Edwin Bakker is one of the speakers during the

The life of a researcher is not easy, as many a scientist will confirm; but doing fieldwork in an environment of conflict and violence is extremely compex, attests the account of Dr Roland Ziébé, veterinarian in Cameroon and researcher at both the Leiden Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) and…

Het voorstel van D66 om een wetsartikel zo te veranderen dat een politieke partij kan worden verboden, is onverstandig, zegt rechtsfilosoof Bastiaan Rijpkema. Hij spreekt er uitgebreid over tijdens een interview met de Volkskrant. ‘Het is overduidelijk bedoeld om één specifieke partij aan te pakken:…

Farmers do not love them all. Microbes can cause tragic consequences for crops. Even the presence of just one pathogenic fungus or bacterium can drastically reduce yields. Still, there are exceptions. In that case, a pathogenic microbe is present in the soil, but does not cause any harm. Adam Ossowicki…

He is the chair of the Faculty Council, Director of Education at the Institute for Philosophy and a Fellow of the Leiden Teachers’ Academy, and was recently appointed for three years as chair of the Humanities Lab. This is the Honours College programme of the Faculty of Humanities for students of all…

Like ants, termites and bees, some bacteria work together as a multicellular group. There is a strict division of labour in such colonies, to make the group more resilient to the outside world. Now researchers have found that some parts of the bacterial colony can take ‘for the greater good’ to a whole…

Twice a year, Gert Renkema, Head of Financial and Economic Affairs at FGGA, provides us with an update on the faculty’s finances. This time, he sits down with Niels Laurens, Director of Operations, over a cup of coffee and tea to share the results of the past year and the financial outlook.

PhD student Robbin Bastiaansen applies mathematics to get insight in practical problems. By comparing mathematical models with developments in existing ecosystems, he hopes to demystify the process of desertification. His research has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…

Our master’s alumna Marie Kolbenstetter was recently awarded a NWO subsidy for a PhD in the Humanities. With this funding she will be able to continue her master’s thesis research on the archaeology of Honduras at our Faculty. ‘I’m really happy to have my own project. This has been two years in the…

I recently went to the anniversary celebration of The Meeting Point, and the stories the refugee students told made a huge impression on me. The Meeting Point helps students from different backgrounds feel part of our university community.

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has awarded the Heineken Young Scientist Award 2020 in the Social Sciences to developmental psychologist Anna van Duijvenvoorde for her research on the development of the brain and behaviour in adolescents.

Emeritus Professor Ben Lugtenberg edited a book on “Principles of Plant-Microbe Interactions” together with Paul Hooykaas, Eddy van der Meijden and Jos Raaijmakers, all from the IBL.

Pancras Hogendoorn bade farewell as Dean of Medicine and Vice-Chairman of the LUMC Board of Directors with a symposium at the LUMC.

Can suffering be positive? Currently dominant discourses, primarily voiced through human rights activism and humanitarianism, maintain the opposite: suffering, mentally and physically, has to be avoided and where it exists, it has to be reduced.

Childcare, no access to labs and extra time for online teaching. These are the main reasons why young researchers at Leiden University have seen a significant drop in their productive working hours since the beginning of lockdown. These are the results of a Young Academy Leiden survey of over 200 early-career…

Co-production it is called: collaboration between citizens and public servants with reference to public services. Carola van Eijk defends het PhD thesis on this subject at the Institute of Public Administration in The Hague. Defense 11 October 2017.

Developing a digital guest lecture for high school students. Jan Sleutels was immediately enthusiastic when he got asked to do this. The end result? Together with his colleague Maarten Lamers, he created the guest lecture 'Thinking about Artificial Intelligence'.

The Leiden University Green Office is pleased to announce its Spring Podcast competition -- Beyond the Safe Space -- on the theme: the Planetary Boundaries.

As part of the final project for the Islam in South and Southeast Asia course (taught by Dr Verena Meyer), students were tasked with creating podcasts that delve into significant cultural and historical topics related to the region. Two students, Roma Bhiekhemsing and Shaneeva Bean, have chosen to share…

Food production in the Netherlands is an economic success but has led to many environmental issues, including nitrogen pollution. Recently, the policy to allow economic growth while reducing nitrogen losses was disapproved by the highest court in the Netherlands, casting the country into a nitrogen…

Arnold van der Valk on Food Council MRA.

