Scientific and societal impact

Beyond these two frameworks, the question arises if an overarching faculty policy on achieving scientific and societal impact is useful. Conceptualizing both forms of impact, we understand scientific impact as contributing to the scientific body of knowledge and bringing the research field forward. This is closely linked with the discussion on high quality of research. Societal impact may be better framed as societal relevance, as it is much more difficult to influence whether society acts upon our research results, due to different dynamics between academia and society. We aim for carrying out research that is useful for society, whether now or in the future.

To this end, in a research meeting in October 2024 (Annex 17) the Faculty Board discussed with members of the Faculty what the main upcoming research topics for our Faculty should be and whether what we do in research fits the main academic and societal challenges. In this meeting, diverse topics were presented and their relevance for academia and society discussed. By extension, the strategic choice was made to spend the remaining incentive grant funds to finance PhD research that addresses topics related to “broad prosperity”. 
 

  b)  Activities so far and best practices

Faculty research output is diverse, targeting different audiences. This means that researchers do not seem to be constrained in their choices of what types of research output they aim for. Looking at the activities registered in PURE, this diversity is clearly visible below. Important to note is that the Faculty encourages researchers to use PURE as a registration system of all research output; although they are obliged to register publications, it does not require them to register “activities”. This means the entries here are not representative of all research activities by Faculty staff.

FdR activities, prizes, and press/media contributions (2022-2024)
Beyond the registrations of activities in Pure, Faculty staff achieve scientific impact through publications in peer-reviewed journals and books by reputable academic publishers, by entertaining deepened collaborations with other (UM) academic institutes and organisations, , being members of funded research projects, organising and participating in academic conferences, etc. 

FdR collaborations with UM faculties (2022-2024). Bars represent the UM faculties. The number in each bar reflects the number of research outputs that FdR has published in collaboration with the respective faculty.

An overview of the key publications (Annex 13) and achievements (Annex 14) of our research institutes and groups is available. Some best practices for scientific impact are:

• The organisation of international conferences, such as on Truth & Authority (Maastricht Institute for Criminal Sciences, Maastricht, October 2025), a multi-panel and multi-workshop interdisciplinary event which addressed the contemporary demystification of authority and truth in criminal law, criminology, and criminal procedure. It contributed to agenda-setting and scientific impact across disciplines; on AI and the Future of Tax Law (Maastricht Centre for Taxation, online, 17-18 December 2025) was attended by more than 100 participants and featured 15 speakers. They explored how artificial intelligence is transforming tax compliance, enforcement, and lawmaking. A special journal issue of “British Tax Review” is planned as an outcome of this conference.

• In 2022, Maarten Stremler (Maastricht Centre for Law & Jurisprudence) and Monica Claes (Maastricht Centre for European Law) were awarded a research grant from the Thorbecke Fund of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The grant supports a research project that examines how constitutional law increasingly regulates supranational authorities and private power.

• Lilian Tsourdi (Maastricht Centre for European Law) received the European Research Council Starting Grant for her project: Soft enforcement of EU migration law (SoftEn) (2025-2029). Anna Beckers (Maastricht European Private Law Institute) received the European Research Council Starting Grant for CHAINLAW (2023-2028). These grants exemplify the excellence and innovative character of the research projects.

• Anna Beckers et al (eds) (Maastricht European Private Law Institute) publication “The Foundations of European Transnational Private Law” was published with Hart Publishing in 2024. This publication suggests a novel conceptual foundation for the global reach of European and EU private law. The book is reviewed positively (in the Common Market Law Review) and its conceptual suggestion of European Transnational Private Law has been the topic of a dialogues section in the Maastricht Journal, Volume 32, Issue 4. 

• METRO researchers Michael Faure and Niels Philipsen were actively involved in a large FP7 project EFFACE (EU Action to Fight Environmental Crime). It resulted in several book and journal publications. This work has had a big influence on the Environmental Crime Directive adopted by the European Commission in 2024.

