UMD and University of Melbourne Establish Research Partnership

UMD and University of Melbourne Establish Research Partnership

The University of Maryland (UMD) and the University of Melbourne (UoM), Australia, have established an international partnership designed to promote research collaboration and enhance communications between the institutions, as well as exchange knowledge and implement best practices in research administration.

This newly established research partnership builds upon the existing student exchange program between UoM and UMD.

In addition to sharing expertise, UMD and UoM will engage in collaborative activities, including:

• Coordinating efforts to submit and win collaborative proposals between UoM and UMD researchers;
• Hosting research development staff and faculty reciprocally at each other’s campus;
• Developing training materials and programs in areas of specialist advice on all aspects of international grants management;
• Building collaborations around strategic research areas, including: quantum computing, biomedical and bioengineering research; fire protection engineering; cochlear implants; and alternative energy, among other areas.

As part of the partnership arrangement, Andrea Moshier, a U.S.-based research partnership manager for UoM, will spend several days each month in College Park, Md., working closely with UMD’s Division of Research team to identify opportunities for research collaboration and build stronger relationships between UMD and UoM faculty researchers and research administration staff. With over 13 years of university research administration experience, Moshier will serve as a key catalyst for the partnership, coordinating with UMD staff to advance joint proposals and research initiatives.

The research partnership was initiated through the UMD Division of Research Borderless Research Administration Knowledge Exchange (BRAKE) program. The BRAKE program is designed to boost international research collaborations by reducing administrative obstacles for researchers and encouraging joint proposal endeavors and researcher exchange programs. The UMD BRAKE team visits international host universities, sharing their expertise through presentations on best practices in research and the management and the oversight of U.S. federal funding. To date, UMD has engaged in onsite training with global research partners in locations across the world on six continents. The UMD BRAKE team visited Melbourne in August 2017, which helped pave the way forward for the collaboration. Through the partnership, UoM and UMD will continue to share best practices in research, gain a better reciprocal understanding of international research funding opportunities and mechanisms, and exchange knowledge.

The University of Melbourne and the University of Maryland are both members of Universitas 21 (U21). U21 is the leading global network of research-intensive universities, working together to foster global citizenship and institutional innovation through research inspired teaching and learning, student mobility, connecting our students and staff, and wider advocacy for internationalization.

About the University of Melbourne

in 1853, the University of Melbourne is a public-spirited institution that makes distinctive contributions to society in research, learning and teaching and engagement. It’s consistently ranked among the leading universities in the world, with international rankings of world universities placing it as number 1 in Australia and number 32 in the world. A pioneering research university, the University of Melbourne is a leading Australian research university, with research expenditure second only to that of the CSIRO, and the largest cohort of research students in Australia. The University of Melbourne's achievements range from the Bionic Ear in the 1970s, bringing hearing to profoundly deaf children and adults, to today's advances in the Bionic Eye, which will provide unprecedented high-resolution images to thousands with severely impaired vision. They include an HIV vaccine research that attracted $4 million in funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and a vaccine set to eradicate a fatal brain parasite, attracting $15.7 million in funding from the British Government and the Gates Foundation, as well as the NeCTAR Research Cloud at the University of Melbourne, bringing the power of cloud computing to researchers at Melbourne. The University itself has been host to many of Australia's, and some of the world's most distinguished medical researchers, including recipients of the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

About the University of Maryland

The University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 38,000 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and 250 academic programs. Its faculty includes two Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, 60 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The institution, founded in 1856, has a $1.9 billion operating budget, secures $560 million annually in external research funding and recently completed a $1 billion dollar fundraising campaign. External support for research has increased by more than 20% over the last five years.

November 15, 2018