PSL Global Seed Fund : A kickstarter for your international collaborations
From Islamic heritage to cancer immunity and metal alloys, the PSL Global Seed Fund has funded 127 projects since its launch in 2023, involving all Université PSL institutions as well as 100 international partners. Here, discover three projets who have received funding.
To foster international collaborations, Université PSL launched the Global Seed Fund in 2023. Open to all disciplines, this initiative aims to support researchers and faculty members in the early stages of their projects: from establishing new partnerships, to exploring research avenues, or preparing applications for more substantial funding.
Since 2023, 127 projects have been funded by the Global Seed Fund, involving more than 100 international partners. Each winning project receives up to 12,000 euros to cover one year of expenses, which are often supplemented by co-funding mechanisms offered in partnership with the French Embassy in the United States, Rice University, and University College London, among other institutional partners.
This initiative enables the university to better respond and adapt to the current needs of researchers. When the call for proposals was launched in the spring of 2025, the funding level was doubled to cover, on an exceptional basis, the hosting of researchers affected by the current research landscape in the United States.
The call for applications is launched twice a year, in October and April, and is open to faculty members, researchers, and similar staff at PSL.
Discover three projects financed by the PSL Global Seed Fund here.
Immunity and Cancer Immunotherapies: Scientific Collaboration Between France and South America
Led by Ana-Maria Lennon-Duménil of the Institut Curie, this project was awarded a grant from the Global Seed Fund in 2023. The funding helped her strengthen collaboration with the Fundación Ciencia & Vida, the National University of Córdoba, and CIBICI-CCT-CONICET.
Ana-Maria Lennon-Duménil, Researcher, Institut Curie, Departement of Immunity & Cancer, Université PSL
"The [Global Seed Fund] enabled us to build on our previous scientific collaborations with teams in South America and to establish a bilateral program based on both scientific synergies and capacity building, through the joint organization of the 7th Advanced Course on Immunity and Cancer Immunotherapy, as well as an exchange program for young researchers, enabling them to visit partner laboratories to learn new methodologies, consolidate their projects, and build a network of collaborators between the two continents."
Stone Flow!: Innovating in Sustainable Stone Construction
Led by Roberta Zarcone of ENSA Paris-Malaquais - PSL, this project explored self-locking stereotomic systems inspired by the Islamic architecture of medieval Cairo. In collaboration with the French University of Egypt (UFE), the American University in Cairo (AUC), and Megawra - Center for Architecture and Urbanism (Cairo), the goal was to reinvent the structural and ecological use of massive stone in the digital age, by combining historical know-how, mechanical modeling, and parametric design. Together, the collaborating teams built Stone Flow, a double-curved tunnel composed of unique stone blocks that interlock and support one another.
Roberta Zarcone, Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Geometry, Structure, and Architecture (GSA) Laboratory at ENSA Paris Malaquais - PSL
"Funding from the Global Seed Fund was a crucial first step in coordinating, within an international framework, research and teaching focused on stone as an object of study, experimentation, and knowledge transmission. This initial experience led to the development of a broader project dedicated to the stone heritage of Islamic Cairo, centered on the study, digitization, and reinterpretation of cut-stone construction techniques. As a direct continuation of the Global Seed Fund, a funding application is currently being submitted as part of an international higher education mobility project supported by the European Union’s external policy funds (Action 171). This new phase aims to consolidate the international collaboration already underway and to firmly establish this work at the intersection of research and education."
Critical Materials for Extreme Environments
Led by Fan Sun, a researcher in metallurgy and biomaterials at Chimie ParisTech - PSL, this project aimed to understand the fundamental mechanisms of phase transformation and deformation in new metal alloys. The Global Seed Fund facilitated the continuation of a collaboration initiated in 2018 between Fan Sun and teams from the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT in the United States. Finally, the funding received made it possible to secure an ANR AAPG2024 PRC APEX-STENT grant, amounting to 572,000 euros over four years, which continues to support this currently active collaboration.
Fan Sun, researcher in metallurgy and biomaterials at Chimie ParisTech - PSL
"[The Global Seed Fund] was a truly pivotal milestone for my project. The GSF’s support enabled me to spend time at MIT as a visiting scholar and to work closely with the local team on research topics of mutual interest. Thanks to this momentum initiated by the GSF, I was then able, in 2024, to set up an ANR project with the MIT team, as well as with their lab-based startup, as external collaborators and subcontractors. This project, funded in 2025 for a four-year term, focuses on artificial intelligence applied to human cardiovascular samples and medical implants, combining my expertise in biomaterials and cardiovascular implants with their cutting-edge expertise in artificial intelligence. Today, this collaboration is fully active and highly structured."