FactRank is a new online tool that automatically detects ‘checkable’ claims made by politicians in parliamentary debates or tweets, and therefore enables fact-checkers to work much faster. Alexander Pleijter, a researcher and lecturer in Journalism and New Media, helped develop FactRank.

Starting in September 2026, Leiden University in The Hague will begin establishing a new Knowledge Centre for Kingdom Relations. In addition to bringing together researchers and developing education on Kingdom relations, the goal is to contribute to the public debate and foster greater mutual understanding…

Technology holds so much promise – from self-driving cars to enhanced physical performance from smart implants under the skin. But we should not let ourselves be caught off guard. That is the message of Bart Custers, Professor of Law and Data Science in his inaugural lecture on 21 May. ‘We don’t talk…

Joanne van der Leun has been reappointed by the Executive Board of Leiden University as Dean of Leiden Law School. Van der Leun will begin her second term (2019-2022) on 1 September 2019.

The team of WIIS-Netherlands exists out of the board members and the advisory council.

In July 2019 Asser Press published the book 'Sweetie 2.0—Using Artificial Intelligence to Fight Webcam Child Sex Tourism’ which was coedited by Simone van der Hof en Bart Schermer from the Center for Law and Digital Technologies, Bert-Jaap Koops from the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society…

A consortium called 'uNLock' has started developing an open source, non-profit application that will facilitate the verification of corona tests while ensuring maximum security of users.

For the first time since the establishment of Leiden University, the Open Days took place online. On Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October high school students visited 'our Faculty' on the newly designed online platform of the University. Through study programme presentations, an information market, video…

From social inequalities in prehistory to placebo effects in medical treatments. Four researchers from Leiden University have been awarded a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant worth EUR 2.5 million to develop their research.

During the week of 27 June - 2 July, the Institute of History was host to the first SHAFR Graduate Summer Institute held outside of the United States. The theme of the Institute was Culture, Propaganda and Intelligence in Cold War History.

Four researchers from Leiden University have been awarded NWO Open Competition grants in the Science domain. This is for research into subjects such as immune cells in tumours, antibiotic resistance and magnetic semiconductors.

A consortium made up of Leiden University (Institute of Public Administration/Digitalisation & Public Policy, Bram Klievink, Sarah Giest, Bart Schermer), VU (Professor Fabio Massacci), TU Delft, TNO, and Thales has been awarded a NWO grant of 1.5 million euros. This research project looks into the ‘metadata…

From 16 to 18 August, 30 participants from 18 different countries gathered online to participate in the Online Summer Programme: Preventing, Detecting and Responding to Violent Extremism, organised by Leiden University’s Centre for Professional Learning (CPL) together with the International Centre for…

This Thursday saw the launch of PLNT The Hague, an entrepreneurial hub where Campus The Hague students can learn all about entrepreneurship. They will have the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial skills, build a network and begin an innovative startup.

On Monday 18 March at 10:45 a deadly shooting took place on the 24 Oktoberplein in Utrecht, killing three people and severely injuring five others. Leiden University expresses its solidarity with the families left behind in the wake of this horrendous and regrettable incident. Several researchers of…

The Conference on Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) is an annual world-leading multidisciplinary conference that takes place in January in Brussels. In January 2017, eLaw, the Centre for Law and Digital Technologies of Leiden University, participated in the CPDP conference as one of the…

NWO (the Dutch Research Council) has granted more than 10 million euros for five human-centered AI research projects (2.1M€ each). Leiden University participates in two of these five research proposals, which are called ELSA labs.

At the International Online Conference 'Fair Medicine and Artificial Intelligence' organised by the University of Tübingen (Germany), Hadassah Drukarch, junior researcher at eLaw, gave a presentation on how current algorithmic-based systems may reinforce biases in healthcare. This topic forms part of…

Following a highly successful first edition, we are delighted to announce the second Leiden eLaw Summer School on ‘Regulating AI in the EU Digital Market’ taking place from 23 to 27 June 2025, both in person in Leiden and online.

Bachelor's students Larissa van Beckhoven, Eeke Brussee and Mirjam de Haan were granted the Speckmann award for their Fieldwork NL report ‘Een Tastbaar Mysterie’ (supervisor: Bregje ter Meer). Alumnus Markus Enk received the Master's Speckmann award for his innovative thesis called ‘Do spirits resist…

With this podcast series 'Introduction to Security Studies', you will get to know more about the bachelor's programme Security Studies at Leiden University in The Hague and life as a student in The Hague.

For two years, Ineke Sluiter was president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Now, she is returning to the university full time. ‘I always carry themes like accessibility, diversity and inclusion with me.’

With only a month until the 2020 United States elections, William Michael Schmidli, University Lecturer of American history, reflects on the latest developments. President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis seems apt for the nation too, he argues.

