Following top-level meetings at the Australian National University (ANU) in late 2006, CUHK and ANU scholars developed a proposal for a Research Centre for Human Values that would draw on the complementary strengths of the two institutions. An agreement to set up the RCHV was formalized in a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two Vice-Chancellors in a meeting at the CUHK on 23 May 2007. Building on this founding partnership, RCHV scholars will engage in particular projects with contributing partners in other leading research universities around the world. In 2009 the RCHV received a generous donation from the Philomathia Foundation that enabled it to begin its work.