Leiden researchers Arjen Doelman, Tom Huizinga and Manfred Wuhrer have been awarded ERC Synergy Grants worth millions of euros for their research on preventing tipping points being reached in ecosystems and helping eradicate rheumatism.

Craft your own empirical research in workshops of the ELS lab @Leiden!

Are you worried about your smartphone addiction? Trust us, it could have been far worse… A shocking discovery, by an interdisciplinary team of specialists from Leiden University, revealed that Neolithic people were heavily addicted to stone axes. The axes were produced under horrific circumstances in…

Last Thursday, the April edition of the ILS Lunch Seminars took place. This well visited seminar took on a slightly different format, since we had the honour of receiving Leandro Mancano from the University of Edinburgh.

On Monday 4 September, Professor Christopher Martinez, from the Universidad de Concepción (University of Concepción), Chile, was invited by the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law to introduce his forthcoming book at our university.

A better integration of Digital Humanities into study programmes, so that students develop their digital skills as well as possible. That is what Hossam Ahmed wants to achieve in the coming years. He received a senior Comenius Fellowship to develop a digital programme for students.

On September 16th, 2024, Dr Arjan Louwen was inaugurated to the Young Academy Leiden. This platform serves to bring young, enthusiastic and driven early career (post-PhD) academics together. ‘I find it a really inspiring and welcoming group.’

Safety and security risks ranging from cybercrime to terrorism threats are a growing concern worldwide. Technological developments have made security issues increasingly complex. This is typically a topic for the multidisciplinary Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities (LDE) curriculum.

What hidden nature is there in our cities and how can we use such organisms? This is what the HiddenBiodiversity project will be exploring over the next four years. The project’s kick-off meeting was held at the Hortus botanicus on Monday 26 September.

You can hardly avoid it if you want to quickly implement satellite internet. Elon Musk's company Starlink is

One perspective, one cell, one outlook on life: what are we all prisoners of? That’s the question Vrij Nederland put to various experts, including Joni Reef, Assistant Professor and Research Fellow at the Department of Criminology.

On 9 October 2023, Carlotta Rigotti and Eduard Fosch-Villaronga participated in the BIAS webinar on citizen science and AI technologies, namely the first awareness-raising activity of the Horizon Europe BIAS project. They discussed online citizens’ engagement on tackling gender and intersectional biases…

Madalina Busuioc, Associate Professor at the Institute of Public Administration, has been awarded the prestigious Fernand Braudel Senior Fellowship by the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence.

On 10 December Walter Burkard won the Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award 2020 for his thesis on climate change and children’s rights. The prize for the best master’s thesis in the field of children’s rights is awarded every year by Defence for Children and the Department of Child Law of Leiden…

Arteriosclerosis bears great similarities to autoimmune diseases. Researchers from Leiden University show this in a new study they published in the renowned scientific journal Nature Cardiovascular Research. 'This discovery suggests that treatment methods for autoimmune diseases might also be effective…

Carlo Beenakker has been appointed a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the organisation behind the journal Science. Among the Fellows, he is the third Dutch person and first Leiden researcher.

Recently, four books have been published which contain a chapter by ACPA senior researcher, lecturer and PhD-supervisor Dr. Marcel Cobussen.

Maartje van der Woude, (Professor of Law & Society, Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University) has received an NWO research grant. This year, 60 of these grants in the Domain of Social Sciences and Humanities were awarded by research funder NWO. It is a prestigious grant for research on a topic…

The International Network for School Attendance launched an inaugural conference in Norway, playing host to 14 countries, 254 participants. Lead of this international network for the Netherlands is psychologist David Heyne of Leiden University.

The Humanities Campus will take further shape in 2024, with the completion of the South Cluster in February and a whole series of moves that will then take place in the spring and summer. A few highlights of the upcoming moves are described below.

On Wednesday 25 January 2017 Esmeralda Vergeer will defend her doctoral thesis Regeldruk vanuit een ander perspectief (Regulatory burden from a different perspective). The defence will start at 16.15 hrs, at the Academy Building of Leiden University, Rapenburg 73. The supervisor of the research is Professor…

Een minderheid van de uithuisgeplaatste kinderen keert terug naar hun ouders, blijkt uit onderzoek van Universiteit Leiden. Hoogleraar jeugdrecht Mariëlle Bruning sprak met verschillende nieuwsmedia: ‘Alles staat zo onder druk dat te weinig ingezet kan worden op intensieve hulp.’

The intestinal bacterium E. coli can adapt to changes in its surroundings. Leiden scientists have discovered how the H-NS protein makes this possible. This new knowledge can be an important starting point in combatting bacteria and diseases such as peritonitis. Publication 2 October in the journal e…

The question of how military interventions can best transition to a long term counter-terrorism policy forms the core research question of three interlinked reports. This research project has been completed with support of NATO’s Science for Peace and Security Programme. Leiden University researchers…

As of 1 October Rob van Nieuwpoort is the new professor of Efficient Computing and eScience at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS). Van Nieuwpoort brings with him a wealth of expertise: he is an expert in eScience, high performace computing and advanced algorithms.

