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Research:
Introduction Most research at Universiteit Maastricht is accommodated in multidisciplinary themes and focal points. For further clustering, these themes and focal points are accommodated in research institutes with an executive board and management structure. The institutes offer good options for further development of the research and for collaboration with third parties. The further aim is to participate in research schools, centres of high quality research with structured attention for the training of young researchers. If these research schools conform with the requirements in regards to training, organisation, finance, scientific programme and national and international co-operation then they can receive a five-year recognition from the Dutch Academy of Sciences. Practically all research at Universiteit Maastricht now takes place in recognised national research schools. Research also takes place in a large number of associated institutes within capacity groups and faculty research units. Some important research institutes at Universiteit Maastricht are listed below.
Research efforts in this institute focus on three major themes. Modernisation and Cultural Identity involves the relationship between processes of modernisation and changes in both collective and individual identities in Western Europe since the eighteenth century. Technology and Society, Social Theory and Technology Studies is geared toward the ways in which highly complex modern societies are constituted by scientific and technological processes of development and, conversely, how such developments themselves are socially constructed in these societies. Science and Culture, Texts and Contexts is geared toward the ambivalent relationship between science and culture as one of the central problems of modernity.
Diagnosis of mental disorders used to be notoriously unreliable. But psychometric research has presented us instruments with which the presence and seriousness of specific disorders and complaints may be measured reliably and validly. The prospects of effectively treating a patient with a specific problem greatly increase when the practitioner has knowledge about the mechanisms that are responsible for the problem.
http://www.dmkep.unimaas.nl/epp
The research institute for Extramural and Transmural Care (ExTRA) of the Faculty of Medicine and the Maastricht Health Research Institute for Prevention and Care (HEALTH) of the Faculty of Health Sciences have established close co-operation in their overlapping fields of research. The mission of HEALTH/ExTra is to increase our knowledge and insight in health promotion and prevention, problems of chronically diseased patients, effectiveness of primary health care, quality and organisation of the primary health care process, and the social aspects of health and health care. Within HEALTH/ExTra the occurrence and course of health problems or diseases, their determinants, and the role of the patient, are studied in relation to the supply of health care. Special attention is paid to the role of the organisation and management of health care and their impact on health. Prevention, treatment and patient guidance are studied in mutual relation. Efficacy, effectiveness, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and the quality of health care interventions are evaluated. Research is aimed at health problems and diseases frequently occurring in primary health care, home care and in outpatient clinics. In particular attention is paid to chronic illness and functional limitations, addressing factors and interventions which contribute to patients continuing to live in their own environment as independently as they wish and is possible. A broad spectrum of disciplines contributes to cover the subject matter of the institute, including: health promotion, general practice, epidemiology, clinical specialities in somatic and mental health care, biomedical disciplines, social medicine, nursing sciences, allied health care, medical sociology, medical psychology, medical informatics, health economics, health policy, health law and health ethics, and biostatistics.
http://www.extra.unimaas.nl
The Research Institute Growth and Development (GROW) aims to carry out
high quality scientific research in the field of early human development
(normal and abnormal growth and differentiation) and in the field of
oncology (abnormal growth and differentiation). The choice for the Today, three main areas of research are represented in the programme Growth and Development: Perinatal Medicine, Developmental Biology, and Oncology. Within the new programme, close co-operation was established between basic disciplines like molecular biology, genetics and cell biology and clinical disciplines like obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, general medicine, pathology, surgery and neurology. This co-operation facilitates the exchange of knowledge of the process of normal and abnormal cell growth and cell division, and also leads to a better understanding of the origin of congenital malformations and growth disturbances. e-mail: jclaa@grow.azm.nl or mgera@grow.azm.nl
Ever since the Faculty of Medicine of Universiteit Maastricht was founded, research on cardiovascular diseases has had a prominent place in the faculty. The importance of the subject for public health is obvious. Cardiovascular disorders are at the root of a large number of serious diseases, and cause about half of all mortalities. Since it would be impossible to study all aspects of cardiovascular diseases, the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM) has set priorities for the main lines of research, based on the available expertise and the relevance for health care: thrombosis and hemostasis; the functioning of the cardiac muscle, and vascular biology of large and small vessels.
