‘Systematic, coherent, comprehensive policy for the long-term,’ is key to initiatives by different groups within the University to collectively reinforce their quality, says Diversity Officer Isabel Hoving. On Thursday 15 June 2017 the Minister of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) visited Leiden…

Can we reshape school playgrounds through data and design? By using AI and wearable sensors, data scientist Maedeh Nasri discovered ways to create environments where children, including those with ADHD and autism, can connect, play, and grow.

The interdisciplinary, English-taught minor ‘Violence Studies’ looks at violence from very diverse scientific perspectives. What are the benefits from this approach? Students and lecturers evaluate: ‘This minor’s a goldmine’.

What are the main issues leading to polarisation and division? What is the role of social exclusion in these processes? How can we inform and design better policies to safeguard young people from falling prey to intolerance and polarisation? The DRIVE project, led by Leiden University in The Hague,…

Leiden University was founded in 1575 and is one of the leading international research universities in Europe. Its motto is Praesidium Libertatis – Bastion of Freedom

The past two years, Laura van der Knaap and Professor Karsten Lambers worked on creating open teaching materials on agent-based modeling, funded by Erasmus+ and in collaboration with Danish, Irish and Dutch partners. Programming is an important skill involved in this, which is often seen as intimidating…

Marieke Liem, professor at ISGA, discusses how the number of drug-related murders has not decreased in the last years

People in the Early Bonze Age used bronze artefacts as a means of payment. This is the conclusion reached by archaeologists Maikel Kuijpers and Catalin Popa in a PLOS ONE article published on 20 January. The discovery led to a surge of media reports.

People in the Early Bonze Age used bronze artefacts as a means of payment. This is the conclusion reached by archaeologists Maikel Kuijpers and Catalin Popa in a PLOS ONE article published on 20 January.

Since the demonstration over a year ago on the Wijnhaven campus, Leiden University has developed plans and initiatives to create the safest possible work and study environment for our university community. The Executive Board would like to explain what has happened since and what else we can expect…

How do politics and play relate to each other? Six Leiden academics hope to find an answer to that question over the coming years. They have received an NWO grant of 750,000 euros. Professor Sybille Lammes and University Lecturer Bram tell us how they plan to spend the money.

EU Cyber Direct – EU Cyber Diplomacy Initiative supports the European Union’s cyber diplomacy and international digital engagements in order to strengthen rules-based order in cyberspace and build cyber resilient societies. To that aim, we conduct research, support capacity building in partner countries,…

Leiden was European City of Science in 2022: for a year Leiden was the capital of European science. Leiden University was a proud partner of Leiden2022.

Vulnerability and the associated levels of social resilience is what fascinates the researchers at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology. What links a Japanese fisherman after the tsunami at Fukushima with a Ghanaian goldminer in an increasingly industrialised work environment?…

The volume is one-stop shopping for crisis studies and a number of closely related fields, providing a window onto the latest thinking in the field. The articles reflect cutting edge, state of the art scholarship and pose key questions for research and practical development.

Research at the department of Environmental Biology

Feeling good doesn’t just lift our mood—it also helps us stay flexible and resilient. A new study by an international team of neuroscientists shows that natural brain opioids released after rewards play a key role in broadening attention, offering fresh insights into stress, cognition, and well-bein…

The English taught interdisciplinary minor Violence Studies looks into various facets of interpersonal violence. Is this minor for all Leiden students? These two 'colleagues' are certain of it.

113 Suicide Prevention gave a guest lecture about suicide prevention at the Spanish Steps in Wijnhaven

When do we say violence was used in an incident? The answer may seem obvious at first. But interim results from a study by Jolien van Breen show that Dutch people are labelling events in increasingly broad contexts as violent.

The steady decline in lethal gun violence in the EU came to halt in 2012 and some countries, such as Sweden, have even noticed an increase since then. An arms race among drug criminals and an increase in the availability of illegal firearms could lead to more criminal and gun violence. This is one of…

‘Countering violent extremism – the international deradicalization agenda’ is the name of the book Tahir Abbas published last month. In this interview the associate professor in Terrorism and Political Violence at ISGA tells about the backgrounds and goals of the book.

