MasterMatch for practice partners

Practice partners can be organisations or institutions from the healthcare sector, civil society, politics, administration or business, who wish to contribute practical issues related to health from their field of work.

You contribute a research topic from your field and support the project with your expertise. This includes professional exchange, insights into practice-relevant contexts, and if necessary and possible for the research question, access to data, documents or interview partners. The extent of individual contributions depends heavily on the research question. For example, if you are interested in a topic that requires interviewing physicians, the students will depend more on your support in collecting data, as this target group is difficult to reach. Conversely, if your question concerns the general population, it is much easier for students to recruit survey participants themselves. Depending on the subject of the thesis, some students may also need to consult you for expertise on the topic. The details of this collaboration will be determined during the first meeting with the student and supervisor, but you should consider them when formulating the question.

No, as the academic supervision and assessment of the master's thesis is the sole responsibility of the university supervisor. Throughout the process, you should be available to provide consultation and feedback on content-related queries, as agreed at the outset. However, you will not be responsible for any tasks related to the submission and evaluation of the thes

The time commitment is flexible and agreed individually. We recommend holding at least four meetings over the course of the project (approximately 1–1.5 years).
At the beginning of the collaboration, there will be a joint meeting between you, the student and the supervisor. During this meeting, the collaboration will be discussed and the cooperation agreement will be signed. You should consider and discuss in advance how tight the timeframe is for the student. For example, if you agreed to assist with data collection, even a delay of a few weeks could cause the student stress. Good communication and transparency are therefore important throughout the collaboration.

MasterMatch facilitates the scientific processing of practice-relevant issues, provides a foundation for evidence-based decision-making in your own work and promotes interaction with universities and students. Thanks to the close supervision and financial support of our theses, you receive a comprehensive academic service.

If you are interested, please email us at healthinsociety(at)univie.ac.at.
Topics can be submitted on an ongoing basis. The deadlines for inclusion in the following semester are 30 September and 28 February.

Submitting a topic does not constitute a binding cooperation agreement. If you are unable to pursue a topic, please inform us as soon as possible so that it can be removed from the process. 

Please note, however, that several people are involved in a MasterMatch collaboration. When you submit a topic, you should therefore be prepared to act as a reliable and accessible point of contact to ensure that the process runs smoothly for everyone involved.