Graduation Ceremony of the LL.M. Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights 2024–2025

Researchers from the Institute of Biology Leiden have discovered how good intestinal bacteria regulate our innate immune system. This surprising discovery could make it possible to treat diseases related to inflammation, such as diabetes and colitis, with a cocktail of good bacteria. Publication in…

The number of women in the Netherlands dying before, during or after childbirth has halved.

On 8 December, Dirk Visser was awarded a ‘Gouden Peer’ in intellectual property law by legal platform 'Mr.'. He received the prize after being nominated by 25 fellow experts.

Leiden University is entering into a strategic partnership with the Leiden student associations and the Local Chamber of Associations (PKvV). The parties are committed to maintaining and strengthening the existing good relations between them.

Historian Dario Fazzi is the new professor by special appointment at the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (RIAS), a strategic partner of the Faculty of Humanities. He starts on 1 September and will combine his new position with his current teaching duties at the Institute for History.

Yvonne Erkens has been appointed Professor of Labour Law at Leiden University as of 1 January 2026.

More than 40 years ago, a wrecked merchant ship was found in the Wadden Sea. PhD student Geke Burger looked at this archaeological find from a historical perspective.

Over the past year, historian Fenna IJtsma delved into 'four centuries of historical greenery'. As part of the Heritage Deal, with input from biologists at Naturalis and others, she looked for inspiration and examples from the past to contribute to a future climate-proof city centre.

Children who lost their fathers in early modern England ran the risk of being sold to the highest bidder. Although Shakespeare wrote about it in his plays, the practice disappeared from collective memory for a long time. University lecturer Lotte Fikkers is bringing it back to light in a new Vidi research…

Students of the Bachelor Honours Class 'Strategies of Resilience' are exposed to a unique educational experience. Through philosophical insights and creative exercises, participants explore what it means to be resilient. ‘I really feel like it helps you develop as a person.’

Vier leden van het Grotius Centre, Larissa van den Herik, Carsten Stahn, Anna Marhold en emeritus hoogleraar Nico Schrijver, stellen in verschillende media dat de recente aanval op Iran in strijd is met internationaal recht.

Nadia Bouras will give the Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture on 6 March. She will call for academic freedom for everyone.

Do you often find yourself exhausted in the lecture hall or at your workplace? Not great for your mental well-being, as Laura Pape knows. She is investigating how an online self-help program can assist in addressing sleep issues and preventing mental health problems. Join her on this elevator pitch…

‘Wonder is the beginning of insight. Don’t let that academic curiosity erode.’ This was Jan Anthonie Bruijn’s call to administrators and funding bodies in his valedictory lecture.

With the six pieces of the puzzle now assembled by the partners of the University Campus and the Mayor of The Hague, Jan van Zanen, the building at the Spui was officially opened last Thursday.

Socialising with other people is an important part of feeling good. What do children need from their surroundings to do this?

They are only a few tens of micrometres long — far smaller than the width of a human hair – yet these robots can swim, sense, navigate and adapt in ways that look surprisingly life-like. And all this without having a brain.

Vincent van Heuven passed away unexpectedly on Friday 6 February 2026 at the age of 76 at his home in Kûbaard (Friesland), the Netherlands.

LDE-FISIP UI Joint Minor students brought various issues in the Greater Jakarta Area to their final assignment in the form of policy briefs. The policy briefs are based on a month of research on the topics of waste management, the myth of the Jakarta dream of the younger generation, urban farming, energy…

Are you a researcher or educator passionate about connecting your work with societal needs and actors? Do you want to learn and experience how to integrate civic engagement into your work while building meaningful partnerships and enhancing your impact? This hands-on, interdisciplinary training is designed…

Leiden researchers, led by Sebastian Pomplun developed a new method to screen hundreds of thousands of molecules for drug discovery, using mass spectrometry instead of DNA tags. ‘We wanted to make drug discovery faster and more accessible.’

Medicines are becoming increasingly precise and innovative, but at the same time increasingly expensive. With their innovations, it is up to universities to increase competition, thus causing prices to drop. This is what newly appointed Professor of Biomolecular Analysis Hubertus Irth argues. His inaugural…

'Psychologists think I’m a linguist but linguists think I’m a psychologist,' says cognitive neuroscientist Xiaochen Zheng. With the Veni grant she will be able to bring these two fields of research closer together. Read her answers to five questions.

How do we prepare for the impact of new technology that promises to make our systems more powerful and faster than ever? At the Quantum & Law Conference, experts showed that quantum technology raises new legal and ethical issues.

