Global Relations works with campus leadership and faculty to identify those agreements with the greatest potential to be leveraged into broader strategic partnerships. There are several strategic partnerships that have been active for years.

INSPIRE Alliance

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and three leading institutions of higher education in Sweden — KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University, and Karolinska Institutet — formed the Illinois-Sweden Program for Educational and Research Exchange (INSPIRE) educational alliance to foster greater education, research, and service.

Kyushu University

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Kyushu University renewed their academic exchange agreement and established a new strategic partnership in August 2019. The two universities already have a strong history of collaboration regarding energy and environmental research for reducing carbon dioxide emissions through the International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER).

National Taiwan University

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and National Taiwan University (NTU) have partnered to enhance the value of multidisciplinary research between both institutions. The jointly planned Global Issues Forum provided a forum for debate across a broad spectrum of knowledge fields that affect and are affected by urban lifestyles.

University of Birmingham

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Birmingham formed the BiRmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, EnGagement and Education (BRIDGE) in March 2014 to develop wider faculty networks, build cognate research areas, expand educational exchange opportunities, and strengthen strategic aspirations for institutional engagement.

Zhejiang University

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Zhejiang University established a joint institute in Haining, China, to conduct teaching and research in the thematic areas of engineering and system sciences; information and data sciences; and energy, environment, and infrastructure sciences. This strategic partnership originates out of the Grainger College of Engineering.