BMCC – 134: From left: Professor Graeme Wilkinson (Vice-Chancellor, Sunway University) receiving the “UK-Malaysia Partnership of the Year” Award together with the partners from AstraZeneca.
Kuala Lumpur, 3 June - Sunway University won two prestigious awards at the British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (BMCC) Business Excellence Awards 2022, in the categories “UK-Malaysia Partnership of the Year” and “UK-Malaysia Education Institutional Partnership” at BMCC’s largest and most prestigious event of the year.
These wins have reiterated the importance of forging partnerships between institutes of higher learning like Sunway University with United Kingdom (UK) and Malaysian counterparts. The joint-venture collaboration and synergies created through this partnership have driven exceptional commercial results and shown significant value-creation to Malaysia's economy and education sector, capitalising on the best of UK and Malaysian expertise through a seamless partnership.
Sunway University launched its three-research plan recently, and a key feature of the project is to develop an agile and robust Sunway Research Development Innovation Commercialisation and Innovation (RDICE) ecosystem aligned to the 10-10MySTIE framework (National Science and Technology Plan) under the 12th Malaysia Plan.
AstraZeneca and Sunway University were named “UK-Malaysia Partnership of the Year” in recognition of driving digital innovation in healthcare. The Sunway-Astra Zeneca partnership is a key initiative under the Sunway RDICE ecosystem plan to enhance the return on value (ROV) of the research engagement activities to the research community, industry and the Rakyat in Malaysia and the ASEAN region.
Professor Sibrandes Poppema, President of Sunway University, said, “Sunway University is actively promoting connections with the industry, and the Sunway-AstraZeneca collaboration is a great example of this. Together we work on projects in lung cancer, chronic kidney disease and hepatocellular carcinoma.”
“We are really excited about this partnership, which we envisage will strengthen Research and development activities and nurture the next generation of creative talents in the field for Malaysia and other regional economies,” said Professor Mahendhiran Nair, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Engagement and Impact) at Sunway University.
Celebrating its 15th anniversary, the Sunway-Lancaster partnership is one of the most successful transnational higher education partnerships in the world. As a leading not-for-profit private university committed to the pursuit of educational excellence, Sunway University has established high quality in its teaching, with world-class research and strong business links.
“We are delighted that this partnership has been recognised in the prestigious BMCC Business Excellence Awards. Lancaster University is extremely proud of its long-standing relationship with Sunway University, a partnership which celebrates its fifteenth anniversary,” said Professor Andy Schofield, Vice-Chancellor of Lancaster University.
Emphasising the importance of partnership, Professor Graeme Wilkinson, Vice-Chancellor of Sunway University, shared, “I am delighted that Sunway University’s partnerships with one of the UK’s top universities and one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies have been recognised through these awards. This is a testament to the high regard for our institution and is a reward for our academics’ hard work in engaging globally with academia and the industry, bringing significant tangible benefits to the nation in terms of opportunities for students and advances in biomedical research.”
Owned and governed by the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation, the university is already on track to achieve its objective of being one of the world’s very best universities.
