Does a communal garden provide cool air and warm neighbourly relations? Does an additional row of trees increase biodiversity? These kinds of questions are key in the COMBINED project, on which Leiden scientists and residents of The Hague, among others, can work for six years with 4 million euros from…

Maak kennis met Siggie, online coaching voor FGGA-studenten

We are pleased to provide an update on progress and recent developments related to the Kernvisie. Several milestones have been reached and major steps have been taken. Now, we can look ahead to the important Kernvisie implementation year 2024-2025. Some milestones:

Symposium AI in het juridisch onderwijs

Minister Dijkgraaf van onderwijs wil het aantal internationale studenten terugdringen. Maar mag Nederland dat wel? En zo ja, is het ook wenselijk? Deze vragen behandelde Mark Klaassen, universitair docent bij het Europa Instituut, tijdens de slotbijeenkomst van het Honours College Law op 12 juni.

A generation is growing up in The Hague Southwest with little outdoor play space. Researchers from Health Campus The Hague are following what the BRUIS neighbourhood approach does and means for children and young people in the neighbourhood.

The Faculty of Archaeology is working on a culture change, with the aim of creating a socially safe working environment. Agency Breinkorf was asked to supervise this transition. From Breinkorf, coaches Kasper and Daniëlle, among others, are involved in the process. Their observations provide insight…

Whether a microbe is beneficial or harmful to a plant can now be predicted with high accuracy thanks to bacLIFE. This bioinformatic tool with an intuitive interface makes it much easier to unlock the secrets of bacterial genomes. A group of Leiden biologists presented it in Nature Communications.

Research master student Linda Bomm found in her thesis that men, compared to women, believe female sexual assault survivors less, blame women more, and judge them more negatively – especially if they identify strongly with their male gender.

Each scientific institute has its own dynamics. The Executive Board is visiting the different institutes to find out what is going on there. On 11 March, staff at the Institute of Tax Law and Economics talked to the Board about their teaching and research. What is going well and what are the challen…

In January 2021, eLaw joined the Computers Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) Conference that is about privacy and data protection. The group on Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University put together a panel that combined perspectives on Art, Society, & Technology.

Black-and-white photographs filled with solemn young men and distinguished professors line the walls of the Grand Auditorium. Young women are missing from the photos; women rarely obtained PhDs 50 years ago. And this article is about that group, the PhD candidates between 1966 and 1972, who were invited…

Woensdag 7 september bezochten de nieuwe eerstejaarsstudenten Rechtsgeleerdheid en Criminologie de Stadsgehoorzaal voor een College Tour met als thema: Strafzaken en de media. Presentatrice Annemarie Brüning, bekend van Hart van Nederland, ging hierover in gesprek met professionals uit het vakgebied…

Second-year Law student Rosemarijn Sterk achieved the highest average mark for her foundation year (2024–2025). Her average mark of 9.2 was the highest of all first-year students at our faculty. As a result, Rosemarijn was awarded a cash prize of €150 from the Legatum Böckelmanianum fund.

It is said that robots replace human interaction, but not always. This spring, the robots were the reason why the eLaw Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University in the Netherlands and Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) Law School in Lithuania got together.

It is the final stretch for the students of FGGA. Summer is approaching and they are working hard to complete everything before the summer holidays. We asked some of them how they look back at the academic year. ‘Being a mentor during HOP week is something I can recommend to everyone’

In its Strategic Plan Leiden University sets its direction for the coming years. A new plan will be presented next year, and in the runup to this we are organising different forms of student and staff consultation within the scope of LDN FWD (‘Leiden Forward’). A series of meetings were recently held…

Laura van der Plas has been Wellbeing Officer for the Campus Den Haag since the end of 2021. By means of various projects, she makes sure that more attention is given to student wellbeing. How are things going so far? And what are these projects exactly? Laura talked to us to give us an update.

Prof. Andrea Evers is a health psychologist who studies the role of behavioural factors in health and disease. As a Medical Delta Professor, she is now affiliated with Leiden University, TU Delft and Erasmus University. In that position, she conducts research at the intersection of various disciplines.…

With ongoing protests across Iran, many are asking whether the regime is on the brink of collapse. Three Leiden experts share their perspectives.

For the fifth year in succession, on the foundation day of the university, Leiden professors taught a lesson at primary schools as part of the ‘Meet the Professor’ programme.

An article in Leiden University’s Mare newspaper on 24 September states that the University Council advised against reappointing President of the Executive Board Annetje Ottow. The Board of Governors, deans and Annetje Ottow respond below.

Samen met een groep enthousiaste wetenschappers bezocht ik deze maand verschillende universiteiten en andere kennisinstellingen tijdens een kennismissie in Indonesië.

We are proud to share that Hadassah Drukarch, a graduate of our Advanced LL.M. in Law and Digital Technologies (class of 2022-2023), has been honored with the prestigious 2023 Brinkhof Internet Thesis Award for her thesis research that explores the intricate interplay between data protection regulation…

In 2025, our colleagues from the Institute of Psychology once again made a strong presence in the media. From (inter)national newspapers to podcasts, discover where they shared their expertise in the media this year.