• In 2024, Marieke Hopman and Guleid Jama (Maastricht Centre for Human Rights) received funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for the CHILD-WAR project, a unique academic study investigating the rights and protection of children living in de facto (unrecognised) States during and after armed conflicts. As part of that project, three complex case studies in conflict-affected settings have been carried out.

Researchers aim for societal impact by connecting with EU and national policy makers, legislators, courts and non-state actors, carrying out commissioned research for them, organizing roundtable events and workshops with them or providing training to them. Importantly, through our doctrinal analysis of and critical engagement with (draft) legislation, court cases, the implementation of laws and policies, we help shape current and future laws. Societal impact is also generated by integrating research into teaching, releasing open tools, databases and infrastructures, featuring in different media and writing blog posts. This impact is clearly illustrated by mentions of research output in court decisions or drafting of policy documents but also by participating in public debates, having special chairs or through crowdfunding projects that are citizen-initiated. As an illustrative example, the external provider Overton traces policy mentions on the basis of Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Out of the total of 4,605 research outputs published between 2019 and 2024, 1,938 (42% of total) are tracked by Overton; from that, 237 outputs are mentioned 815 times in policy documents. Research output without a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is not traceable. This tables classifies research output by countries, organizations and topics.

Policy mentions by top 10 countries, organisation types, and topics of the policy documents (2019-2024)

An overview of the key publications (Annex 13) and achievements (Annex 14) of our research institutes and groups is available. A selection of diverse examples with strong societal relevance are: 

• The citizen-initiative conducted research (Maastricht Institute for Criminal Studies) was published open access in Claessen, J., Post, E. & Slump, G.J. (2023), Herijking en verrijking van het strafrechtelijke sanctiestelsel met het oog op het terugdringen van de korte vrijheidsstraf: Burgerinitiatiefwetsvoorstel, Boom Juridisch. It functioned as the basis for the legislative proposal Wet Slimmer Straffen which was submitted in Sept 2025 by D66, CDA and NSC to Dutch Parliament.

• Within the Maastrichts Onderzoekscentrum voor Samenleving en Recht, Eva van Vugt, together with John Morijn, carried out an evaluation of the Rijkswet van Taverne (Morijn, J. & van Vugt, E. (2024). Evaluatie van de Rijkswet van 21 april 2017, houdende wijziging van de Rijkswet goedkeuring en bekendmaking verdragen (Rgbv) in verband met het informeren van de Staten-Generaal over een ieder verbindende bepalingen van verdragen: Een onderzoek naar de doeltreffendheid en effecten van de Rijkswet van Taverne in opdracht van de minister van Buitenlandse Zaken, https://open.overheid.nl/documenten/11fd0726-c881-4643-9a0f-c7a5f23cdea4/file; Monica Claes, Šejla Imamović en Joost Sillen examined in how far judges in the Netherlands can carry out constitutional reviews in a meaningful way, or whether the Constitution needs to be amended for this purpose: Constitutionele toetsing en de toekomst van de beperkingssystematiek van de Nederlandse grondrechten | Rapport | Rijksoverheid.nl; Raymond Schlössels (MOSaR)  acted as chair of the supervisory committee for the review of the Wet administratiefrechtelijke handhaving verkeersvoorschriften (Evaluatie Wet administratiefrechtelijke handhaving verkeersvoorschriften | Rapport | Rijksoverheid.nl)

• Konrad Kollnig (Law & Tech Lab) developed the open-source Android app TrackerControl that enables both research and public awareness regarding data tracking and privacy practices. Through its large-scale adoption, it has strong societal impact and supports evidence-based policy discussions on data protection. These, and other Lab ouput, has resulted in media publications in, for instance, Forbes and Business Insider, and to invitations as expert in events with US enforcement agencies.

• Lisa Waddington (Maastricht Centre for European Law, Glaw-Net) received an honorary doctorate by the Université Saint-Louis, Brussels, in 2023. This doctorate recognises the societal relevance of her pioneering work in the field of disability law.

