Utrecht University: Six project proposals awarded for joint PhD program UU and KU Leuven

KU Leuven is one of the strategic partners of UU. UU and KU Leuven want to intensify ties institution-wide and benefit from each other’s qualities better. To this end, UU and KU Leuven together issued a call for Joint PhD trajectories at the end of 2020. This resulted in 43 submissions. Both in Leuven and Utrecht, a selection committee assessed which proposals should be funded. Both committees had to reach a mutual agreement on the final selection.

Projects funded by KU Leuven
Mapping gene regulatory networks in the era of single-cell multi-omics (involved UU researcher: Alexander van Oudenaarden external link, Hubrecht Institute)
Compensation for fear damage in environmental cases (involved UU researcher: Ivo Giesen external link, LEG)
Closed-loop clothing recycling in a circular economy – Towards indicators for fibre recyclability (involved UU researcher: Ernst Worrell external link, Geosciences)
Projects funded by UU
Scaling-up sustainable finance solutions (involved UU researchers: Kees Koedijk external link, Helen Toxopeus external link, Friedemann Polzin external link, LEG)
My better self: the use of virtual reality exposure in socially anxious adolescents (involved UU researchers Iris Engelhard external link, Katharina Meyerbröker external link, Social and Behavioural Sciences/Psychology)
Towards an ALS prevention programme (involved UU researchers: Michael van Es en Leonard van den Berg, UMCU)
Intensifying multidisciplinary research
All Utrecht University faculties already have meaningful – and often long-term – ties with KU Leuven. Last year, the university boards agreed to intensify cooperation at the institutional level as well. There is great enthusiasm to further strengthen these relationships and to build on longer-term (including multidisciplinary) agendas in the coming years. The intention is that educational collaboration options will be explored alongside research.