Igniting Collaboration: 2025 Joint Seed Fund Projects

Tackling Superbugs with Smart Science

Antibiotic resistance is a serious threat to public health around the world. Some germs, especially a group known as Gram-negative bacteria, have changed over time, and with overuse of antibiotics, they’re no longer responding to even our strongest drugs.

This research project is taking a bold step towards solving that problem. The team is working to create new types of antibiotic drugs that attack bacteria in two powerful ways: by changing the natural balance of the metals inside bacterial cells, which they need to survive, and by disrupting important enzymes that bacteria use to function.

Powering Tomorrow: A UK–South Africa Alliance for Green Hydrogen InnovationLink opens in a new window

Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the University of Warwick in the UK have partnered to address one of the world’s biggest challenges: finding cleaner, more sustainable energy sources.

Their collaboration is focused on green hydrogen, produced from renewable resources like solar and wind power. Green hydrogen has enormous potential to reduce carbon emissions, especially in industries where switching to electricity isn’t currently practical.

Co-Creating Inclusive Technology Enhanced Learning in the Health ProfessionsLink opens in a new window

This partnership between Warwick Medical School and Stellenbosch University is focused on improving how technology is used to support inclusive, ethical and globally relevant teaching in health education.

Building on a three-week Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) exchange between postgraduate students from both universities earlier this year, the project connects lecturers, students and learning designers to co-create learning and teaching tools that reflect real world diversity.

It fosters a space to share insights by working together to create teaching strategies that leverage diverse cultural, geographic, and disciplinary perspectives to address shared design challenges such as resource constraints, assessment loads, and the ethical integration of artificial intelligence (AI).

Building Better Research Together

The universities of Warwick, Monash, and Stellenbosch are joining forces to address a critical yet often neglected issue in academia: how to make international research partnerships more equitable, inclusive, and impactful. This collaboration is not simply about improving efficiency—it’s about transforming the research culture itself.

Together, Warwick, Monash, and Stellenbosch are launching the International Research Culture Consortium (IRCCo)—an ambitious initiative designed to identify and overcome systemic barriers that hinder effective global collaboration.

From fragmented career pathways to institutional policies that don’t always align across borders, these challenges can quietly limit the potential of even the most promising partnerships. IRCCo seeks to confront these issues head-on.

How Young People Navigate Everyday Insecurity Across the World

Dr Mosa Phadi from Stellenbosch University and Professor Ana Aliverti from the University of Warwick are leading a major international project that explores how young people living in disadvantaged urban areas keep themselves safe in their everyday lives. Their work focuses on communities where poverty, unequal access to services and heavy policing shape daily experiences, yet where young people still find creative ways to navigate danger, build support networks and maintain a sense of security.

Across countries such as Argentina, England, South Africa, El Salvador, Uruguay, Denmark and the Netherlands, young people in marginalised neighbourhoods face a complex reality. They often experience some of the highest levels of crime and victimisation, yet they also face frequent police surveillance and punishment. This means they live in a constant tension where the state can feel both protective and threatening at the same time. Despite this, these young people develop their own strategies to cope with insecurity. They rely on friends, neighbours, community leaders and sometimes even on people involved in criminal groups. These relationships can involve care, cooperation, avoidance or resistance depending on the circumstances.

Supporting Future Researchers Through the PhD LaunchPad Collaboration

Dorothy Stevens, Director of the Postgraduate Office at Stellenbosch University, and Daniel Franklin, Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Transferable Skills at the University of Warwick, are leading a joint initiative that aims to transform the early stages of the PhD journey. From the Stellenbosch side, the initiative is led by Stevens, with Cristan Macleod playing a central role in driving the project’s development and implementation. The project, called the PhD LaunchPad, responds to a growing need for better support for prospective doctoral applicants before they even apply for admission.

Across both universities, academic and administrative teams have noticed a common challenge. Many applicants have strong research interests and the motivation to pursue a PhD, but they often struggle with the early steps of developing a high-quality research proposal. Without clear guidance on how to frame a research question, identify gaps in existing knowledge or plan an ethical and feasible project, capable candidates may feel discouraged. Others submit proposals that show potential but fall short of competitive selection standards. At the same time, supervisors often spend considerable time helping applicants with basic proposal structure instead of focusing on deeper conceptual and methodological development.

Sustainable Polymer Innovation for Safer Cancer Treatment

Prof Rueben Pfukwa from Stellenbosch University and Professor Seb Perrier from the University of Warwick are working together on a new approach to one of the biggest challenges in cancer treatment. Many widely used cancer drugs contain platinum, a metal that helps kill cancer cells by damaging their DNA. These medicines have been life saving for many patients, but they also harm healthy cells and can cause serious side effects. Over time, cancers can even become resistant to them.

To address this, scientists around the world have been exploring ways to package platinum drugs inside tiny particles made from specialised polymers. These nanoparticles protect the drug as it travels through the body and help it accumulate where it is needed most, which is usually inside a tumour. This can improve how well the drug works and reduce harmful effects on healthy tissue.

However, many of the current methods for making these polymer carriers are complicated, time consuming and rely on harsh chemicals. This makes them difficult to scale up and limits their environmental sustainability. The joint project between Prof Pfukwa and Professor Perrier aims to overcome these barriers by creating new polymer platforms that are easier to make, more sustainable and adaptable enough to support personalised cancer treatment in the future.