Seed Fund Research Call for Proposals 2025-2026

“Path to a Sustainable UM: Research Call for Transformative Solutions”

Background and purpose

Much like governments, industries, and the financial sector, educational institutions are increasingly called upon to address their role in advancing sustainable practices, particularly within the context of regional and institutional sustainability efforts.[1] Maastricht University (UM) recognizes this pressing need and is positioned to lead this change, using scientific research to deliver innovative solutions for a sustainable future. For this transformative change, UM has recently launched Sustainability Roadmap 2030, a strategic plan that provides guidance on how UM will structurally embed sustainability into all its activities (education, research and operations) in the coming years.

Our sustainability ambitions can be achieved if they are supported by researchers across all UM faculties engaging with issues broadly related to sustainability, with a focus on core themes of climate, circularity and community. The diverse topics can range from sustainable catering, mobility, real estate, energy solutions, to material flow analysis, campus procurement, among others. By translating theoretical knowledge and proof-of-concepts into practical applications, the valorisation of this research will drive UM toward a sustainable future.

Call for Proposals

UM aspires to serve as a ‘living lab’ that modes and advances sustainable practices within operational aspects.[2] To bring sustainability research at UM to next level and fostering this transition to a sustainable UM, we invite UM researchers to submit applications for seed fund projects aimed at fostering interdisciplinary and cross-faculty research collaboration, with a focus on advancing sustainable practices to achieve climate-neutral or circular UM operations while improving community well-being.

The research stemming from these projects will be:

challenge driven, addressing the sustainability challenges across UM operations
interdisciplinary, bridging disciplinary boundaries and involve researchers from at least two UM faculties
collaborative, creating ties with external stakeholders within the region
impactful, exploring possibilities to contribute to bachelor, master and PhD programmes of UM
visible and relevant, addressing the needs of research, education, business development, policymaking and the wider society

Match-making event ‘Transformative solutions to a sustainable UM’

In order to foster collaboration between researchers of different faculties, SUM2030 will organize a so-called match-making event. Researchers will have the opportunity to discuss and interact with each other to focus on how to make UM operations more sustainable via research.

This match-making event will take place on Tuesday, September 02^th, from 15:00 – 17:00.

Location: Tapijnkazerne (exact room will be shared later)

Registration is mandatory!

Sign-up through this link:

Writing your proposal

Selected proposals in this call will be awarded a seed fund that facilitates:

establishing strategic collaborations between sustainability researchers within UM
preparing for external (international) collaboration and research grants.

The seed fund should preferably support new research collaborations or strategically and significantly expand existing research collaborations.

Who can apply?

The call is open for all researchers with a position at UM.

What can be applied?

The maximum requested amount of funding per proposal is €75,000. The own contribution per proposal is at least €10,000 (cash or in-kind, to be specified in the proposal).

Total budget: €240.000

Evaluation criteria

Eligibility

The proposal is submitted by researchers from at least two UM faculties
The proposal includes a commitment and a specification for the own contribution to the budget

Research quality and originality

The proposal

demonstrates the added value of the research collaboration and the contributions of different scientific fields, advancing sustainable practices to achieve climate-neutral or circular UM operations
provides a concrete plan for identifying (further) external stakeholders such as companies and (local) governments

Team

The applicants

have a track record in the proposed research field(s)
are able to attract and engage top researchers and students from UM
are able to attract and engage different partners across sectors (e.g. business, government)

Impact and future potential

The proposal

is supported by one or more external stakeholders and/or Brightlands campuses confirmed and specified in a Letter of Support
clarifies how the researchers will engage with other researchers and/or stakeholders to grow from a seed fund project to a larger research project
provides a concrete plan for further research support from external funds

Submission of applications

Proposals can be submitted using the application form in the appendix to sustainability@maastrichtuniversity.nl and should not exceed a maximum of five pages. The submission deadline is October 6^th 2025.

More information

For additional information, please contact Ahmed Hussain, SUM2030 Sustainability Research Coordinator via ahmed.hussain@maastrichtuniversity.nl

[1] European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (2016)

[2] UM Sustainability Roadmap 2030

Proposal details
Main Applicant:
Title(s), initial(s), name:
Phone:
E-mail:
Department:
Co-applicants (at least 1):
	Name	Department	School/Institute
1.
2.
3.
Etc.
Title of the proposal:
Project duration (Months):

Budget
Total project costs:	€
Specification of the project costs:
Requested amount of funding (max. requested budget is € 75,000):	€
Amount and specification of co-funding (cash or in-kind) by applicants	€

Seed Fund Research Call for Proposals 2025-2026

Call for Proposals

Match-making event ‘Transformative solutions to a sustainable UM’

Writing your proposal

Evaluation criteria

Appendix - Application form Call “Transformative solutions to a Sustainable UM” (max. 5 pages after completion)