York-Maastricht Partnership

The York-Maastricht Partnership (YMP) is a major strategic investment between Maastricht University and the University of York, intended to develop a deep and lasting relationship and built around excellent research, teaching and knowledge exchange.

Our mission is to encourage and facilitate innovative joint York-Maastricht research and education programmes to tackle challenges to developing a more sustainable future.

The Partnership was formally launched in November 2017 to establish joint research projects, teaching collaborations, knowledge exchange, student exchanges, and to share best practice among staff. The universities have invested €3m over three years (2019-2022) to support dynamic research collaborations between the two institutions, and create innovative education opportunities for students.

Building on the success of the Partnership’s initial joint programmes, we are now developing a new set of focus areas under the broad umbrella of ‘Sustainability’, which will include research, teaching, and knowledge exchange collaborations across a range of topics on sustainability and the transition to a circular economy. A new joint education programme, the MSc in Sustainable Business: Leadership, Innovation, and Management, launches in Autumn 2021, and a new set of sustainability-focused research projects and knowledge exchange activities will be developed over 2021-2022.

jump to:

Research partnerships

The Partnership’s initial focus areas included data science, imaging, health and nutrition, the ‘Global South’ and the future of Europe, and our first funding call led to the launch of nine new research projects between researchers at York and Maastricht across the different academic themes.

We are now developing a new set of focus areas under the broad umbrella of ‘Sustainability’, which will include research collaborations across a range of topics on sustainability and the transition to a circular economy.

‘Green Future’ seed funding

The Partnership has just launched a call for Expressions of Interest for seed funding to support the development of new research collaborations between the universities of York and Maastricht on topics related to environmental sustainability across all disciplines.

The deadline is 10 February 2022. Further details are available here, and queries should be addressed to ymp[at]york.ac[dot]uk.

Our research successes to date include the following projects:

um_lp_china_box_img2.jpg

Imaging

Investigating both neuroimaging and molecular imaging, making the most of the innovative technologies and techniques at both institutions.

Approved projects

Work to bring together world-class scanning technology in York and Maastricht to understand how information flows through the brain and apply this in our response to ageing and mental health challenges.
1. Professor Elia Formisano & Professor Rainer Goebel (Maastricht)
2. Professor Antony Morland & Professor Alex Wade (York)
Research to use state-of-the-art Imaging Mass Spectrometry and GeoMx™ Digital Spatial Profiling protein and RNA profiling to better understand how immune cells regulate their metabolism in complex inflammatory environments. The research will initially focus on tackling diseases in which York and Maastricht already have considerable expertise (breast cancer and leishmaniasis), eventually expanding this to a range of other communicable and non-communicable diseases.
1. Professor Ron Heeren (Maastricht)
2. Professor Paul Kaye & Dr. Peter O'Toole (York)
Research to boost cross-institute research scope and capabilities for high-resolution functional brain mapping using advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques – in both clinical and preclinical domains.
1. Dr. Laurentius Huber & Dr. Benedikt Poser (Maastricht)
2. Dr. Aneurin Kennerley (York)

Data Science

Investigating the key challenges for both technology and society around data and how it is used.

Approved projects

A significant investment to support responsible data science, designing new approaches to handling personal data that could restore public trust and confidence in how major corporations handle their personal information. This project aims to build principles of responsible data science by design into the actual software development practices rather than simply producing ethical or regulatory frameworks which developers may or may not follow.
1. Professor Michel Dumontier & Dr. Visara Urovi & Professor David Townend & Dr. Jerry Spanakis & Professor Mathieu Segers (Maastricht)
2. Professor Dimitris Kolovos & Dr. Nicholas Matragkas & Professor Delaram Kahrobaei (York)

A project investigating how to improve public trust in health data institutions, exploring approaches to the dilemma between the social utility gained by exploiting personal health information and individual privacy concerns.
1. Dr. Peter Schröder-Bäck (Maastricht)
2. Professor Stephen Holland (York)

Future of Europe

Our research takes advantages of the twin perspectives of Maastricht and York: both geographically European but with national governments, which take very different political approaches to Europe.

Approved Projects

A project to explore European sovereign debt practices in order to develop principles of financial ethics and institutional design for sovereign debt policies conducive to European integration.
1. Dr. Janosch Prinz (Maastricht)
2. Professor Alan Thomas & Dr. Martin O’Neil & Dr. Marco Meyer (York)

A series of research events to investigate the constitutional challenges arising from the use of a number of regulatory techniques in the EU.
1. Professor Mariolina Eliantonio (Maastricht)
2. Dr. Kathryn Wright (York)

The Partnership has previously also funded a range of smaller Europe-focused research bids, including work on:

Europe and the future of global rules and multilateralism.
1. Dr. Hylke Dijkstra (Maastricht)
2. Dr. Jappe Eckhardt (York)
European democracies in crisis: voices, actions and reactions from below.
1. Dr. Kai Heidemann (Maastricht)
2. Dr. Tom O'Brien & Dr. Alejandro Pena & Dr. Sara de Jong (York)
The impact of Brexit on the governance and operation of EU agencies.
1. Dr. Annalisa Volpato (Maastricht)
2. Dr. Kathryn Wright (York)
Independent fiscal institutions in EU member states five years after the fiscal compact.
1. Dr. Diane Fromage (Maastricht)
2. Dr. Michal Horvath (York)
Ten years of the EU Eastern Partnership: democracy promotion, economic governance and geopolitics.
1. Dr. Giselle Bosse (Maastricht)
2. Dr. Simona Davidescu (York)

Global South

Bringing together Maastricht’s and York’s centres of excellence in global development that will investigate development transformations in the context of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and their challenge of ‘Leaving No One Behind’.

