Leiden LIS Budget Incidence Fiscal Redistribution Dataset on Relative Income Poverty Rates (2019), assembled by Koen Caminada and Jinxian Wang (Version 1, February 2019), presents the disentanglement of relative income poverty measurers and the anti-poverty effects of social transfers and income taxes…

The methodology helping us to prepare for and shape preferred futures.

The "Research Skills Assessment" aims to assess the academic research skills of the person doing the assignment. Successful evaluation of the assessment is a requirement for admission into the Creative Intelligence & Technology MSc program of Leiden University.

For students who want to be an intermediary between scientific experts, policy makers and politicians in the domain of sustainability, the master programme Governance of Sustainabiliy might be just what they are looking for. Leiden University intends to start this new The Hague based programme in September…

Following the Beirut explosion, BBC's podcast series The Foodchain explores the chemical that caused the blast: ammonium nitrate. A compound that is widely used to produce fertilizer. Professor of Environmental sustaibability Jan Willem Erisman tells about the effects of nitrogen on the environment.

Plant communities consisting of many different species are less vulnerable to attacks of plant eating animals or diseases than less diverse communities. It also helps if plant species in one community are not closely related to each other. That is the outcome of an international study published in Nature…

The Institute of Environmental Sciences of the Leiden University has, together with its European partners, presented the new MULTIPLY platform, during a workshop at the European Space Agency (ESA). This platform makes it for the first time possible to combine different data stream’s of ESA’s newest…

Lions in West and Central Africa form a unique group, only distantly related to lions in East and Southern Africa. Biologists at Leiden University confirm this in an article published in Scientific Reports.

Leiden University has taken eighth place in this year’s SustainaBul, the sustainability ranking for universities and universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands. It was in 18th place last year.

Urban green infrastructure has the ability to make make cities more sustainable. However, the exact implementation of green infrastructure and the choices that must be made during implementation, are still topic for discussion. In the Future Cities podcast, environmental scientist Joeri Morpurgo chats…

The national dietary guidelines in Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Japan, Portugal, and Slovenia benefit nutrition, environment and animal welfare, Leiden environmental scientists write in the journal One Earth. However, the national guidelines of other countries face trade-offs, negatively impacting at…

Professor Geert de Snoo, Dean of the Faculty of Science at Leiden University, has been appointed Director of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) with effect from 1 November 2019. He will stand down from his role as Dean of the Faculty of Science with effect from 1 September. De Snoo will…

Leiden has been selected as one of ten cities in the European BiodiverCities project. The aim of the project is to increase the quality of life in these cities, for instance by developing a green infrastructure and enhancing biodiversity. The Municipality of Leiden will work together with Naturalis…

A radical reduction in the amount of meat, dairy and other products sourced from animals is possible in the coming decades, as people turn to an increasing variety of alternatives. This would unlock vast amounts of land that we could use to produce energy and remove carbon from the atmosphere. Leiden…

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.

A rejuvenated Naturalis opens its doors to the public on Saturday 31 August. Many researchers from Leiden University also work at the Naturalis research centre. Their workplace has also undergone a major facelift, and museum visitors can now watch their every move.

Paul Behrens (Leiden University) and Matthew Hayek (New York University) have responded to an FAO report on livestock pathways which misrepresented the potential for dietary change to reduce emissions from the food system. The authors have sent a letter to the FAO calling for an urgent retraction on…

On International Women’s Day 2020, the first edition of the Leiden Top 50 was revealed, a list of 50 women who made a difference in Leiden in 2019. Among them three women from our Faculty: Martina Vijver, Felienne Hermans and Irene Groot.

Last week, on 13 February 2019, the EU approved the ban on pulse trawling. This followed the vote for a ban by the European Parliament on 16 January 2018. Half of the 84 Dutch pulse trawling vessels must stop immediately; the other half will receive a transitional arrangement until July 2021. Outcomes…

Lions limit their prey, such as zebra and gnu, in their options for adapting to global warming. This is what Leiden researcher Michiel Veldhuis, from the Institute of Environmental Sciences, and a group of international colleagues have discovered. The research was published today in Nature Ecology &…

In the Port of Rotterdam, tiny industrial pellets leak into the environment, causing a form of pollution that’s hard to trace but highly persistent. Three students of the LDE Sustainability Honours Programme took on the challenge to identify sources of this pollution.

A systematic approach to quantify impacts of food consumption on animal welfare has been developed by researchers of the Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University in collaboration with ETH Zurich, and effective altruism organizations.

A better environment starts at the Living Lab. Leiden Scientists investigate the effect of chemical compounds on biodiversity in 38 natural ditches. The official opening took place on 8 June.