A man died in Assen while being detained by bystanders. The man allegedly touched a young girl inappropriately and the girl’s father is believed to have been one of the bystanders. Five men have been arrested by the police and later released. As a result, wild rumours have started circulating. How does…

Leiden students Floris Holstege and Lisa Schallenberg are competing in the final of the world debating championship on 3 January. The championship, which has been held every year since 1981, is being held in The Hague this year. Almost 400 teams from 94 different countries will be competing for the…

Publish Your Reviews is an initiative encouraging peer reviewers to share their reviews and to contribute to open science and transparant research communication.

'Never underestimate universities as a connecting force.' These were the words of Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker in his address on the Dies Natalis, in reference to the imminent Brexit. A message that struck a chord with the Dutch and international media.

Seksueel grensoverschrijdend gedrag op de werkvloer moet strenger worden aangepakt. Zo stelde regeringscommissaris seksueel grensoverschrijdend gedrag Mariëtte Hamer na haar benoeming begin 2022. Een jaar later verschijnt haar ‘Handreiking meldingen van seksueel grensoverschrijdend gedrag op de werkvloer’.…

For the spring semester 2025, the Austria Centre Leiden and the Institute History are excited to welcome Prof. Eva Pfanzelter to Leiden for her term as Visiting Professor in Central European Studies. Prof. Pfanzelter will teach two classes, give public talks in Leiden and around The Netherlands and…

The Babylab, part of the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) and SSH Labs infrastructure, has recently introduced a new eye tracking device for conducting research into first language acquisition.

In his report, Dutch cabinet negotiator Kim Putters proposes the formation of a ‘programme cabinet’ and an outline agreement. The four political parties involved have agreed on this form of cabinet, and Putters therefore appears to have succeeded in his mission. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional…

Nerve pain is one of the most common side effects of chemotherapy. It is therefore one of the biggest reasons for cancer patients to stop treatment early. Darcy Reynolds worked on new drug candidates against this pain during her bachelor's thesis. She developed a new series of molecules that increase…

Leiden research on psychology and archaeology will boosted by two subsidies. Both research projects focus on children.

Mathematician Stéphanie van der Pas and psychologist Sandy Overgaauw have been nominated for the New Scientist science talent competition, a prize for the most talented scientist in the Netherlands and Flanders.

Fluctuations in individual plant communities contribute to the stability of an ecosystem as a whole, a study published in Ecology Letters shows. Nadia Soudzilovskaia and colleagues for the first time used data from plant communities across five continents to prove this hypothesis.

Mums posting photos and videos of their child on Instagram and TikTok and also earning loads of money doing so. Kidfluencers, momvloggers and familyvlogs are very popular, in the Netherlands too. But the lack of legislation regulating these activities means that these children are barely protected.…

Authorities in Denmark and Sweden are examining whether it is possible to ban Quran burning following recent incidents. These have caused tension in many Islamic countries as well as in the countries where they occurred.

'We can uncover new, non-pharmacological strategies to help individuals, especially those struggling with weight los.' Psychologist Aleksandrina Skvortsova receives a LUF grant for her research project 'Mind Over Meal: Unraveling placebo effects on hunger, food-related brain activity and food choice…

The Executive Board has appointed Judi Mesman as third Leiden University professor.

In recent years, artificial intelligence has deeply permeated our society and the legal field is no exception. Bart Custers, Professor of Law and Data Science, spoke to ‘Mr. Online’ about AI and the law: ‘AI is currently a hype.’

Jorinde van de Vis wins the For Women in Science Rising Talent-prize for women in science, for her PhD thesis in cosmology and particle physics.

A programming competition in Minecraft? It really exists! And even better news: this time LIACS’ student team Mike's Angels achieved the first place! The team has been rewarded $500.

A new regional atlas, with information about the presence of pesticides in surface waters, has been developed by the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) in collaboration with Royal Haskoning DHV. The aim of the regional pesticide atlas is to support decision making at local and regional levels,…

For many deaf Ghanaians, Ghanaian Sign Language is their first language. But for more deaf signers to be able to fully participate in society, more sign language interpreters, deaf school teachers and family members need to be trained. What better way to facilitate this by means of a Ghanaian Sign Language…

Binary systems, consists of five electronic compositions, in each of which Richard Barrett worked with a specially made recording from an improvising instrumentalist to produce a new kind of compositional collaboration: Daryl Buckley (electric lap steel guitar), Ivana Grahovac (cello), Lori Freedman…

Now that the government has collapsed, the Netherlands will have to vote once more. The elections will not take place before November, says the Electoral Council. The Electoral Act sets deadlines for various steps to be taken before new elections can take place. The fact that the summer recess and autumn…

A new online platform makes it possible to estimate the state of agricultural crops and nature area’s around the world. This enables scientists and other users to consistently combine observations of different satellites for the first time.

Researchers led by Professor of Chemistry Marcellus Ubbink have recently published a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) about the dynamics of an important redox enzyme. This work was accomplished thanks to an NWO VICI subsidy granted to Professor Ubbink.