will be considered.

 

4. Funding Information

• 4.1 Cooperation research project will receive up to EUR €8,000/NTD$260,000/JPY¥1,300,000 from their own institution.

 

• 4.2 Research workshop project will receive up to EUR €7,000/NTD$220,000/JPY¥1,100,000 from their own institution.

 

• 4.3 Short-term exchange student internship project will receive up to EUR €5,000/NTD$160,000/JPY¥ 800,000/per student from their own institution.

 

• 4.4 Summer/winter school program project will receive up to EUR €15,000/NTD$500,000/JPY¥2,400,000 from their own institution.

 

• 4.5 The actual amount of funding available and number of projects funded each year will be reviewed and determined annually by mutual agreement between NTU, UGA and UT.

 

• 4.6 Funding period is for one year, starting April 1^st, 2026. Unless jointly approved by the director, there will be no extensions beyond this timeframe.

 

• 4.7 Funding covers international travel by university faculty members and students, hosting scholars from the other universities (daily stipends in principle), international events, meetings, personal expenses for students (no faculty salaries), supplies, and additional expenses that are necessary to move research forward.

 

• 4.8 Funding not spent by the end of the funding period must be returned so that unspent balances can be re-allocated.

 

• 4.9 All expenses must comply with the guidelines of the respective universities to which reimbursement is to be sought.

 

• 4.10 Co-funding of projects by the faculty/department/institute/center/college, or external bodies, is encouraged and welcomed.

 

• 4.11 As a general rule, travel expenses should be supported by the originating institution, i.e. travel expenses of NTU faculty should be applied from the part of the funding awarded by NTU, and the same applies for UGA and UT faculty.

 

5. Provisional Budget

 

Category	Quantity	Budget for NTU	Budget for UGA	Budget for UT
Cooperation research	1 project (max 10 projects)	NTD$260,000	8K€	¥1,300,000
Research workshop	1 workshop (up to 3 days)	NTD$220,000	7K€	¥1,100,000
Student internship	1 student (up to 8 students)	NTD$160,000	5K€	¥800,000
Summer/winter school program	1 program (up to 1 week)	NTD$500,000	15K€	¥2,400,000

 

6. Application Information

• 6.1 All project proposals should preferably be jointly submitted by all three partners — NTU, UGA, and UT: NTU faculty member(s), UGA faculty member(s), and UT faculty member(s). (Proposals involving only two partner universities will be considered on a secondary basis)

 

• 6.2 The PI at each university must be a full-time faculty member at that university.

 

• 6.3 Application form is available HERE.

 

The following two documents (PDF format) must be attached to the email as part of the application:

• Completed application form
• Short Bio Curriculum Vitae of all PIs of the joint group (at least two PIs from NTU, UGA and UT): 2 pages max for each PI

 

The application documents should be sent as an email attachment to the following address.

TGTcenter[at]ntu.edu.tw
(Replace [at] to @ when creating an email)

 

7. Selection and Result Notification

• 7.1 Proposal selection will be made by a joint selection committee consisting of NTU, UGA and UT representatives.

 

• 7.2 The joint selection committee reserves the final authority over the proposal selection taking into account university and faculty strategic priorities and the availability of funding.

 

• 7.3 Priority will be given to interdisciplinary proposals with real cooperation. The inclusion of young researchers (associate/assistant professor level) in joint proposals is highly recommended.

 

• 7.4 Priority in the second year will be given to projects involving participation from all three Universities.

 

• 7.5 Funding will be provided on a competitive basis, following the below selection criteria:

 

Overall proposal	Holistic view of the project and its utilization of international activities, including whether the activities are reasonable to support the expected outcome
Student participation	Opportunities provided for student involvement, preferably bilateral/trilateral and regularly
Project outlook/sustainability	Whether there is a plan to further collaborate based on the conclusion of the current project
Impact	Partnership projects with impact on the university community and the concerned institution(s), added value of this cooperative action for the strengthening of the collaboration and the partnership

 

8. Recipient Obligation

• 8.1 Recipients must mention the funding in all appropriate media, including any events arising from activities supported by this funding should include an acknowledgement of “NTU-UGA-UT joint initiatives in research and education” and any publications/presentations arising from activities supported by this funding should include acknowledgement of “This publication/presentation is supported in part by the joint initiatives in research and education from National Taiwan University/Université Grenoble Alpes/University of Tsukuba joint center.”

 

• 8.2 Recipients must submit a final report within three months of the end of the funding period, describing the results of the funding project (including actions taken, contacts made, challenges or difficulties met, and upcoming strategy and activities to materialize or strengthen the cooperation) and future projects.

 

9. Important Dates

• Call opens: November 10th 2025
• Application deadline: January 26th 2026, 23:59 (Taiwan; CST) / January 26th, 17:59 (France; CEST) / January 27th 0:59 (Japan; JST)
• Application result notification: End of March 2026
• Funding period starts: April 1st 2026
• End of the project: March 31st 2027

 

Directors of the NTU-UGA-UT Trilateral Center

 

• National Taiwan University
  Prof. Cheng-Liang Liu
  Department of Materials Science and Engineering
  Phone: +886-2-33664487
  Email: liucl[at]ntu.edu.tw

 

• Université Grenoble Alpes
  Prof. Redouane Borsali
  UGA-CNRS-CERMAV
  Phone: +33(0) 663 717 257
  Email: redouane.borsali[at]univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

 

• University of Tsukuba
  Prof. Shinji KURODA
  Institute of Pure and Applied Sciences
  Phone: +81-29-853-5365
  Email: kuroda[at]ims.tsukuba.ac.jp

 

（Replace [at] to @ when creating an email）