In the coming years, cooperation will focus on further developing the European Medical School (curriculum, rural medicine, public health, hearing research, neurosciences and biomedical sciences) in concert with the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) and associated Oldenburg hospitals. The cooperation and its expansion with regard to the European Medical School is subject to separate agreements and is closely monitored by the boards of the faculties/schools and the presidents of the universities.

There is potential for new initiatives in the form of joint modules or joint programmes in, for instance, the fields of biomedical sciences or rural medicine.

Opportunities for biomedical research will be further explored. Joint superversion of PhD candidates will play an important role in linking research units and regional partners. The graduate schools at UG and research groups at UOL are encouraged to seek such opportunities.

Affiliated with the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health at UG as well as the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at UOL, the Cross-Border Institute of Healthcare Systems and Prevention (CBI) was launched in February 2019. Its aim is to conduct research on questions of cross-border health along the Northern Dutch-German border and to compare the different healthcare systems from several perspectives (medical care, health economy, law, social aspects). That research will form the basis for innovative approaches to changing healthcare systems on both sides of the border and to finding answers for societal questions linked to health (e.g. healthy ageing).

In 2000, the international graduate school “Neurosensory Science, Systems and Applications”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), laid the foundation for cooperation in the medical sciences between UOL and UG. Joint training activities for PhD candidates have been at the core of this collaboration ever since: Started in 2018, the joint PhD programme “Translational Research: From Pathological Mechanisms to Therapy” is currently particularly noteworthy. Historically and continually, neuroscientific research on hearing has been especially impactful in the region. The partners intend to continue facilitating and expanding joint training activities for PhD candidates.

Coordination in the preparation of professorial appointments, joint supervision of PhD candidates and joint fundraising for research projects further complement the cooperation.