Medical Microbiology working overtime during COVID-19: “We immediately stepped up and focused on COVID diagnostics”
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From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff of the Department of Medical Microbiology has been working overtime. Many of the COVID tests that are done in Limburg are analysed here. The department is also studying the effectiveness of the vaccine against the different coronavirus variants. Only a few places in the country are capable of doing this. "We possess this particular combination of knowledge and technology because of our research on antibiotic resistance." Paul Savelkoul, head of the Department and professor of Medical Microbiology, says."Research on preventing antibiotic resistant bacteria in the population is an extremely important part of our work. Antibiotic resistance is a silent epidemic that may have a much greater impact on public health than COVID-19 in the long run”.
Read the entire interview with Paul Savelkoul and Petra Wolffs (both Health Inequities and Societal Participation) about their tireless work during the COVID-19 pandemic, and all the other research activities they continue to work on.
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Message of our Scientific Director
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Dear CAPHRI colleagues,
My first tenure as Scientific Director of CAPHRI will end on 1 October 2021. Although I have greatly enjoyed working over the last 6 years with a really outstanding team of care and public health scientists, PhD candidates and support staff, I decided not to opt for a second six-year term. Instead, I will fully focus on my work as professor Complex Genetics and Epidemiology again. This means that the FHML Faculty Board is now recruiting a new Scientific Director for CAPHRI.
During the CAPHRI Research Day on 23 November I will take a moment to say farewell and introduce my successor. Hope to see you there!
Maurice Zeegers
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Why you don’t need 8 hours of sleep at all, but at least 7 hours is recommended
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In the last decade evidence has been mounting that insufficient sleep contributes to chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depression. Sleep irregularity and bad sleep quality also have been consistently related to disease. Sleep became a public health issue and is now seen as a lifestyle behavior. But what is good sleep? Recommendations are often contradictory and therefore confusing. Ree Meertens (Promoting Health and Personalised Care) and Merijn van de Laar (Family Medicine) tell you what the science says about this topic.
Read more
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Final results Corona Study Limburg
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The final results of the Corona Study Limburg have been published. Did celebrating carnival, playing sports together or singing in a choir contribute to the rapid spread of the virus in Limburg?
The study with 10.001 participants was conducted by Maastricht UMC+/CAPHRI, GGD Zuid-Limburg, GGD Limburg-Noord under the lead of Christian Hoebe (Health Inequities and Societal Participation).
Read more about the results here (in Dutch).
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Towards a Euroregional and European policy in times of crisis
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Christian Hoebe is also leading a large scale study on the impact of COVID-19 on the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion. “Especially in the early days of the pandemic, the policy responses to COVID-19 of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany were rather different, ranging from requiring travellers to present a negative test result at the border to varying face-mask policies. This doesn’t affect people who live in a city like Utrecht, but it does affect the people living in cross-border regions. Therefore, an important goal of the study is to contribute to a more uniform Euroregional and European policy during health crises.
Read the entire interview with Christian Hoebe here.
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Annual report Living Lab Ageing and Long-Term Care
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The Living Lab in Ageing and Long-Term Care Limburg has published its Annual Report. In this report, the Living Lab looks back on all activities in 2020. The year in which COVID-19 had a major impact on elderly care.
Download the annual report here.
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Long COVID is a term to describe the effects of COVID-19 that continue for weeks or months beyond the initial illness. The complaints vary from patient to patient. It is therefore important that the treatment plan is tailored to the medical, psychological and environmental factors of the individual patient, says Jeanine Verbunt, Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine (Functioning, Participation and Rehabilitation) and rehabilitation physician at Adelante Zorggroep. She was interviewed by broadcaster L1.
Read more and watch the interview here.
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Paying employees to quit smoking pays off
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The dissertation 'Financial incentives for smoking cessation' by Floor van den Brand was ranked in the top 3 of the CaRe award 2021!
We set up a webpage with all information about CAPHRI's research into financial incentives for smoking cessation, including an interview with Floor van den Brand (Optimising Patient Care) and Gera Nagelhout (Promoting Health and Personalised Care), an animation, a film, media attention, scientific output and a listing of cooperation partners.
Interested? Have a look here.
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Rathenau Institute survey: Researcher and teacher motivation
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The Rathenau Institute invites teachers/researchers at a university, umc, university of applied sciences or research institute to participate in a survey to share experiences with and vision on working in the Dutch research and higher education system. The gained insights provide an important base for dialogue. They are used by policy makers at ministries, research funders and - institutes. Earlier editions of the survey have contributed to mapping and prioritising the high work load in science. Also, this year's survey pays special attention to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for research and education.
