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UCL and Stockholm Trio award seed funding to four new collaborative research projects

31 July 2025

Four research teams have been awarded seed funding through a joint call between UCL and the University Alliance Stockholm Trio, strengthening cross-border collaboration in City Living in the Climate Crisis, Planetary Health & Food Security, and Young People & Mental Health.

Participants at the UCL–Stockholm Trio research workshop, April 2025

The Stockholm Trio is the university alliance of Karolinska Institutet, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and Stockholm University. The awards demonstrated UCL’s growing partnership with the institutions. 

The call focused on three shared priority areas, which were also explored in depth at a two-day research workshop hosted at UCL in April 2025. The event brought together more than 40 researchers from the four universities to spark new ideas and initiate interdisciplinary collaborations. 

The April workshop marked the first major activity under a new Letter of Intent signed earlier this year between UCL and the Stockholm Trio, which aims to deepen collaboration in research and innovation. Bringing together expertise from the humanities, social sciences, medicine and engineering, the workshop offered a unique opportunity to connect researchers tackling global challenges through different disciplinary lenses. 

Professor Lisa Vanhala, UCL Pro-Vice-Provost for the Grand Challenge of the Climate Crisis, described the workshop as “a space for deep interdisciplinary thinking” – an essential ingredient for addressing urgent global issues like the climate crisis. 

The four selected projects – each involving researchers from UCL and at least one of the Stockholm Trio universities – are: 

  • Exploring the Value Chain of Food Waste Reuse 

UCL academic lead: Theano Moussouri (Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences) 

  • Data-Driven Simulations of Synaptic Plasticity Underlying Associative Learning 

UCL academic lead: Matthew Gold (Faculty of Life Sciences) 

  • A Community of Practice on Youth Suicide and Self-Harm Research 

UCL academic lead: UCL lead: Jennifer Dykxhoorn (Faculty of Brain Sciences) 

  • SMILE City: A Pre-study 

UCL academic lead: Tin Oberman (Faculty of the Built Environment) 

These pilot projects will serve as a foundation for developing long-term collaborations, with many teams aiming to pursue joint applications for larger research grants. The seed funding call received around 20 applications and forms part of a broader initiative to foster cross-border research that addresses complex societal challenges facing both London and Stockholm. 

Featured image: 

Participants at the UCL–Stockholm Trio research workshop, April 2025 

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