The call is divided into two tracks:

Educational Initiatives (Teaching and Learning): Development of short courses, workshops, or training programs targeting graduate students or early-career researchers. Typically, the maximum amount of funding available will be USD 15,000 (or 12,000) from each university.
Joint Research Projects: Collaborative research projects between researchers from the three universities. Typically, the maximum amount of funding available will be USD 15,000 (or 12,000) from each university for implementation grants, and USD 8,000 for initiation grants.

Eligibility

Proposals must involve participants from all three institutions: Kyushu University, National Taiwan University, and UIUC. Each proposal must have one lead applicant from each of the three institutions, all serving as Co-PIs.

Funding

Applicants are encouraged to apply for reciprocal visit funding to widen networks and strengthen engagement. Applications that demonstrate the potential for relationships to become sustainable beyond the proposed project and initial seed funding term are strongly encouraged, whether through faculty and department commitment or the likelihood of externally leveraged grants and awards.

Funds may be used for activities fostering collaboration such as workshops, seminars, travel costs, or virtual collaboration tools. The funds may also support meetings in third-party locations where there is potential to develop and/or showcase collaboration.
The granted budget will be limited to supporting local expenses and travel costs for project members at the corresponding institution.
Funding cannot be used for overhead or administrative costs.
Seed funding will be allocated locally, with each institution paying the travel and accommodation costs of their own staff traveling to the other two partner institutions, and the costs of projects occurring at their home institution.
Requests to support non-standard costs, such as research equipment or research assistant staffing, will require particularly clear justification.

Proposals should include the following:

Additional funding or resources that may supplement the project.
One applicant per university (from each partner university), including short CVs (maximum two pages).
Project Description (maximum three pages):
Project objectives and outcomes.
How the project aligns with the aims of the UNIQ Trilateral Alliance.
Planned activities, timeline, and budget breakdown.
Contributions from each partner university and expected outcomes of collaboration.

Proposals should include the following:

Executive Officer of the Unit / Head of College (Department) approval. Email confirmation of this support will suffice and should be saved in PDF format and attached to the application.
Identified Illinois, Kyushu, and NTU Principal Investigators.
Purpose and timescale of visit/program activity.
Anticipated total cost and itemized budget for the proposed activities.
Academic rationale for support, such as strategic importance or added academic value of the collaboration for your home department/university or anticipated shared outcomes and benefits for the collaboration.
Anticipated means of sustaining the collaboration. What funding is available from other sources, and what potential is there for future external investment?

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Alignment with the goals of the Trilateral Alliance.
Potential to establish new collaborations or deepen existing ones.
Scientific quality and innovation.
Involvement of early-career researchers or graduate students.
Cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaboration.

Projects can commence after the grant agreement is signed, and all activities must be completed by Wednesday, July 30, 2026.

A final report must be submitted within two months of the project’s conclusion, using the provided reporting template.