London · Established 2025
The UK Asia Grant Foundation is an educational foundation in London. It brings people from Britain and from across Asia together to study and to share what they know.
The foundation
The foundation was established in 2025 by members of the East Asian diaspora in Britain, working in business, law, science and the universities.
Britain and the countries of Asia are working on many of the same questions at the same time: how technology can serve the public good, how to care for the natural environment as economies grow, and how people can stay well as they live longer. Each side has experience the other can use. The foundation exists so that more of it is shared, in person and in print.
It is a young foundation with a full calendar ahead. The Korea Symposium returns to London this October and the Asia Summit in June 2027. A second summer school at Cambridge is in preparation, and so is a new conference in Macau, AI Beyond English, on artificial intelligence in the world’s many languages.
The work
The Asia Summit and the Korea Symposium bring institutions from Britain and the countries of Asia into the same room each year.
A two-week summer school at Churchill College, Cambridge, welcomes visiting students from Asia. A public lecture series, free to attend, is in preparation.
The 2026 summer school →Research and conference proceedings will be published under a Creative Commons licence, free for anyone to read and reuse.
Three priorities
These three subjects run through every programme. Britain and the countries of Asia are working on each of them now.
Artificial intelligence, language and digital infrastructure, and how new technology can serve people in every language and every place.
Energy, land and water, and the choices now being made in Britain and across Asia that will hold for decades.
The life sciences, care and demography. Japan is further into an ageing society than any other large country, and Korea, China and Singapore are ageing quickly. Britain and these countries can learn from each other’s experience of care.
What the foundation hopes for
The foundation hopes that people who meet through its programmes go on working together.
A student from Macau who spends two weeks in Cambridge goes home knowing people here, and their teachers know more about Macau. Researchers from Nairobi and Seoul who meet at a conference can compare their work and carry on the conversation afterwards.
The plan is to hold more of these meetings each year and to publish what comes out of them for anyone to use.
New conference · Macau · In preparation
A two-day international conference on how artificial intelligence can be developed to include languages other than English, so that it reflects the many ways of thinking, cultural practices and histories found around the world.
Organised with the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the Macau University of Science and Technology.
About the conference →Open circles mark what is still ahead.
Programmes
Each programme brings people from Britain and Asia together around a subject they share. Two are yearly events in London, one is a fortnight of teaching in Cambridge, and one is a new conference in Macau.
An annual conference held during London Tech Week and hosted by Irwin Mitchell. The 2026 edition, on artificial intelligence and economic growth, welcomed delegations from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, with representatives from Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam and China, and from the UK Department for Business and Trade.
A day that brings together the UK institutions working with Korea across research, the creative industries and finance. The first edition, in September 2025, included the Korea Development Bank, Hana Bank, HSBC Innovation Banking, Innovate UK, the British Korean Society and the Royal College of Art. The second takes place at the Saatchi Gallery, alongside a free public programme of talks and curator-led tours on Asian contemporary art.
A two-week programme for students from the Macau University of Science and Technology, based at Churchill College, with teaching sessions across Cambridge and London on innovation systems, science parks, venture finance, the creative industries and research careers. Fifteen students attended in 2026, and a second edition is in preparation for 2027.
About the 2026 summer school →An international conference on how artificial intelligence can be developed to include languages other than English. Day one is an academic conference and day two looks at AI in industry. Organised with the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the Macau University of Science and Technology.
About the conference →Taking part
Universities, schools, cultural institutions and researchers who would like to join a programme, host one or contribute to one are welcome to write to the foundation.
info@ukag.org
Programmes · Cambridge and London · 16–29 August 2026
In August 2026, fifteen students from the Macau University of Science and Technology spent two weeks at Churchill College, Cambridge, on the Academic Exchange and Enrichment Summer Programme. They studied in Cambridge, spent four days in London, and worked in teams on one question: what will people need in 2041, and what would you build to meet it?
The programme
Cambridge supplied the research, the colleges and the science park. London supplied the capital, the law and the markets.
The teaching opened with artificial intelligence, first how to work with it and then how to judge whether it is any good. It moved through finance, law and the life sciences, and closed on intellectual property, entrepreneurship and pitching. About half the fortnight was spent inside working institutions, meeting the people who run them.
Every session fed one project. In teams of five, the students designed an AI-driven answer to a challenge people will face in 2041, from elder care to data authenticity, and presented it to a panel on Friday 28 August. Every participant received a certificate that afternoon, and the fortnight closed with Formal Hall at Churchill College.
Speakers and hosts
Colin Tan FRSA, Chair of Trustees, designed the programme and led the sessions on venture capital and pitching.
Nineteen institutions and landmarks across the two cities.
Churchill College · Cambridge Science Park · King’s College and Chapel · Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence · Cambridge University Library · The Fitzwilliam Museum · The Backs, by punt · Cambridge Judge Business School
Irwin Mitchell · Lincoln’s Inn and the Royal Courts of Justice · Christie’s · Coutts · JCA | London Fashion Academy · Saatchi Gallery · The British Museum · Natural History Museum · Imperial College London · Victoria and Albert Museum · Science Museum
Next summer
A second edition is in preparation for summer 2027.
Universities that would like to send students, and institutions that would like to host a session or a visit, are welcome to write to the foundation.
info@ukag.org
All programmes →About
The UK Asia Grant Foundation was established in 2025 by members of the East Asian diaspora in Britain, working in business, law, science and the universities.
Purposes
The foundation exists to advance education for the public benefit.
Its purposes are the advancement of education, for the public benefit, through education, research and the provision of information in innovation, artificial intelligence, the life sciences, healthy ageing, the natural environment and relations between the United Kingdom and the countries of Asia; and the advancement of the arts and culture.
Colin Tan FRSA
Chair of Trustees
Trustees give their time unpaid. Further trustees are being appointed, and an advisory council of partners in Asia, Europe and Africa is being formed. Appointments will be published here as they are made.
Status and documents
The foundation is preparing its registration as a charity with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Its governing document and policies are available on request.
Contact
info@ukag.org
London, United Kingdom