Research within the Maastricht Brain and Behaviour Institute (MIBB) is centred around cognitive, affective and motor dysfunction and the brain mechanisms that are responsible for the origin and continuation of these disturbances. The institute is a joint venture of the faculties of Medicine, Health Sciences, and Psychology. Research is multidisciplinary and is conducted in three divisions that co-operate on joint projects.
The division 'Cognitive dysfunction' focuses on problems during the development and ageing and on several neurological and psychiatric diseases. The second division works on 'Biological and psychosocial determinants of affective dysfunction'. Here, the focus is on biological psychiatric, clinical and epidemiological psychiatric research into the brain mechanisms that are at the basis of schizophrenia and affective and related psychiatric disorders. The third division is ‘Mechanisms of neuro-degeneration and plasticity’. The focus here is on basic biomedical research into fundamental aspects of cognitive, affective and motor dysfunction.
The Faculty of General Sciences/Knowledge Engineering has accumulated its research and education activities in one institute: Institute for Knowledge and Agent Technology (IKAT). IKAT performs fundamental research on artificial neural networks and the concepts of agent technology. It also seeks to strengthen ties and promote co-operation with business firms by applying knowledge management. Students (PhD and MSc) are educated in Knowledge Engineering. IKAT contributes actively to communication and control of the European region by implementing advanced technology and by acting as a knowledge source for government, business firms, and public institutes.
METRO, the Institute for Transnational Legal Research initiates and stimulates comparative and transboundary legal research and organises conferences on various legal themes. Moreover, the institute publishes the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law and the Ius Commune Europaeum book series. METRO is very active in the field of contract research. Since the founding of the institute, research has been done for the Dutch Ministries of Justice, Internal Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Environment, Social Affairs and Employment, Education and for the European Commission. METRO facilitates the Ius Commune Research School, a co-operation between the Law Faculties of the universities of Maastricht, Utrecht and Leuven (Belgium) which aims at the realisation of a Ius Commune in Europe. http://www.rechten.unimaas.nl/metro
The mission of the Maastricht Research Institute of Economics and Organisations (METEOR) is to contribute to the study of the functioning of business firms in interaction with their environments by promoting and carrying out first-rate research and by offering graduate education. METEOR views the firm both as an agent in a complex and changing environment as well as an organisation of agents shaping market conditions and adapting to environmental changes. With respect to research methodology METEOR stresses the importance of theory building as input to empirical research, together with linking theory with empirical information. As far as theory building is concerned, the main perspective is Economics and Business Administration, but with an open eye for opportunities to cross-fertilise research with insights from other fields, such as Sociology, Law, History and Psychology, that inspire the economic study of the firm. Concerning theory testing, METEOR aims at developing survey, longitudinal and experimental data sets on business firms and their markets as well as promoting methodological and empirical research in these areas. Through the choice of research topic and methodological approach, METEOR intends to further strengthen the strong research in the fields of financial, organisational and technological economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and to create synergies between them. By doing so, it distinguishes itself from other economic research centres in the Netherlands. http://www.fdewb.unimaas.nl/meteor
The Nutrition and Toxicology Research Institute Maastricht (NUTRIM) is an interfaculty research institute of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine of Maastricht University in co-operation with the University Hospital Maastricht. Within NUTRIM, 25 biomedical, clinical, and behavioural-science departments co-operate in the implementation of scientific research projects in the fields of nutrition and toxicology, and in the education of scientific researchers in training.
Research is performed into the effects on human health of nutrition, nutritional components, and nutritional behaviour. Special areas of interest are: clinical nutrition, nutrigenomics and proteomics, metabolic pathways of nutritional compounds, and epidemiological aspects of nutrition. In the field of toxicology, research is performed regarding positive and negative health effects of nutritional factors especially in relation to oxidative stress. The purpose of these studies is to optimise estimates concerning health hazards.
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The members of the Institute for Experimental Psychopathology (EPP)
conduct scientific research with the aim of adequately establishing mental
problems, the origin and continuation of those problems, and the effective
means of treating them. There are, however, many mental problems and EPP
cannot pretend that they are all subjected to research in this institute.
The institute focuses mainly on the following problem areas: anxieties, mood
disorders, problems of addiction, somatoform disorders, personality
disorders, and children and youth psychopathology. 
research
lines is mainly determined by the importance of the processes of growth and
development in several fields of modern medicine. This also needs close
co-operation between basic and clinical scientists which is one of the
characteristics within GROW. 
Laatst gewijzigd op 06-03-2002