Approved projects

Investigating development transformations in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals and the challenge of ‘Leaving No One Behind'.
1. Professor Valentina Mazzucato (Maastricht)
2. Professor Jean Grugel (York)

Work to discuss and develop problem-based learning exercises in the teaching of global challenges in culturally diverse classrooms to coincide with the launch of York’s BA in Global Development and Maastricht’s BA in Global Studies in 2020/21.
1. Dr. Lutz Krebs (Maastricht)
2. Professor Henrice Altink (York)

Health & Nutrition

Covering a broad range of research areas including agri-tech, child wellbeing, health sciences, nutrition and health economics.

Imaging
Data Science
Future of Europe
Global South
Health & Nutrition

Funding

There are two main sources of funding available within the York-Maastricht Partnership.

Investment fund

Large projects can be funded through the Partnership’s investment fund. This is open to projects which:

are significant in scale and ambitious in outcomes
are clearly linked to the Partnership’s existing five academic themes
are linked to the strategic priorities of the partner universities
demonstrate a clear potential for return on investment
demonstrate value for money and a path toward sustainability

Applications may be submitted by any member of Maastricht or York, but must be a collaborative and joint proposal between the two universities.

If you think you might have a project that fits the investment criteria or would like to find out more, please feel free to get in touch.

Travel and workshop fund

There are also smaller funding pots available on a rolling basis for staff at both universities to facilitate collaboration. These are:

A travel fund of up to €500 to support visits to each University and cover economy travel, accommodation and subsistence costs.
A workshop fund of up to €5,000 to support collaborative events between groups of staff or students at each University that further the Partnership’s research and/or educational initiatives. This might include research workshops, seminars, project planning and longer visits.

york_mtricht_box_img_2.jpg

Each University has a devolved budget to cover these activities.

Maastricht University

You can apply for funding using these forms:

You will be asked to provide short details on the proposed visit/activity and financial details. Bids to the workshop fund also require a brief outline of the activity, including objectives and projected outputs.

University of York

You can find more information on the University of York website.

Successful bids

Successful bidders should also complete a short report on the visit/activity once complete.

Education

We have a vision to deliver innovative educational programmes.

MSc in Sustainable Business: Leadership, Innovation & Management (SUBLIM)

The MSc in Sustainable Business: Leadership, Innovation & Management (SUBLIM) is a collaboration between the Maastricht Sustainability Institute (part of the Triple Crown accredited School of Business & Economics, Maastricht University) and the Department of Environment and Geography, the University of York's world-leading centre for teaching and research on sustainable solutions to global environmental issues.

The programme incorporates teaching from both universities to develop students’ competencies in sustainable development, business innovation, international collaboration, stakeholder participation and communication. Find out more about the programme.

Future joint educational programmes

The collaboration will continue to explore course options following core principles to ensure that all their educational initiatives will be:

Truly collaborative learning - programmes will be designed to enable collaboration across national, cultural and educational boundaries(e.g. Bachelors, Masters and PhD students all involved in active collaboration).
Interdisciplinary - rather than simply duplicating educational courses which already exist in Maastricht or York, the partnership will identify and explore courses that run across traditional disciplinary boundaries bringing together cross-faculty expertise from both York and Maastricht.
High quality and distinctive - programmes will bring together the best academics, and best teaching experience and pedagogy from both universities into new high quality and distinctive courses.
Research-led, problem-based learning (PBL) - programmes will bring together Maastricht and York expertise, marrying up the PBL expertise in Maastricht (and the current PBL centres of excellence in York) with York’s experience in research-led education.
Grounded in technology-enabled learning - recognising the hugely important role technology can play in enabling collaboration throughout a programme.
Focused on building a sustainable future - collaborative education courses will equip graduates to tackle the big challenges facing society both today and in the future.

um-sbe-20190412-304-print.jpg

Governance

The York-Maastricht Partnership is governed by a joint board made up of staff from both the University of York and Maastricht University.

Professor
Rianne Letschert (President, Maastricht University)
Professor Pamela Habibović (Rector Magnificus, Maastricht University)
Professor Charlie Jeffery (Vice-Chancellor and President, University of York)
Professor Saul Tendler (Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, University of York)

The board meets quarterly to approve strategic investments by the Partnership and set the strategic direction for the Partnership.

The board is supported by a Director, Katherine Benson, who leads the Partnership and is responsible for the delivery of the Partnership’s strategy and objectives.

Who we are

Katherine Benson
Acting Director of the York-Maastricht Partnership

Katherine Benson became Acting Director of the York-Maastricht Partnership in 2020, after joining the University of York as a Global Partnerships Manager in 2017. Her role at YMP builds on her experience of working to expand York’s global engagement through developing new research, teaching, and capacity building partnerships.

Before joining the University of York, Katherine worked at the International Strategy Office at the University of Oxford and has a background in research and teaching at several UK universities and with NGOs in the UK and Middle East. Katherine has a PhD in Medieval History from the University of Reading and MA from the University of York.

Rosa Becker
UM Account Manager of the York-Maastricht Partnership

Academics and research themes

The Partnership’s five research themes are led by academics from both universities:

Data Science: Professor Michel Dumontier and Professor Dimitris Kolovos
Imaging: Professor Elia Formisano and TBC (awaiting new appointment)
Future of Europe: Dr. Thomas Conzelmann and Dr. Kathryn Wright
Global South: Professor Valentina Mazzucato and Professor Henrice Altink
Health and Nutrition: Dr. Maurice Zeegers and TBC (awaiting new appointment)