Participate in the survey
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The Nutrition Alliance for the Healthy Generation has started a petition to urgently call on the Dutch Government to make regulations that will have manufacturers reduce the amount of salt, sugar and unhealthy fat in products.
Martijn Brouwers, internist-endocrinologist at MUMC+ and affiliated with CAPHRI is ambassador for this initiative.
Sign here (website in Dutch)
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Inaugural lecture Hilde Verbeek and symposium
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Hilde Verbeek, professor of Long-Term Care Environments (Ageing and Long-Term Care) will give her inaugural lecture on 9 July 2021 at 16:30 in the Sint Janskerk in Maastricht. The lecture will be given in Dutch and is titled 'Een huis, een thuis? Hoe de zorgomgeving bijdraagt aan het dagelijks leven van kwetsbare ouderen.'
Furthermore, the symposium 'Science and society: the living lab and elderly care' will be held prior to the inaugural lecture.
Both the symposium and lecture will be live streamed. For more information and registration click here.
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CAPHRI webinar 'The use and development of apps in health research'
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So, you want to use an app in your research? There are things to keep in mind both from the participant view as from the researchers view.
Using examples of apps developed at Maastricht University, the following concepts will be discussed in this webinar: Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), user scenarios and wireframes, feature creep, data and data protection, legal - regulations (including medical devices).
When: Monday 14 June 2021 Time: 11:00-12:00 CET Where: Zoom. A zoom link will be shared with you 1 week before the start of the event via email. Organiser: CAPHRI School Office Registration: here
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Save the dates: CAPHRI Research Day 2021 and CaRe Days 2022
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Save the dates:
Our annual CAPHRI Research Day will take place on 23 November 2021.
The CaRe Days will take place on 11 and 12 May 2022.
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Missed the online symposium 'Inclusivity in research'?
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On 3 June the online symposium "inclusivity in research' took place. The symposium provided inspiration-sessions on the possibilities to conduct inclusive research.
The symposium was organised by Maastricht University, CAPHRI, Research Institute IVO, Maastricht voor Iedereen and the Platform for Community-Engaged Research (MPCER).
Did you miss it? You can watch the symposium here (in Dutch)
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ZonMw call: Efficiency studies Open Round 2023 - Research into the effectiveness and costs of interventions
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ZonMw grant Research into the effectiveness and costs of interventions (Programme Efficiency studies - Open Round 2023)
Budget: A total of €7.4M is available in this round. ZonMw will fund a maximum of 90% per research proposal. Maximum subsidy per proposal is € 800,000. Deadline: 7 september 2021, 14.00 CET More information: here (in Dutch)
An online information session about the Open Round 2023 takes place on 17 June, 10.30-12.00. More information
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If you consider to apply for an ERC Independent Researcher Grant, the ERC Grant Training might be something for you. This training provides more in-depth information for excellent researchers with an excellent idea for frontier research, who consider applying for an ERC Independent Researcher grant.
Important issues that will be addressed are: - What is ground-braking challenging frontier research? - What constitutes an excellent young researcher? - Writing an ERC Grant proposal - The Evaluation Procedure - From high-gain/high-risk idea to challenging proposal - Demonstrating feasibility - Writing outstanding personal track records
Training period: September - December 2021
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More information about the training sessions and registration
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The Ammodo Science Award for groundbreaking research demonstrates appreciation for jointly conducted research that is internationally recognised, high quality and potentially groundbreaking. In 2022 the Award will be presented to two research groups in the domains Biomedical Sciences and Humanities.
Award: EUR 1,200,000 per designated domain Career Phase: Team Nominator: Rector Internal selection: Yes, please send name, CV and motivation to dr. E. Swennen before July 5, 2021 Deadline: October 8, 2021 Weblink
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Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship Award
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Awarded to a leading researcher to work on cutting-edge research at the interface between the humanities and/or social sciences on the one hand and the natural and/or technological sciences on the other Award: A personal prize of EUR 10,000, a residential fellowship of up to ten months at NIAS and a workshop at the Lorentz Center
Career Phase: Leading researcher Nominator: Dean Internal selection: Yes, please send name, CV and motivation to dr. E. Swennen before September 6, 2021 Deadline: November 1, 2021 Weblink
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