• In February 2023, the Maastricht Principles on the Human Rights of Future Generations were adopted at an expert meeting (Maastricht Centre of Human Rights, under the lead of Fons Coomans) at the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University. The text of the Maastricht Principles on the Human Rights of Future Generations has been published on www.rightsoffuturegenerations.org. Notably, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights has referred to the Maastricht Principles in its 2025 Advisory Opinion on the legal obligations of states in relation to climate change. 

• With the Leidraad Grenseffecten from 2019, our Institute for Transnational and Euregional Cross Border Cooperation and Mobility (ITEM) has provided a guidance document within the obligatory framework for the process of policymaking in the Netherlands. In this context, ITEM provides workshops for ministries on the methodology and act as a helpdesk for the Ministry of Interior and other departments on questions of cross-border effects. Since 2015, it publishes annually ITEM Cross-Border Impact Assessments for multiple border regions.  

• The journal European Company Law managed by members of the Institute for Corporate Law, Governance and Innovations Policies disseminates research in the area of company law and is importantly used for educational purposes in our master programme.

• On 28 and 29 October 2025, Dominic Coppens and Belen Gracia (Institute for Globalisation and International Regulation) organized an interfaculty two-day event on the global plastics treaty negotiations. This was the first international academic event to take stock of the global plastics treaty negotiations since the latest round of negotiations in August 2025 (Geneva), in which both Dominic and Belen had participated. The event brought together leading stakeholders in the negotiations and academics, thereby contributing directly to the ongoing plastic treaty negotiations and to academic research on this topic. 

• On 23 september 2025, Bram Van Hofstraeten (Maastricht European Private Law) gave a lecture 'Grenzen in vroegmodern Limburg' in a lecture series organised by Studium Generale. Through this lecture, Bram was able to share the results of his academic research with a broad non-academic audience.

From the input provided by research institutes and groups, the discussion resulting from that input in January 2026 and the input from the Science Committee, all emphasized that our approach to achieving scientific and societal impact should continue to be inclusive and context-sensitive. This is particularly relevant because of the diversity of orientation (international and national) and different subfields of law with different types of research.  Metrics to illustrate impact must be carefully used, as they are based on DOI usage, which currently is at 43% of all Faculty’s research output, as mentioned above. The Science Committee also suggests to use the SEP protocol on the assessment of scientific and societal impact as a starting point should the Faculty want to provide examples of how to show scientific and societal impact.

  c) Suggestions for discussion during mid-term review

An important point of attention for the mid-term review is the framing of our ambition as a Faculty in relation to impact. While all seem to agree that our research aims at achieving scientific and societal impact, there is a danger of emphasizing impact too much at the cost of academically free and curiosity-driven choices of what topics and types of research researchers engage in. It is not always possible to immediately show the impact certain research results will have; sometimes impact also happens without planning it explicitly. In addition, academic institutions also have a task to carry out fundamental research. This poses the question of how faculty policy can reinforce the importance of curiosity-driven research as well as the wish to make our research insightful for different stakeholders and contribute to solving current societal problems.

One may also wonder whether we need a faculty policy on scientific and societal impact. Our staff is actively engaged in various academic and professional activities that reach different audiences. A policy could be useful for at least three purposes: 1) incentivizing certain types of activities more than currently undertaken; 2) making explicit that research output that focusses on societal relevance is equally valued as scientific relevance; and 3) supporting the diversity of activities, including those which strengthen the link with teaching, more than currently done. This question is also relevant in the context of the UM Europe Strategy (Annex 18) to which the Faculty importantly contributes.

Further questions for the mid-term review as a specific element of an impact policy pertain to improving Faculty support for researchers to carry out activities with a view to achieving scientific and societal impact. How can the Faculty, research institutes and groups and individual researchers make more visible to relevant regional, national and international stakeholders who we are and what research we carry out on which topics. The Law Hub Limburg and Law.Next already play an important role in this context but we may be able to do more. In addition, the Faculty would also benefit from a discussion on which skills our researchers need to entertain the relevant networks, contribute to public debates, provide professional trainings, carry out commissioned research, and the Faculty can facilitate these skills. More specifically, are improvements to the research funding framework needed (like better supporting alternative pathways for non-funded research grant applications or introducing incentives particularly focused on enhancing societal impact).