This research explores how international organisations responded to the humanitarian and human rights challenges brought about by COVID-19.

In this article, Sophie Vériter examines the EU’s unprecedented ban on Russian state media following the invasion of Ukraine, using securitisation theory

This special anniversary year highlights not only our resilience and perseverance, but also the connection between our staff, students and alumni. We reflect on what we have achieved and set our sights on tomorrow's challenges and opportunities.

The course is taught by experts from Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) and guest speakers from the Centre for Professional Learning (CPL). They bring academic depth and practical experience from the fields of security policy, counterterrorism, and international rela…

This volume is the outcome of collaborative European research among archaeologists, archaeobotanists, ethnographers, historians and agronomists, and frequently used experiments in archaeology.

Quantum computing is an emerging technology, which holds the potential to simulate complex quantum systems beyond the reach of classical numerical methods.Despite recent formidable advancements in quantum hardware, constructing a quantum computer capable of performing useful calculations remains challenging.In…

Cities need to become greener, more biodiverse, and climate-resilient. However, many organisms that are vital for the functioning of urban green spaces and the wellbeing of urban citizens remain largely unknown.

The Central Asia Initiative in Leiden was launched by the Leiden research area Asia Modernities and Traditions (AMT) in February 2015.

Follow this page to keep up to date about relevant activities.

Eva Michaels & Monika Sus examine strategic autonomy in EU foreign policy, tracing evolution from the 1998 Saint-Malo Declaration to its current focus.

Projects in the department of Environmental Biology

The corona crisis is also a disinformation crisis for the global community in general, and for the European Union (EU) in particular. What is less clear is how adequate the EU’s response to the ‘infodemic’ has been. This essay exposes the dangers of disinformation for the EU, which have intensified…

The new Dutch government must act quickly to take rapid, far-reaching measures in three specific regions to tackle nitrogen emissions. This will create the space for a long-term strategy to deal with other urgent problems and the knot of obligations that the state will need to untangle. These are the…

Swarms of drones, pedestrians or the cells in your body. Those are all examples of active matter: materials whose building blocks can move autonomously. That’s what Luca Giomi studies. Giomi has been appointed Professor of theoretical physics in the area of soft matter and biological physics at the…

With the rise of AI, interest in computational linguistics and language models has taken flight. But machines are far from being able to go it alone. In her inaugural lecture, Professor Carole Tiberius will stress the importance of research on word combinations. ‘We know a great deal but there is a…

For ten months, PhD student Sanne Rotmeijer worked on the editorial boards of various news media on Curaçao and Sint Maarten. She also tracked how news goes around on the streets and circulates on social media. The aim? To find out how stories became 'the news'.

PhD defence

Improving health, enhancing well-being and reducing health disparities across society.

Lecture

The University’s Vision on Student Well-Being outlines how the University plans to promote student well-being in the coming years.

Whilst resisting abhorrent Russian aggression, Ukraine has made a clear choice for a future in Europe. With an association agreement already in place, and Ukraine being a candidate for EU membership, Ukrainian lawyers need to be trained in EU law and Ukrainian Law Schools need to develop the capacity…

Prof.dr. Eric De Brabandere from the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies has received a grant from the Municipality of the Hague to create an investment treaty arbitration database.

Deep-brain stimulation (DBS) is the most promising surgical treatment for movement and neuropsychiatric disorders, but is accompanied by unwanted side effects. Birte Forstmann, professor by special appointment, has been awarded a ERC Proof of Concept Grant to create an atlas of the human deep brain…

Lecture

We investigate the processes underlying the patterns. We aim to explain biodiversity by investigating the distribution, function, development, and evolution of body forms, as well as physiological and behavioural variety among species. We collaborate with those specialized in describing, archiving,…

Finland reduced its suicide rate from 30 deaths per 100,000 citizens. Marieke Liem and Leah Prencipe discuss this in The Conversation.

With a recently published major research project and an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, the struggle for independence in Indonesia has been thrusted back into the spotlight. Leiden University is devoting attention to this topic as well. History students Sander van der Horst and Melle van Maanen joined…