How did you get to where you are now? This is a key question in the Academic Life Course board game, developed by and for academics. ‘In a normal working week we hardly ever talk about the career choices we make, but with this game, we do.’

On Sept. 29, Lara Wierenga, together with graphic designer Dirma Janse, presented their new book Atlas of our Brain. In the presence of fellow scientists and other interested parties, they shared some of the stunning illustrations and mind-boggling facts that can be found in the book.

As Professor of Translational Neuro-oncology, Marike Broekman researches how brain tumour treatment can be improved. She will discuss this in her inaugural lecture along with her work as a neurosurgeon and the importance of a positive workplace culture.

The housing crisis is affecting a substantial group of Dutch citizens and is one of the main election themes this year. How did things get this far and what should the new cabinet do in the coming four years to address the problems? Three Leiden researchers give their answer.

Archaeologist David Fontijn was nominated for the University Teaching Prize. His students nominated him for this award for his innovative ways of online teaching. In the corona-year 2020-2021 he gave a new course and experimented with the way he taught. ‘It clearly appealed to the students, so we are…

Do you want to promote the interests of students or staff? If you do, put yourself forward as a candidate for the University Council or the Faculty Council between 5 and 8 April. Two council members, PhD candidate Elisabeth Kerr and Law student Mante Kaaks, tell us about their experiences.

How do you ensure that people who have had a stroke get the right therapy at the right time? This is the question researcher Jorit Meesters wants to answer.

As of 1 August, Anika Bexkens has been appointed Professor of Evidence-Based Clinical Practice for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Her research focuses on the optimal application of scientific knowledge in practice. ‘Scientists and practitioners often speak past each other.’

Environmental scientist Rutger Hoekstra addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations on 12 April. And that’s quite a big thing to do. How do you get there as a scientist? And, more importantly, what was his message? In eight questions, Rutger explains what he does and why.

The rule of law is crumbling in the Netherlands, lawyer Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You warned in her Cleveringa Lecture.

Leiden Law Cast is a podcast made by Leiden Law School, Leiden University, for everyone who wants to learn more about current legal issues.

From the effects of hormone fluctuations in women via the interior structure of giant planets to the prehistory of the languages: six Leiden researchers have been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council.

A consortium including economists, psychologists and public administration scholars from Leiden University will study public acceptance of the hydrogen transition in the Netherlands. They will look at the labour market impact, public perceptions of hydrogen and businesses’ willingness to invest.

The Aernout van Lynden Global Citizenship Award award is a recognition given by the LUC community. Each year a student who has demonstrated the qualities of active engagement, responsive and responsible participation in civic and/or community building, within and/or beyond LUC is presented with the…

An image has great powers of persuasion. It is said that ‘a picture is worth more than a thousand words’. But these days, images can easily be manipulated with severe consequences. ‘Perhaps it’s time to reconsider the value we attach to images’, says Elize de Mul, whose PhD thesis deals with ‘digital…

Those who apply for asylum at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) are often asked about their main reason for migration. This process puts asylum seekers in a specific category, while their experiences are often much more complex and multifaceted. With his research on queer migration, PhD…

What does it mean to be the ‘perfect student’? This is the focus of the Perspectify exhibition, which was opened on 16 November by President of the Executive Board Annetje Ottow.

Not all students spend the holiday season with family or friends. That is why the university is organising the fifth edition of the Winter Weeks this year. The goal remains unchanged: to offer both international and Dutch students who stay in Leiden or The Hague during the Christmas break a warm and…

Since 2023, Andrea Evers has been the lead for “Health and well-being in a healthy society”, a key theme at FSW and one of the profile areas of the University as a whole. Three new FSW health research themes will shortly be announced at the Faculty’s Health Research Event, where the FSW’s researchers…

Four years of war in Ukraine have transformed the nature of warfare, with drones, digital defence systems and improvised solutions shaping the battlefield. At a recent symposium, Dutch and Ukrainian experts discussed frontline conditions. What lessons do they see for Europe?

How do biological cells join forces to form a structure? In her PhD research, Daphne Nesenberend uses mathematics to show how forces and cooperation between cells create structure – and how simulations and experiments can reinforce each other.

When a bacterium becomes resistant to one antibiotic, it may sometimes become more sensitive to another. This biological side-effect offers an unexpected opportunity in the fight against antibiotic resistance.

The Associate Professor at the Institute of Tax Law and Economics is one of two PhD deans at Leiden Law School and started in this position on 1 October 2023.

PhD candidate Fien Demuynck researched how wind farms affect fish and how to minimise any negative impact.

Light, open and green: a description that fits the new, renovated location of the Faculty of Humanities. The official opening of the Herta Mohr Building took place on 8 October, and it has many remarkable features: for example, recycled ‘mushroom columns’, a pedestrian bridge to the University Library…