At the end of last year, I went on a five-day trip (Monday 28 November – Friday 2 December) to visit the Department of Performance Psychology at the German Sport University Cologne, funded by the Erasmus+ teaching mobility agreement. This was an exciting opportunity to meet with staff and students, and participate in a variety of workshops, seminars and presentations, with the aim to develop stronger ties between the two universities.

On the first day I took the tram from the city centre out to the University to meet with Dr Sylvain Laborde (Lecturer in Performance Psychology) who gave me a tour of the department where I got to meet most of the teaching and research staff. I also got the chance to see their new laboratories kitted out with equipment to assess vision, cognition and various physiological markers. Dr Laborde and Professor Markus Raab (Head of Department) even took me to lunch at a nice local restaurant where we talked all things research and teaching, as well as how Germany, England and France (our respective teams) were doing at the World Cup. The trip just happened to coincide with the 2022 football World Cup, providing me with some excellent evening entertainment!

Throughout the week, I participated in different seminars and workshops where Dr Laborde and I discussed ideas for future research projects and grant applications. We also looked at ways to facilitate learning, new approaches to teaching, and delivery of complex material to students. In particular, we discussed the possibility of developing a virtual exchange project between the two universities where it might be possible for students to learn and develop skills from international experts at another university. We hope to set this up for the next academic year.

On my final day at the University, there was a full morning seminar involving a variety of activities, starting with a reflection of the week’s activities for the department. This is a wonderful idea, in which everyone (20 plus researchers) briefly gives a one-minute outline of what they have accomplished that week. This is something the team does every week and it was fascinating to hear what everybody had been working on. Following this, Dr Laborde gave a one-hour presentation of his research activities and progress that year and then it was my turn. I gave a 45-minute presentation to staff and masters students that detailed five years of research on sexual health psychology. The talk was very well received and there was a good 20-minute discussion after the talk where students asked interesting questions, particularly relating to our research on how personality and altruism relate to fertility.

For my final evening in Cologne, Dr. Laborde took me out to a very nice restaurant and a tour of the Christmas markets. The Christmas markets in Cologne are incredible and it really felt like a winter wonderland. Overall, this was an extremely enjoyable and fruitful trip and I strongly recommend others take a Christmas trip to Cologne in the future. It really was a great opportunity to build relationships between our universities and I look forward to seeing how international collaborations like this will support our students in the years ahead.

Mark Allen is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Leeds Trinity University, with research interests that include sexual health psychology and the psychology of sport and performance.