The National Bee Count initiative of Professor Koos Biesmeijer (Naturalis/Leiden) and Vincent Kalkman (Naturalis) has received the NWO Communication Initiative Award. The jury praises the initiative, which manages to reach a very wide and diverse audience, while at the same time contributing to the…

Being an assistant professor can be rather solitary. You often do not have your own research group and also you don't yet have the extensive network of associate professors or professors. The Young Academy aims to change just that. The first edition of the Young Faculty of Science lunch in June was…

In September 2019, the first students will start the new master's programme Governance of Sustainability. The programme has received an official accreditation from the Accreditation Organisation of The Netherlands and Flanders.

A wide range of metals need to be mined for solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. But the overall mining activity is set to decrease as clean energy replaces fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas.

A new study in Nature Plants has explored the most important organising principles that control vegetation behaviour. The insights from this study can be used to improve predictions on climate change. Leiden scientists Peter van Bodegom and Nadia Soudzilovskaia participated in the study.

Out of fifteen Senior Teaching Qualification certificates (SKO) awarded by the University this year, four go to the Faculty of Science. With congratulations from Rector Hester Bijl, the enthusiastic lecturers receive the certificate for their exceptional commitment, skills and impact within the Univ…

How do you combine the growth of wind energy with the protection of vulnerable seabirds? With her master’s thesis on this delicate balance, Sofie Hajer won the 2025 Unilever Research Prize. Her work provides new insights into how ecology and policy can strengthen each other.

The world is becoming clogged with plastic, with tiny plastic particles found everywhere, from the oceans’ depths to the mountain tops, soil, plants, animals and even inside us. The question is: what harm, if any, are they causing? In a new article on The Conversation, environmental scientists Meiru…

On 22 January 2018, the Massive Open Online Course ’A Circular Economy of Metals: Towards a Sustainable Societal Metabolism’ kicks off. This course is developed and taught by associate professor Ester van der Voet.

A school lesson by a professor, for instance about the history of Africa, the climate or research and healthcare. A hundred Leiden professors told primary school children about their work in the Meet the Professor project.

Prof. Dr. Jasper Knoester has been reappointed by the Executive Board of Leiden University as Dean of the Faculty of Science. His second term will run until 1 January 2030. Knoester’s reappointment has broad support within the faculty. His approachable leadership style and people-focused approach have…

The Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed Jan Kolen as the University’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Coordinator as of 1 February 2022. In this role Kolen will take the lead in regional and national cooperation relating to the topic of AI, data and digitalisation.

Assessing Learning in Higher Education addresses what is probably the most time-consuming part of the work of staff in higher education, and something to the complexity of which many of the recent developments in higher education have added. Getting assessment ‘right’– that is, designing and implementing…

One of the largest roofs at Leiden University, that of the Snellius building, has recently been equipped with 590 solar panels and 57,000 sedum plants, making it the largest combined roof in the Benelux. The roof was officially opened on Monday 10 October by Annetje Ottow and Martijn Ridderbos, President…

The MORE project covers the development of the new entrance area for the Leiden Bio Science Park. Partners Leiden University, the Municipality of Leiden and the Amstelveen-based development agency Yisheng signed the agreement on 18 March, marking the official start of the project.

An open disagreement about a non-competition clause in the employment contract of a top business manager is a rare occurrence. Both the company and the employee are wary of the possible damage to their reputation that such a conflict could cause.

'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.

The Executive Board has decided to appoint Dr. Bibi van den Berg as Professor of Cybersecurity Governance within the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, starting on 1 September 2017.

Leiden University is extremely concerned about the situation in Turkey and offers all possible support to its Turkish colleagues.

From student exchanges and a joint laboratory to heritage research and a knowledge consortium, the Indonesian Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) is in various respects an important partner for Leiden University.

The Executive Board has appointed Professor Hubertus Irth as Interim Dean of the Faculty of Science at Leiden University. Professor Irth will take up his post on 15 September 2019, replacing Geert de Snoo, who has been appointed as Director of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW).

How is Leiden University doing in these times of corona, and what kind of new academic year can we expect? Rector Carel Stolker was interviewed by Dutch broadcasting companies Omroep West, Sleutelstad FM and JortCall.

Interested in how you can transfer your knowledge from yourself or from a knowledge institute into society at large? Several experts in the fields of grant development, Intellectual property rights and knowledge brokering take you through the various processes within four weeks time in this online c…

Want to join the discussion on the future of Leiden University? Sign up for the consultation session on October 12 (17.30 – 19.30) below.

Today the Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed professor Judi Mesman as Dean of LUC from July 1st, 2016. The College Board of LUC is delighted that professor Mesman will be the next Dean of our College and would like to take this opportunity to warmly welcome her to LUC.

On 28 February 2022, the Democracy and Citizenship thematic group launched series of bi-monthly meetings for scholars of Leiden University on challenges for democracy and citizenship posed by today's global transformations.

On May 24 Jorrit Rijpma took part in a panel discussion on “national states, common borders: future of border management in Europe, taking place in Warsaw, Poland.