“We need to bundle the policy expertise we have on Europe”: What’s behind UM’s Europe Strategy

While UM already has established Europe-related initiatives the university, the Europe Strategy is the next step to bringing that expertise together more strategically and positioning it more clearly, Christine Neuhold explains:

“There is already a lot happening in education, in research and in networking, but we felt this is a very important moment to bundle the policy expertise we have on Europe and really build what we call a ‘policy powerhouse’. We need to bring together expertise across faculties and across stakeholders within the university that work on Europe, such as research centres, Studio Europa Maastricht, and our Brussels Hub. It also comes at a moment when Europe itself is trying to position itself in the world, trying to be more independent, and to show that it has policy expertise in specific sectors. So, for UM this step to go further in the field of policy comes at a time of major global and European transformations.”

For Jan Smits, the timing is also linked to the urgency of the issues Europe is currently facing and the university’s responsibility to contribute to those debates:

“Given the mission we have as a university, there is a real need to contribute to these substantive challenges. You can think of migration, the whole digital field, the rule of law, and security issues. These are very salient topics, and there is a need for more knowledge and more expertise to be put into the debate. We do have a lot of expertise as a university, across all faculties, and society can very much profit from that. We have always tried to do this, and often succeeded, but I think there is a clear need to do it even better. That calls for a new policy powerhouse ambition: to bring the knowledge we have to policymakers in a better way than we have done in the past.”

According to Smits, UM is in a particularly strong position to do this because of the depth and breadth of its expertise on Europe:

“When you look at the expertise we have within this university on Europe, I would say that is really unprecedented, even at the European scale if you compare us to other universities. That is something many other universities or think tanks miss. It would be a missed opportunity not to do this. That is why this whole policy powerhouse ambition is so important, and why the Europe Chair will help us in getting that message across.”

Neuhold points out that UM’s distinctiveness lies not only in research, but also in its long-standing educational mission and European networks:

“For many decades now, we have been educating the Europeans of the future. That is part of this policy ambition as well. We have very strong expertise in European law, European policymaking, decision-making and different policy areas. We also have alumni working within the European arena who are shaping policy, so we can draw on that network as well. We have a strong ‘educational backbone’, and we also play a specific role in European networks that other universities may not have. We are part of YERUN (Young European Universities Network), we are part of YUFE (Young Universities for the Future of Europe alliance), to just name two examples. We also have our own hub in Brussels that focuses on public affairs and outreach and brings staff, students and stakeholders together. So, there is already a lot of expertise surrounding this ambition. The goal now is to mobilise it better.”

That also means creating stronger connections across faculties and encouraging forms of collaboration that go beyond traditional academic silos, she argues:

“The expertise is spread out across faculties and centres, so the idea is to enable researchers to join forces: think about migration, about new technologies, about digital transformations. What impact do the digital transformations have, for example, on the psychology of our children? There are so many synergies we can use and develop further across the university. This is also linked to moving away from the ivory tower perspective. I do not think this is something extra that academics have to do on top of everything else. It also comes quite naturally, because people now see very clearly the need not only to communicate more, but also to work more with other actors.”

Smits points out that European orientation is reflected in the university’s everyday practice which makes UM well-positioned to take on this mission: “When I looked back at my agenda since becoming interim rector, I realised that many of the meetings I have had were, in effect, about Europe. I was at the Brussels Hub last Monday, where we had a very interesting conversation with officials of the European Commission. UM is a very special place. We need to build on the many things we are already doing and strengthen them further. Studio Europa Maastricht is also very important in that respect, as one of the ways through which we reach out to a wider audience.”

Although the ambition has strong roots in Law and FASoS, it is meant as a university-wide initiative. In that broader effort, Studio Europa Maastricht plays a key role, Neuhold says:

“I see Studio Europa Maastricht as the motor of the powerhouse, the engine driving the whole initiative forward. Studio Europa has a lot of expertise when it comes to doing exactly what the powerhouse needs to do: communicating. But it is not only about communication. Studio Europa also has profound expertise on European issues, and that combination is very important.”

At the same time, she stresses that the real ambition is to organise collaboration on Europe-related research more systematically across the university and across themes:

“It is very important to work systematically across faculties, and I think the future Europe Chair can play a crucial role in identifying the policy areas on which we join forces. We are already working on digitalisation and migration, but what about democracy? What about defence? And do we then look at defence in a very narrow sense, or also from a more social perspective/looking at societal implications? A word that comes up a lot in the Dutch debate now is ‘resilience’. If you look at resilience from different angles – democratic resilience, digital resilience, military resilience, psychological resilience – then that can also be a way of taking these policy discussions to another level.”

Those conversations, Neuhold adds, should involve faculties beyond the ones traditionally associated with Europe-related research:

“This cannot only be Law and FASoS. We also need experts from the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE), the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience (FPN), the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML) and School of Business and Economics (SBE) looking together at these issues. If we say we join forces on health, for example, then we also ask how FASoS and Law researchers can contribute to that debate. And with migration or digitalisation, I am sure other faculties can contribute so much . That was always part of the ambition in this powerhouse idea: to make it a truly cross-faculty and cross-initiative endeavour.”

UM’s Brussels presence is another part of what makes that ambition distinctive, she emphasizes:

“As mentioned, we have a hub in Brussels. Other universities do not have that. It is a unique place where people from the Commission can literally walk over from their office and walk back again. The hub can also play an important role here as a connecting platform.”

Alongside the open call for the position of the Europe Chair, the university will also introduce the Research Fellows on Europe. For Neuhold, that is an important way to involve a broader group of researchers and strengthen the initiative from within the faculties:

“It makes a lot of sense to involve actors beyond the ‘usual suspects’. That is why it should be an open call. This will also help make the initiative known across the faculties, and then you will see who is actually interested. I very much believe in open calls, because then suddenly people apply whom you had not thought of, and they may bring exactly the expertise you need. This will also add an individual touch to shaping these policies further, and you can indeed use the research agenda as a point of departure for giving further substance to the fellowship.”

Smits points to earlier experience with similar positions as an encouraging sign:

“It worked out well, and also the interaction between them worked well, in the sense that they tried to work together and learn from each other. That is also what makes this kind of initiative valuable: it is not only about individual expertise, but also about the way people can build something collectively.”

For Neuhold, that collective element matters just as much as the expertise itself:

“If you really want to make this a university-wide ambition, then you also have to create ownership across the university. This is one of the ways to do that.”

In the longer term, Smits hopes UM will be recognised not only for academic excellence, but also for the quality of its policy advice:

“Academics traditionally speak very mainly to other academics, making the debate essentially an academic one. That is also how careers are often built: through research, publications and teaching. That is something we are very much known for as a university. But it would be wonderful if, in ten years’ time, we also had that same reputation when it comes to policy advice that organisations and people know: if you need that type of policy advice, you need to go to Maastricht. It should not be instead of what we already do, but an addition to it.”

Neuhold connects that ambition to broader developments in academia itself, especially around recognition, rewards and societal impact:

“This comes at a very good time when we are talking about what matters in academia. The whole Recognition and Rewards debate is shifting away from looking only at research articles and evaluations, and also saying that you can choose an elective on societal impact. So all of this fits together like a nice puzzle, without having been engineered that way from the beginning. It connects to broader developments in how we think about academia, while also responding to what Europe needs now.”

That wider political context, she adds, makes the initiative especially timely. “I think it comes at a very good time, when we need Europe more than ever in this world”.

Click here for more information about the UM Europe Chair and the UM Research Fellows on Europe.