Looking back at Research Week 2023

"For me, it was very special to see how the part-time and full-time PhD fellows interacted throughout the week, and took the opportunity to get to know each other and their research much better. The plan to integrate both the full-time and part-time programme was an important component of our Strategic Plan, but to see "in real life" so clearly the benefits of this integration was very satisfying. In the run-up to the Research Week, I was a little nervous about how it would work - but seeing so many happy faces as well as deep academic discussions throughout the week showed me all I needed to know: the event went incredibly well. A big thank you to the organising team for their formidable effort, and to the research staff for their presence, feedback and support."

Prof. Dr. Bartel Van de Walle, Director

"The Research Week was great, you could sense the enthusiasm and the joy of meeting everybody physically. There is something special that can be achieved when you are together in the same room as opposed to online, especially when you have such a critical mass of PhD candidates that we have here at UNU-MERIT. That is something special. So, I am very happy for these ‘Corona Cohorts’ who have not had an easy start to their PhD journeys.

Many credits are due to Micheline, Mindel, Soha and the entire team for putting this together. In the different sessions I attended, I experienced a wealth of different perspectives in terms of research topics and methods, many of which spanned the two units in the institute. I heard so many exciting and high-quality presentations – on a wealth of topics such as artificial intelligence, e-governance, circular economy, humanitarian innovation, and global value chains, to name a few – and there were great discussions and comments from fellow PhD candidates and researchers from the institute. Not to mention all the inspiring conversations in between and after the sessions. Oh, and the highlight of the week was when I got to unleash the bowling skills that I didn’t know I had!"

Dr. Rasmus Lema, Associate Professor

"The Research Week is one of the key opportunities for us PhD fellows to present our work to our colleagues and receive feedback from a diverse audience. We were free to present anything from initial ideas to work in progress to final papers, so the sessions were incredibly helpful in obtaining directional suggestions and guidance to progress with our research.

Preparing for the presentation and thinking about how to transform ideas and findings into a digestible format also helped to reflect on our progress and structure our work. Moreover, it was not only our presentations that were useful. Listening to our colleagues gave us a better understanding of the diversity of research in our institute. It provided us with academic stimulation that could challenge or extend our methods or theories.

Lastly, the Research Week was a wonderful moment to engage with so many colleagues in person in Maastricht, especially our non-resident PhD fellows, and to feel this sense of community again!"

Teresa Janz, PhD Fellow

Even though we have a large community of PhD fellows at UNU-MERIT, working on one's dissertation often feels like a solo effort. That is why I think occasions like the Research Week are so important (and enjoyable!): they let me catch up on all the incredible work my peers have been doing over the last months and create a feeling of community. For my work, it is helpful to have the Research Week in February and the internal conference in September as cornerstones of the academic year. They are good checkpoints and encourage me to consolidate the many days of incremental work that have accumulated over the previous six months. The topical mix of sessions that I could attend during the Research Week was also a nice opportunity to expand my knowledge past my field(s) of research.

Yannick Valentin Markhof, PhD fellow