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Trends and perspectives

Interfaculty Research Institute

In 2009 EMGO became ‘EMGO+’, an interfaculty research institute striving for stronger trans-disciplinary research. This means that EMGO+ now has formally joined forces with strong research groups in the fields of psychology and education as well as health sciences, building on already established collaborations of the past. The initiative to form an interfaculty research institute was supported by a 3.6 M € grant by the Executive Board of VU University Amsterdam for the start-up phase of four years of EMGO+.
 

The participating faculties and research groups within EMGO+ are:

  1. The former EMGO Institute, in which the VUmc departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, General Practice, Nursing Home Medicine, Psychiatry, Public and Occupational Health and Rehabilitation Medicine have concentrated most of their research efforts with additional contributions from a number of other VUmc departments;
  2. The department of Health Sciences of the faculty of Earth and Life Sciences;
  3. The departments of Clinical Psychology, Biological Psychology, Developmental Psychology and Special Education of the faculty of Psychology and Education
In the past decade, EMGO+ has become a significant research institute, both nationally and internationally, with good scientific quality and relevant societal impact. Our greatest strength – multidisciplinary applied research in healthcare and prevention with high societal relevance – will be maintained in future years. EMGO+ will continue to concentrate on aging and chronic diseases, and on further developing and extending academic networks for general practice, nursing-home medicine, public and occupational health, youth health care, mental health care, and rehabilitation.

EMGO+ also anticipates that primary healthcare and prevention will increasingly operate according to the principles of evidence-based medicine, which has applied research at its core. Clinical efficacy as well as cost-effectiveness will guide policy choices related to primary care and prevention. The resulting guidelines for prevention, diagnosis, and therapy will often transverse the traditional boundaries between extramural and intramural care.
 

Collaboration within the VU/VUmc Campus

EMGO+ was externally evaluated in 2010. The institute as well as its four research programs were rated as excellent. In its evaluation report, the committee was very positive about the Institute’s viability and future perspectives. This external evaluation covered the 2004-2009 period. In 2010, EMGO+’s output in terms of publications, PhD theses, and acquired research grants was again better than in 2009.


The external evaluation committee recommended to further rationalize and strengthen the Institute’s governance structure, and to promote cross program collaboration, as well as further strengthening the collaboration with more basic sciences, especially in the Musculoskeletal Health and Mental Health programs, and to further strengthen the focus in the Quality of Care program. These issues are indirectly covered in the 2011-2012 EMGO+ policy plan, so that the Institute’s performance can be maintained in the years to come. 

EMGO+’s VU/VUmc campus collaboration with CCA/V-ICI, the Cancer and Immunology Institute, the Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, the movement sciences institute MOVE and the cardiovascular disease research institute IcaR-VU will be further improved and formalized where and when needed.