Urbanization brings benefits like housing and jobs but also challenges like biodiversity loss. CML's Urban research program uses science to create sustainable cities, focusing on the built environment (circular economy, urban mining) and enhancing urban nature for biodiversity and human benefits.

Assessing Learning in Higher Education addresses what is probably the most time-consuming part of the work of staff in higher education, and something to the complexity of which many of the recent developments in higher education have added. Getting assessment ‘right’– that is, designing and implementing…

Part of ‘Moralising Misfortune: A comparative anthropology of commercial insurance’, an ERC Consolidator project of Erik Bähre.

To study relationships between emotion regulation after negative and traumatic life events and psychopathology. Within this context, another goal is to develop and validate emotion regulation questionnaires.

To what extent are there differences between countries in and outside the European Union and the Schengen area in the level of crimmigration, the merger between migration control and crime control, and to what extent can these differences be explained by the way in which state and non-state actors in…

Meet Thomas King, alumnus BA International Studies: ‘I’m currently living in London which is a really amazing experience! I’m a British citizen and I moved to the Netherlands to study BA International Studies back in 2017. I had the best three years ever living in The Hague and studying at Leiden.’

Promotor: S.M. Verduyn Lunel

In this article, Eamon Aloyo argues that university supervisors should not use student evaluations of teachers as a measure of teaching effectiveness.

Every student learns about science, but those of the Master Honours Class ‘The Academic Life’ went an extra mile. They learned all the ins-and-outs of academia and rounded off this successful lecture series with a final session on evaluating scientific research.

Explore how stakeholders in Gabon's Makokou region interact with forest resources in logging, agriculture, and mining, and their impacts on social and environmental changes.

Investigating domestic crafts and subsistence activities through experiments and material analysis

This book explores the Indian tradition of liberalism through a critical intellectual biography of Valangaiman Sankaranarayana Srinivasa Sastri (1869–1946).

SAILS aims to forge links between the different disciplines at the University and to initiate new academic partnerships.

Alumni event, Exhibition

Lecture, Sociolinguistics & Discourse Studies Series

With a headwind of 80 kilometres per hour, pouring rain and freezing temperatures, Jurjun van der Velde cycles down the Oosterscheldekering. On his traditional Dutch bike with back pedal brake, he is the second PhD student from the faculty to win the title.

Julia Prümmer, Tommy van Steen & Bibi van den Berg evaluate the effectiveness of cybersecurity training programs for end-users.

Relevant safety issues are associated with hazardous materials transportation, especially when transport routes cross populated areas. This article for the Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process of Industries analyses a 2015 accident with a freight train in Tilburg, comparing it to the Viareggio…

The stratum corneum is the outermost skin layer and consists of dead cells embedded in a lipid matrix.

The RISIS project aims at creating a distributed research infrastructure to support and advance science and innovation studies. This will give the field a strong scientific push forward, and at the same time, provide a radically improved evidence base for research and innovation policies, for research…

This dissertation reports on the requirements for the design and development of teacher assessments, and examines the possibility of developing an assessment procedure that complies with the formulated requirements.

What should the EU do to support Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova? How can the European Union adapt its policies towards these countries in a very difficult and challenging geopolitical context?

Just like the professional riders from the Jumbo-Visma team, amateur cyclists will soon be able to analyse and improve their performance. Leiden data scientists working with the cycling team are making their smart data model available so that every serious cyclist can keep track of their fitness.

How do old and new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) relate to new social and political movements in Central Africa? What does this tell us about Africa and the Information Age?

Bacteria caught red-handed, deeply frozen just as they were about to cause Lyme’s disease. Ariane Briegel is wildly enthusiastic about the wonders she observes thanks to three elements: a freezing technique, a camera-equipped microscope, and AI. ‘It’s fascinating. Every single cell is different.’

The thesis presents a new perspective on Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger (ca.1580-1651), who is nowadays only famous for his works for theorbo and lute, his remarkable output of vocal music of all genres being still mostly neglected from musicologists and performers.

Almost all bacteria are enveloped by a cell wall that provides cellular protection.

How safe are the nanoparticles in transparent sunscreen, anti-odour socks and bacteria-resistant plasters? Although microbes are present on all organisms, the tools that estimate the safety of nanomaterials still hardly take them into account. Bregje Brinkmann explored the role of these microbes during…

An external visitation committee gave the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) an outstanding assessment. In terms of research quality and relevance to society, the IBL gets the highest score: excellent. The increase with five new female professors also receives praise from the committee.

A practical checklist with legal, technical and ethical points of view will from now on guide the data scientists when working in Artificial Intelligence: the AI Impact Assessment (AIIA). It has been developed by ECP (Platform of the Information Society) and nine other partners, among them the Leiden…

Towards self-regulated learning of speaking skills in foreign languages in secondary schools: an adaptive and practical approach.

All life on earth contains DNA, which is used to store biological information. Organisms compact their DNA in order for it to fit inside their cell(s).

On the 28th of October Hein van der Bruggen successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused immense destruction and over 170,000 deaths in the Indonesian province of Aceh. The disaster spurred large-scale social and political changes in Aceh, including the intensified implementation of shari‘a law and an end to the long separatist conflict. After the Tsunami…

Every organisms in the tree of life faces the same challenge: the length of its DNA exceeds the volume of the cell it needs to fit in. Several strategies have evolved to solve this problem, one of them being the expression of proteins that bind and organize the DNA.

The lecture series 'Humanity in the Automated State' concluded on 26 May 2026 at Leiden Law School with its closing lecture by Professor Natali Helberger from the University of Amsterdam.

Two of the 38 scrutinised programmes offered by the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University have been assessed as unsatisfactory by NVAO. The Faculty is already working on improvement plans. Graduates of Humanities have no reason to be concerned about their diplomas; these are and will remain fully…

Exhibition, Book Launch

From 1 March 2025, a new university ‘fossil fuel collaboration’ committee will assess potential new collaborations with the fossil fuel industry and determine whether they comply with the Paris Agreement.

On Wednesday 14 February 2024 Yorum Beekman successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

What is the effect of light at night on plant phenology and physiology, and how does this affect plant interactions with other species?

The state should prepare 'lifers' better for returning to society, for example by giving them some control over their own lives. This is the finding of Marieke Liem in her book 'After Life Imprisonment', published on 19 August.

This article investigates which factors most influence individuals’ decisions to engage in conversations about risk.