Just a few years ago, jihadist terrorism was seen as Europe’s most pressing threat. Today, we are facing hybrid warfare and extremist groups that are undermining our safety from within. Bart Schuurman, Professor of Terrorism and Political Violence, calls for a different kind of research.

From academic freedom to security and medical breakthroughs: during Leiden University’s 451st Dies Natalis, the speakers reflected on the role of universities in a world of social and geopolitical tensions.

Leiden University contributed to colonialism and slavery through its research and teaching. And governors and residents of Leiden had an active role in colonial networks. These are the findings of two explorative studies presented on 3 April.

‘Collaboration is increasingly important,’ Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker said at the 445th Dies Natalis of Leiden University on 7 February. But, as he heard from a number of Leiden researchers, this is contingent upon a firm disciplinary basis. A novelty of this year’s celebration was a joint dies…

Several prizes have been awarded to students and staff or the Institute of Psychology. Congratulations to all of them.

INFORM (Introduction of the data protection reform to the judicial system) is a project granted by the Directorate-General Justice and Consumers of the European Commission.

The Data-Driven Drug Discovery Network (D4N) is an initiative by researchers from Leiden University and collaborators to join efforts in applying and developing novel techniques from data science to drug discovery and related topics from bioinformatics.

Some examples of AI-research done at Leiden.

The CADS Asia Research Cluster extends the legacy of the Institute’s Asia focus into the future, as an important hub in international networks on the study of Asia and through active engagement with colleagues in Asia. Within the Institute the Asia Research Cluster offers a platform for anthropologists…

Democratic citizenship refers to the capacity and willingness of citizens to actively influence the functioning of state institutions. While considered a vital correlate of democratization and the rule of law, its largely western-oriented literature rarely studies the forms of democratic citizenship…

Our Institute’s research focuses on ‘global vulnerabilities and social resilience’. Specifically, we highlight three interconnected themes: diversity, sustainability, and digitalisation.

Our research projects address cutting-edge and forward-looking societal challenges at the intersection of law and technology.

How do the pathways of Dutch converts to Islam involved in jihadist movements differ from those of Dutch converts who are not, in terms of their life prior to Islam, their conversion experience and the form of involvement with the Islamic community after conversion?

To what extent can contingent, formative feedback in lectures, facilitated by web-based ICT, increase students’ self-efficacy and (academic, behavioral, and cognitive) engagement? And how are self-efficacy and engagement influencing students’ performance and course evaluations?

The Food citizens? team has included two post-docs, three Ph.D. candidates and two research assistants working with the Principal Investigator. The Winter School involved nine Masters and Ph.D. candidates from the universities of Bologna, Gothenburg, Kaunas, Leiden, Louvain, Tromsø, Turin and Utrech…

Between foraging and farming: an extended broad spectrum of papers presented to Leendert Louwe Kooijmans.

The |0100| Project studies the discourses, practices and imaginaries of Islamic information society’s most debated component- Artificial Intelligence- using multimodal and mixed methods and comparing and contrasting narratives and imagery of AI-religious-futures in Muslim Southeast Asia.

Experimental research

What is the impact of research-based learning on critical thinking competence and academic achievement in undergraduate education? What are underlying factors of research-based learning in the learning environment?

Psycholinguistic research

Psycholinguistic research

A full overview of MCBIM PhD theses.

How to minimalize the chance of recidivism for extremist prisoners.

Psycholinguistic research

Leiden University has long history of research and teaching on Asian traditions, with a focus on language and philology, history, religious studies, philosophy, law and literature. Leiden has in the last thirty years also built up an equally impressive strength in the study of modern and contemporary…

Our team is committed to the study of knowledge in its broadest sense, encompassing both ideas and practices in all its historical variety. We look at what people regarded as knowledge, how they created, collected, circulated and used it, also why it mattered to them, and how all this was embedded in…

Leiden University has had a campus in The Hague for over 20 years and sees the city as its second hometown.

This project investigates the multilingual networks of Dutch lyrical texts, manuscripts and early prints, examining their transmission, dissemination, and reception during the 15th and 16th century.

Research Network Institute for History 2026-2029

Research Network Institute for History 2026-2029

Research at the Leiden Institute of Physics is foundational and curiosity driven. All our scientists share a desire to increase the knowledge of the world around us, in an open atmosphere of inquiry from which innovative ideas emerge that provide applications and value for society.

Alumni who live and work in Brussels met on 18 February at the annual Leiden Alumni in Brussels Event. As well as celebrating Leiden University’s 450th anniversary, they also looked at the challenges Europe faces.

Care robots, medical treatments, deepfakes and self-driving cars all with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI). The BrAInpower exhibition at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave shows spectacular applications of AI and explains how it can make such huge leaps. Bas Haring, Professor of Public Understanding of Science,…

Het College van Bestuur laat door een postdoc een eenjarig vooronderzoek doen naar het koloniale en slavernijverleden van de Universiteit Leiden.

Today, 13 May 2024, Leiden University’s Executive Board is publishing the advice of the committee that investigated reports of unacceptable behaviour and breaches of academic integrity. These reports were about a professor from the university and their partner (a former member of the university staf…

A school lesson by a professor, for instance about the history of Africa, the climate or research and healthcare. A hundred Leiden professors told primary school children about their work in the Meet the Professor project.

Staff and student mobility, a cooperative education programme and the possibility of a joint research center in artificial intelligence and data science. A delegation from Chinese partner XJTU paid a fruitful visit to the Faculty of Science in the last week of October.

Between 25 April and 1 May 2026, Luc Sels, President of the Executive Board of Leiden University, paid a week-long visit to Cairo highlighting the growing strategic importance of Egypt in international academic cooperation and the increasingly central role of Leiden University’s institutes abroad as…

Samen met een groep enthousiaste wetenschappers bezocht ik deze maand verschillende universiteiten en andere kennisinstellingen tijdens een kennismissie in Indonesië.

Lecture

The ‘Community Resilience Fund’, a programme of the Canadian federal government, approved a research grant for Dr. Bart Schuurman of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs.

The activities of the Europa Institute (also known as the Department of European Law) are supported by ‘Stichting Europees Instituut’. This foundation was the first of its kind in both the Netherlands and Europe as a whole. Established in 1957, its aim was to ‘support and advance the study of scientific…

Since the beginning of September, it is a fact: our faculty has a new strategic plan. The plan outlines what we will collectively commit to in the coming years. Is that important? For sure, say our directors Suzanne van der Pluijm (Operations) and Bart de Smit (Education). ‘The purpose of a strategic…

The theme of the Opening of the Academy Year on 4 September was sustainability and how the university could take the lead as a change agent. How is it going about this and what else can it do? There was also room for a critical note.

A delegation from Leiden University visited the Netherlands Institute Morocco (NIMAR) in Rabat at the end of February.

De AIVD gebruikt omstreden hacksoftware van de Israëlische leverancier NSO Group, meldde de Volkskrant. In 2019 zou de telefoon van topcriminineel Ridouan Taghi er mee gehackt zijn.

On 15 March, the 28-year-old Australian right-wing extremist Brenton Tarrant committed a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch in New Zealand. Jelle van Buuren, Bart Schuurman, Daan Weggemans and Tahir Abbas all working at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) have been approached…

Bart Custers was appointed Professor of Law and Data Science on the first of July. This makes him the first professor to be appointed for the SAILS program. SAILS is a university-wide initiative that focuses on broadening and deepening research into artificial intelligence. In addition, SAILS will focus…