‘The care of an au pair' is chosen as the best Fieldwork NL report and 'The unruly reality of a new government' as the best master's thesis. Lila van Grieken, Annika Kruger, Benjamín Maldonado Fernández and Holly Zijderveld and Mony Klaus receive the Speckmann Award 2024.

A year ago, we looked back at a wonderful 4th international PUPOL conference in Wellington, New Zealand. The conference theme “Collaborative Leadership for a Sustainable Future” could not have been more suitable - unbelievable how our environment has changed in a short time as a result of COVID-19 and…

The PhD Project “Agents of change? (Hi)stories, perspectives, and every-day practices of intra-Schengen border officials” as carried out by PhD Candidate Maryla Klajn got off to a flying start.

We are pleased to invite abstracts for a conference on ‘Advancing Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights in a Polarised, Digitalised, and Unequal World’ to be held at Leiden University on 4 and 5 September 2025, in collaboration with Netherlands Network for Human Rights Researh (NNHRR).

At the first Climate Café of 2025, we celebrated the one-year anniversary of The Hague Climate Agreement and reflected together on the successes and opportunities for the future.

For four years, Vicky Beckers examined thin slices of wood under a microscope, mapping the anatomy of two plant families. Her research helps identify different wood species, benefiting both the timber trade and archaeology.

A lot is going on in the world right now, and our university regularly faces big issues and dilemmas too. Then it can be tricky to switch off. For me, exercise is a way to unwind. We want our staff to be able to relax too and are therefore offering various events and workshops that should help.

The academic year is drawing to a close, and summer is on the horizon. FGGA students are working hard to wrap everything up. We asked some of them to reflect on the past year and share their insights and tips for fellow students.

How can The Netherlands, France and Germany cooperate more closely on issues such as European security and defence. Join the kick off of The European Strategic Dialogue Series, an initiative by the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and its partners in France and Germany. Joachim Koops tells more…

Imagine getting a notification on your mobile phone with your personal code for impending mental health problems or even depression: yellow, orange, or red. Science fiction? Not for scientist Eiko Fried. 'There is a real chance we can prevent some mental health problems before they occur.' Want to participate…

Tech giants such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft are increasingly shaping the digital world we live in. Reijer Passchier cautions: 'Urgent measures are needed to curb this influence.'

How can we work together to create a safe study and learning environment and offer students the support that they need? The Vision on Student Well-Being outlines the University’s plans to promote student well-being in the coming years.

Lecture

Lecture, Tuesday Talks: Science Insights

What causes depression in a child and how can they get over it? Leiden Professor of Psychology Bernet Elzinga and behavioural scientist Carine Kielstra recently hosted a webinar on the subject of depression in teenagers. The level of interest was overwhelming.

The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) has received a 4m grant for the ECOTIP project. In this project researchers will study how our physical environment affects our health. The aim is to find tipping points: at what point is there a real lack of greenery, healthy food or clean air in a neighb…

The euro crisis of 2010 has shown that the Eurozone lacks economic cohesion and that EU fiscal integration is needed for a stable euro. But can this integration exist without clashing with the national constitutional interests of the Member States? Frederik Behre looked into this matter in his PhD-thesis…

A new year that will bring all sorts of developments in the world of research. What are the new year’s resolutions in social sciences research at our faculty? What unites us, and what exciting developments do we anticipate?

The 2022 Academy is co-organised by Leiden, Delft Erasmus Universities (The LDE Alliance) from the Netherlands and the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN). Aim of this five day programme is co-creation in the field of teaching and research on sustainable urbanisation. It also aims to facilitate…

The publication of the recent IPCC report on climate change has not gone unnoticed, to put it mildly, certainly not within the Liveable Planet community.

The latest forum in the Hague Journal of Diplomacy highlights the rich potential for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of architecture, diplomacy, and international relations. These contributions, spanning from the early American republic to the contemporary era, reveal how diplomatic spaces…

Lecture, China Seminar

Graduates Bruno and Plym took part in the National Think Tank last year. Together with 20 other students and recent graduates, they spent four months pondering the future of our digital society. ‘You learn so much in the space of four months, not just practical skills but also about yourself.’

Een internationaal consortium onder leiding van Olaf van Vliet heeft een Horizon Europe subsidie van 3,4 miljoen euro gewonnen. In het onderzoek staat centraal hoe wereldwijde sociale veranderingen zoals migratie, digitalisering en de klimaattransitie de arbeidsmarkt beïnvloeden en wat daar de gevolgen…

Lecture

If you are going to study, it is not only important that you like the study programme. It’s also good to already have an idea of which professions you might enjoy.