Annemarie van Zeijl - Rozema (A.E.)

Annemarie's main challenge is to connect science to practice and find ways for how to “do” sustainable development. Education for sustainable development, transdisciplinary approaches and co-creation play an important role in pursuing sustainable development. A leading question is “How can science help to deal with sustainability problems that are inherently unstructured problems with no clear solution?". 

Transition to a fossil-free society (2024-2025): This is phase 2 of a project with UM students and staff funded by SUM2030, UM's sustainability programme. This collaborative project between MSI (SBE), MERLN (FHML) and MaCSBIO (FSE) aims to assess education-related greenhouse gas emissions. We do this with the help of students who design measuring experiments, conduct these, and evaluate them. This project combines fact finding about UM's emissions with education and raising awareness.

PhD project: A framework to situate co-creation – the development of sustainability competences in learners and educators of higher education institutes (2023-2029): This research project has its  focus on the implementation of co-creation in Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) through a transformative, transdisciplinary and learner-led lens. Maastricht University has known a learner-centered approach since its inception and states that by 2030 it will be a driver of sustainable development and a completely sustainable campus. This research uses Maastricht University as a baseline to build on, developing first a clear conceptual framework of co-creation in HESD, identifying the good practices and motivations within the field of higher education and sustainability. Second, it will progress towards the assessment of co-creation’s effect on sustainability competencies and the co-production of a co-creation toolkit, targeted to those wishing to engage further with transformative approaches to ESD. 

ACE Retrofitting (2016-2020): The project targeted private house owners, one of the most elusive groups of citizens for retrofitting. The international ACE Retrofitting project focused on retrofitting of condominium buildings to help combating climate change in North West Europe (NWE).

Maastricht University  provided scientific input to the project in the fields of co-creation processes for sustainable development, innovative financing options for retrofitting and the value of green buildings, and psychological insights in behavioural change.

ENLEB (EnergieNeutraal en LEvensloop bestendig Bouwen) (2016-2020):  this is a project in which Flemish and Dutch partners worked together to encourage citizens to make their homes energy neutral and adaptable to meeting changing needs through all life phases. The aim of the project was the development of an integrated concept for making residential private homes more sustainable on the basis of co-creation, with the focus on self-sufficiency, so that homes remain energy-neutral even if the residents’ energy profile changes.

PhD project: Decision-making in climate change adaptation in Central America (2016-2024): Central America has begun to implement climate proofing for public infrastructure, at national and
local level. Nonetheless, the region isn't working to incorporate the climate proofing into  spatial planning, and even if this is done, the spatial planning is weak or absent in most of the region. At the same time, the Central American countries are among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and also, have a large history of impacts due to extreme weather conditions. This project aimed to understand and investigate various climate proofing strategies and to come up with recommendations for improvement.

Samen Duurzaam (2015-2016): creating self-organising capacity via co-creation in 2 neighbourhoods in Limburg for making the neighbourhoods more sustainable

PhD Project: Organisational Transformation and Systemic Change: Modelling pathways towards embedding sustainability at the university (2013-2021): Much research has been undertaken into the ‘what’ of corporate responsibility, sustainability reporting and accounting, and organisational transformation, yet relatively little has been performed on the ‘how’, and fewer still for an operationalised integration of sustainability into the ‘core business’ of higher education institutions (HEI’s). Progress towards embedding sustainability across departments, facilities, into operations and for communications at HEI’s has been slower than expected; furthermore there is a definite lack and clear orientation on exactly what a sustainable university should be. This research investigated these specific problems and engaged the "how" of embedding sustainability into the whole portfolio of activities at HEI’s

INSPIRATOR (2011-2014): This NWO funded research project examined experiences with knowledge co-production and the use of coproduced knowledge by decision-makers. A typology of knowledge co-production in the science-policy interface was developed, based on existing classifications, as well as normative criteria to assess the effectiveness of co-production.

Governance for Sustainable Development: The Case of Limburg, The Netherlands (2007-2011): The project aimed at investigating how sustainable development can be attained at the regional level. The Province of Limburg served as a case study. Stakeholders played an important role throughout the project. They were consulted on improving the workability of the concept of sustainable development, on the identification of driving forces, on the possible ways of implementing sustainable development and on their wishes for monitoring and evaluation. The project was financially supported by the Province of Limburg.

INSURE (2004-2007): The INSURE project was an EU-funded project aimed at devising a flexible framework for indicators for sustainability in regions using system dynamics modelling.