UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA

Their core work

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), the National University of Malaysia, is a broad research university with active groups spanning biomedical engineering and industrial safety science. In H2020, they participated exclusively through MSCA-RISE staff exchange schemes, meaning their role is to host visiting European researchers and send their own staff to partner institutions — making them a mobility hub rather than a grant-receiving partner. Their biomedical research group works on scaffold-based tissue engineering for bone and cartilage repair, integrating green chemistry into biomaterial design. A separate engineering group has worked on probabilistic safety and reliability assessment for large-scale maritime systems.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

UKM's first H2020 project (RESET, starting 2017) placed them firmly in industrial engineering — specifically the probabilistic assessment of safety and reliability in maritime infrastructure. Their second project (SHIFT, starting 2021) represents a significant disciplinary jump into biomedical science, with tissue engineering, wound healing, and regenerative medicine as the core themes. Whether this reflects a strategic pivot toward life sciences or simply two different research departments engaging independently with MSCA-RISE calls is unclear from the data alone, but the recent trajectory points toward health-related biotechnology.

UKM appears to be moving toward biomedical engineering and regenerative medicine as their primary international collaboration focus, with SHIFT running until 2026 and no visible continuation of the maritime safety line.

How they like to work

UKM has never coordinated an H2020 project — both participations are as a third-party organization within MSCA-RISE, the staff exchange mechanism that allows non-EU institutions to join without receiving direct EU funding. This means they function as a research host and mobility partner, rather than a project driver. With 15 distinct consortium partners across 11 countries from just two projects, they clearly engage in wide, multi-partner networks rather than tight bilateral relationships.

UKM has built connections with 15 consortium partners across 11 countries, a notably broad reach for just two projects — a direct consequence of MSCA-RISE's large, multi-institution consortium structure. Their network spans European and likely other Asian or international partners given the global nature of MSCA-RISE exchanges.

What sets them apart

UKM is one of very few Southeast Asian research universities with documented participation in H2020, making them a rare and valuable gateway for European consortia seeking to include Asian academic partners in MSCA-RISE exchanges. For tissue engineering or safety engineering groups looking for a credible non-EU mobility partner with both biomedical and industrial research capacity, UKM's dual profile across these domains is unusual. Their national university status in Malaysia also brings access to well-established national research infrastructure and postgraduate researcher pools.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SHIFT
  A running project (2021–2026) combining tissue engineering, green chemistry, and product design in a single scaffold — an unusual interdisciplinary combination that bridges materials science and clinical translation.
• RESET
  Applied risk-based decision-making to large maritime engineering systems — a technically demanding domain rarely associated with Southeast Asian university participation in EU research.