The LEAD project is a capacity building joint project focusing on the strengthening and improvement of governance and academic leadership of universities in the context of innovation, modernization and internationalization of higher education institutions in China. The project aims to enhance capacities of academic leaders of HEIs on university governance and leadership, develop and implement training for academic leaders on university governance and academic leadership, support and enhance internationalization of HEIs, strengthen EU-China cooperation on university governance & academic leadership and foster a better understanding of academic leadership approaches in the EU and China.The target groups of the project are HEI academic leadership, including Rectors/Vice Rectors, Presidents/ Vice Presidents, Deans/Vice Deans, Directors of Central Education and Research Policy offices, Heads of departments, and potential academic leaders. The project activities include Leadership and Governance workshops and training, job shadowing, Academic Leadership round tables, site visits, developing new formats of training modules, such as MOOC modules on HEI Governance and Academic Leadership, and dissemination conferences and events.The Consortium is a strong and unique European and Chinese partnership composed of four European universities, one European university association, and five Chinese HEIs. Regarding the specific roles, VUB (P1), UNICA (P2), TPA (P3), NAEA (P9) are responsible for Project Preparation (WP1); all partners are responsible for project development, with UNICA, UTA and VUB taking the lead (WP2); TJU, UNICA, UTA, VUB and an external expert will be responsible for the Quality plan (WP3); UNICA will take lead and all partners will be responsible for dissemination and exploitation (WP4); and the project coordinator VUB is responsible for Project management (WP5).