The nucleon-nucleon interaction underpins nuclear structure, reactions, and astrophysical nucleosynthesis, yet its fundamental origin remains uncertain. Low-energy nuclear physics traditionally treats nucleons as structureless particles interacting via phenomenological forces, raising questions as to its predictive reliability for exotic nuclei. The quark-meson coupling (QMC) model offers a relativistic mean-field framework that derives the nucleon-nucleon interaction microscopically, accounting for changes in quark structure within nuclear matter. From it, an energy density functional with only four free parameters can be constructed.

Skyrme-Hartree-Fock methods are widely used for nuclear structure studies, though conventional Skyrme functionals employ many parameters (10-16) fitted to extensive experimental data. Here, we develop a QMC-inspired Skyrme parameterisation, SQMC, whose four parameters are fit to basic nuclear matter properties. The reduced parameter set aims to improve reliability for exotic systems and clarify microscopic effects such as the isospin dependence of the spin-orbit term.

Hartree-Fock calculations for all even-even nuclei with known mass (N,Z≥8) show that SQMC reproduces ground-state energies, separation energies, charge radii, and deformations with accuracy comparable to modern phenomenological functionals. Applied to the fission benchmark nucleus Pu-240, SQMC yields realistic potential energy surfaces and shell effects.

Overall, SQMC provides a viable alternative to traditional Skyrme functionals, maintaining predictive power with fewer parameters and reduced dependence on experimental data.