The Maastricht Study is a largescale population screening in the field of type 2 diabetes. Thousands of people from Limburg, with and without diabetes, registered when it started in 2010. Extensive tests followed, including a 24-hour ECG, intestinal examination, echocardiograms, tests in a DEXA scanner (bone density), measuring of blood sugar levels, body weight, blood pressure, the amount of cortisol in the body, et cetera. Following the participants for years gave scientists more insight into the clinical picture, especially the prevention of diabetes. “It is scientifically successful, but also relevant to the improvement of health in our region,” outlines Tilman Hackeng, scientific director of cardiovascular disease institute CARIM at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, which is in charge of the Maastricht Study.
Tough times
But the project is having a tough time: it lacks structural funding, state the faculty budget documents. As of 1 April, the Province of Limburg dropped out as one of the financers (which also include the hospital and the university). This did not come as a surprise, a spokesperson for the provincial government wrote in an e-mail. The Maastricht Study is a Kennis-As (Knowledge Axis) project, a strategic programme in which UM, together with other education institutes, the hospital and the province invest in the socioeconomic development in Limburg. “The point of departure is that the project would continue after the subsidy period had come to an end. Subsidies can serve as an impulse, but the project or the activity must subsequently be able to continue without such support.”
Storage
The amount of 475 thousand euro per year for the storage of ‘samples’ (such as blood samples) in the MUMC+ Biobank will now be paid for by research institute CARIM, at least for two years. But “should the period be longer” and there are no other funding options to be found, “CARIM will have to restrict its own investment plans,” was the warning in the budget. “In that case, various initiatives can no longer continue.” At the same time, it is clear that CARIM values the study greatly: “CARIM will continue to invest,” state the budget documents. “We will never allow the Maastricht Study to go under,” director Tilman Hackeng wrote hopefully to Observant last February. The question what it meant that some of the institute’s investment plans could possibly not continue, was not answered at the time.
It is unclear whether the discussions about future funding have led to anything. Faculty dean Annemie Schols, who should be informed of such matters, e-mailed Observant at the beginning of this week that she didn’t have time to explain. The research facility of the Maastricht Study – which houses the equipment and where participants are tested – has meanwhile been moved from an external location on Randwycksingel to the hospital, to CARIM Clinical Research Unit (CRU).
Stehouwer
When Observant asked Miranda Schram, professor of Diabetes Epidemiology and – with professor Coen Stehouwer – co-founder of the Maastricht Study, whether the sudden departure of the latter has anything to do with the problems concerning funding, the question was not answered either. In August, Stehouwer left UM and MUMC+ with immediate effect. He was head of the Internal Medicine department. Neither he nor the board of the hospital explained his departure. Schram forwarded Observant’s e-mail to the hospital’s spokespersons. They merely stated that “the recent departure of professor Coen Stehouwer will have no consequences for the present research activities of the Maastricht Study.” Not a word is mentioned about a funding problem.