Following China and Italy, it appears that the United States is becoming the next epicentre of the coronacrisis. Can the US handle this crisis? Is president Trump dealing with the situation correctly? We asked Leiden America expert Sara Polak.

The left is gaining more and more ground on the political map of Latin America, with the elections in Colombia as the most recent example. But what’s behind this pull to the left? Professor of Modern Latin American History Patricio Silva talks about the current political situation in the region.

A new bill is currently under debate in the Netherlands, advocating raising the prison sentence for manslaughter from 15 to 25 years. ‘This very serious crime (...) evokes feelings of disgust and insecurity in society’, Dutch Minister for Justice and Security Grapperhaus comments on the sentence that…

In October, the Provincial Executive in Friesland reprimanded four civil servants who had signed an incendiary letter asking the government to adopt a more active climate policy. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, feels that the Executive made a mistake.

How has progress been made on diversity and inclusion at Leiden University over the past decade? Attendees reflected on this at the D&I Symposium 2024: Untold Stories. And in the workshops, students and staff discussed the next steps toward a more inclusive community.

How can our university really become inclusive? This is what students and staff discussed at our annual Diversity & Inclusion symposium. ‘It’s moving from a have-to to a want-to’

On 20 May 2019, Dr Yannick van den Brink, Assistant Professor at the Department of Child Law, participated in a live webinar titled ‘Child Pre-trial Detention. A Global Movement to Reduce Length of Stay’, together with colleagues from the United States and Mexico.

Students and staff members at the Faculty Campus The Hague are cordially invited by the JASON Institute to join a group discussion with the Dutch EMP Mr. Hans van Baalen and Lithuanian MEP Mr. Petras Auštrevičius, together with Mr. Bart Hogeveen from institute Clingendael as the moderator, at the Lithuanian…

The Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities has awarded some small research grants to foster the developments of new digital research. These projects began in February 2018. On the 9th of October, these awardees will present their work, along with our PhD students.

On Wednesday, 5 September 2018, the second group of employees of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW) started the managerial track of the Data Science course given by Leiden University (LCDS).

The European Commission published new plans on artificial intelligence on 19 February. According to Holger Hoos, professor in Machine Learning at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), Bart Verheij (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) and Jeroen van den Hoven (Technische Universiteit Delft)…

Sarah de Rijcke has been awarded Wellcome funding to study and promote responsible research practices

In 2021 we will start with a weekly lunch time seminar series, online on Mondays from 12 noon onwards.

The silenced paradoxes of urban renewal.

When you think of squatting, the picture that comes to mind is of young people occupying derelict buildings in big cities. Leiden also has a history of squatting, and that history is very diverse.

In the media, we hear a lot of worrying news from Africa: refugees, attacks, Ebola, starvation, corruption... But Africa is much more than that: it is a continent in transition, with developments occurring at breakneck speed. African Studies scholars from different academic disciplines in Leiden conduct…

Since reintegration officer Bart Reedijk started work in Dordrecht three years ago, ex-convicts in that municipality have reoffended a lot less often. There is much interest in Reedijk's method throughout the Netherlands, but experts have reservations.

Concrete Islands in Alphaville A Photo Gallery of Responses to two Seminal Artistic Explorations of Urban Technocracy and its Monstrous Highways

Volume 72 of the Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art is dedicated to the relationship of art and death in the Low Countries and its diaspora, from premodern times to the present. The editors welcome contributions on works of art and architecture (paintings, prints, sculptures, objects of applied…

After a semester of brainstorming, writing, rewriting and editing, the time has come: the fifth edition of Leiden Elective Academic Periodical (LEAP) has been launched!

Permission was recently given for all members of the examining committee and co-supervisors at PhD ceremonies to wear academic dress, even if they’re not full professors. How historic is this change?

It poured down when Alexander Gallo received his diploma from West Point Military Academy. A bad sign, people said back then. It was June 2001, three months before 9/11. The now 46-year-old American fought in Iraq, did research in Afghanistan and stands in Leiden today, defending his dissertation on…

The Board of Governors is pleased to announce that Professor Cisca Wijmenga has been appointed by outgoing Minister of Education, Culture and Science Robbert Dijkgraaf as its new member.

The conflict between the Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán and his party Fidesz, on the one hand, the other parties within the European People's Party (EPP), on the other, illustrates the complex functioning of European democracy. Michiel Luining, lecturer at the Institute of Public Administration at Leiden…

Ambassador Hyoung Chan Choe of South Korea paid his first visit to Leiden University Nov. 22, where he was received by President Annetje Ottow and Professor of Korea Studies Remco Breuker.

Organised jointly by the Europa Institute, Leiden University and the Lisbon Centre for Research in Public Law, University of Lisbon on 31 May 2021.

14 March 2018 a Citizens’ Dialogue about plastic-use in Europe with First-Vice President Frans Timmermans took place in Utrecht. It was one in a series of dialogues organized by the European Commission held throughout Europe. LAPP-student Emily den Boer joined the evening.