Recently, the Sino-Swiss Institute of Advanced Technology at Shanghai University officially announced its participation as an international partner in the INT2ACT project, which is funded by the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) program under the European Union. Professor Zhang Lei from our institute serves as the Chinese coordinator for this collaborative effort. With a total funding amount of €4.6 million, the project focuses on advancing nucleic acid technologies for innovative applications in biomedical diagnostics and clinical therapies.

Selected from a highly competitive pool of 1,872 applications, INT2ACT stands out as one of only 149 projects awarded funding. It brings together 25 top universities, research institutions, and high-tech enterprises across nine European countries, including Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and Germany, forming a highly collaborative and multidisciplinary international research network. Notably, our institute is the only non-European partner in the consortium—highlighting the growing global influence of Chinese research institutions in cutting-edge scientific fields and signaling the increasing international recognition of our research capabilities.

INT2ACT will focus on training 15 outstanding PhD students, fostering the next generation of researchers with global perspectives and interdisciplinary expertise. Two of these doctoral students will be jointly trained by our institute and the University of the Basque Country in Spain. One will focus on the identification of novel cancer biomarkers in liquid biopsy, aiming to improve early detection with higher sensitivity and specificity. The other will explore innovative enzyme-free nucleic acid chip technologies, targeting high-throughput, low-cost molecular diagnostics.

This model of “Sino-European joint training” represents a significant step forward in enhancing collaborative innovation in nucleic acid-based diagnostics and related frontier fields. It will not only provide young researchers with a unique platform for academic and cultural exchange, but also deepen scientific cooperation between China and Europe. For our institute, this initiative will serve as a catalyst for advancing international talent development, resource sharing, and the transformation of research outcomes—strengthening Shanghai University's overall competitiveness in global higher education and research.