How do you manage a crisis? This is what Professor of Crisis Governance Sanneke Kuipers will address in her inaugural lecture.

A tried and tested medication for treating ADHD works differently than expected in the brains of healthy individuals during rest: rather than stimulating brain activity, it suppresses it.

The Academy for Professionals project started in November. The project will focus on further developing existing and new educational programmes for professionals. ‘This is part of taking valorisation seriously.’

The eight ambitions of Leiden University's vision on education - Learning@LeidenUniversity - were the key theme of the packed Education Festival on 19 June. More than 200 lecturers and students came to PLNT, Leiden's innovation hotspot, for inspiration and best practices in the field of educational…

Since 2014 church organ player Paul Houdijk has been working on his PhD project on the musical and aesthetic developments of the Dutch 19th-century church organ builder Michael Maarschalkerweerd.

The 8th edition of the Brussels Privacy Symposium, co-organised in Brussels by the Future of Privacy Forum and the Brussels Privacy Hub on 7 October 2024, was a great success. More than 160 people from all over Europe and the world attended the event.

Recently, some changes have been made to the catalog of Leiden University Library, making more than 1000 digitized codices more accessible than before. The 'Inventory of Western Medieval Manuscripts Held by Leiden University Libraries,' created by manuscript curator André Bouwman, is also now available:…

This video accompanies the article "Navigating Discretion: A Diplomatic Practice in Moments of Socio-political Rupture", published in Vol. 14, Issue 4 of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy.

In cities like Leeds, Seoul and Malmö, a museum park is a place for unintentional creativity, unsolicited interventions and unorganised sport. Dutch cities could learn a lot from this. In De Architect, Sander Hölsgens describes how skaters are making public spaces more inclusive.

From September 1 onwards, Jonatan Wirix-Speetjens is the new assessor of the Faculty of Humanities. He takes over the baton of former assessor Olivier Fajgenblat. To get to know him a bit better, he introduces himself in this video.

Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, has been appointed as a member of the complaints committee of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). In performing this (ancillary) position, she will use her knowledge of administrative law, and in particular…

Leiden University has taken eighth place in the UI Green Metric, a global sustainability ranking for universities. Over 900 universities from all round the world participated in the ranking.

In a recent article published on PLOS, Drs. Briana Pobiner and Ryan McRae of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History discuss the top 13 discoveries in human evolution in 2023.

Dutch political party VVD wants to set up a 'Mini Schengen zone' to control immigration better. But that is easier said than done, says Professor of European Law, Jorrit Rijpma.

Municipalities and security services actively monitor at least 160 radicalized Muslims in The Netherlands, as is shown in research by the Volkskrant. Terrorism expert Jelle van Buuren explained in the media.

Alanna O'Malley, Associate Professor at Leiden University Institute for History, talks about the possible expelling of the Russian ambassador Yuriy Filatov and the risks that come with the decision.

In de maanden maart, april en mei organiseerde het programma Transparantie in Informatie, van de ministeries van Economische Zaken en Klimaat (EZK) en Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit (LNV), gesprekken over de veranderopgave naar een Open Departement. De sessies hadden als doel om een eerlijk en…

Joanita Vroom, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Archaeology, has received a DANS Klein DataProject (KDP) bursary for her project entitled ‘Data Atlas of Byzantine and Ottoman material culture: archiving Medieval and Post-Medieval archaeological fieldwork data from the Eastern Mediterranean (600…

The first congress of the UU Paleohub, 'The Future of Paleography, Paleography of the Future'. 10 april 2025

What do you want your children to learn from you? How can parents teach their teenagers responsibility? Do children understand differences between rules at home and at school ?

During the 7th annual meeting of the Association for Researchers in Psychology and Health (ARPH) Sylvia van Beugen, from the Health, Medical and Neuropsychology unit, was awarded with the ’Best PhD Thesis Award’ for her dissertation ‘Psychodermatology 2.0: Towards improved assessment and effective digital…

In the Netherlands, attention to empirical legal research is growing. Growing attention to ELS in legal academia goes hand in hand with attention to education in the field of ELS. To what extent do Dutch law students obtain empirical-legal skills?

On Monday 25 September, Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni passed away, at the age of 79. Throughout his distinguished career, Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni has made a unique contribution to international criminal justice.

Moritz Jesse, Associate Professor at the Europa Institute Leiden, was a speaker at the International Conference European Constitutionalism And the Virus of Distrust Conference, which took place on 27 and 28 April in Prague. The Conference brought together academics from all over the European Union to…

This new Casebook features the work of an international, interdisciplinary research group entitled ‘The Joust as Performance: Pas d’armes and Late Medieval Chivalry’.