Arco Timmermans, Professor by special appointment Public Affairs, discusses the lobby that is just getting under way and is aimed at the political parties' manifestos for the upcoming election in March 2021.

Researchers at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) have managed to culture human heart muscle cells on a massive scale. This is an exceptional achievement because it is very difficult to replicate heart muscle cells outside the body. Using a special technique, the researchers have now created…

The amici curiae brief was filed with the United States District Court for the Central District of California, on 28 January 2020.

Three young researchers from Leiden have received an Early Career Award from KNAW for their innovative research. The award consists of the sum of 15,000 euros and an artwork.

How many children are born with the help of a surrogate mother in the Netherlands, and which legal obstacles can arise? Through a new interdisciplinary study, researchers at Leiden University are attempting to provide clarity about surrogacy processes.

To relieve a patient's pain, it can be effective to induce expectations. This finding is promising for optimising the effectiveness of treatments, conclude Kaya Peerdeman and colleagues in their article in PAIN.

Leiden's cultural anthropologist Anouk de Koning is receiving a Vici research grant for her project ‘Prototyping Welfare in Europe: Experiments in State and Society’ to study welfare experiments in four countries and to examine what they tell us about the futures of European welfare states.

Research conducted by the University of Leiden and the University of Curaçao found that the rights of undocumented children in Curaçao, mostly from Venezuela, are severely under threat, which does not trigger rigorous actions by the Curaçaoan and Dutch authorities.

With the long lockdown, it’s been a hard year for Leiden businesses. How can the local economy bounce back and how can the University help? Two talk shows discussing this were recently recorded in the Academy Building. They will be aired on Unity TV on 28 September and 12 October.

There is an ongoing struggle between the Minister of Public Health, Hugo de Jonge, and the Dutch Municipal Health Services (GGDs). De Jonge wants the GGDs to speed up testing, conduct more tests, and allow priority testing but the GGDs are pulling on the brakes. The waiting lists for a corona test have…

Stichting Onderwijsgeschillen (Foundation for Educational Disputes) is pleased to announce that it has established an endowed chair ‘Conflictoplossing en rechtsbescherming in het onderwijs' (conflict resolution and legal protection in education) at Leiden University.

We already know a lot about genetics and the risk of breast cancer. But much still needs to be done in breast cancer genetics to improve the prognosis and make sure women at high risk aren’t missed. This is what Professor by Special Appointment Marjanka Schmidt will say in her inaugural lecture on 4…

Women are more often diagnosed with depression, whereas ADHD is much more frequently detected in men. And there are other more striking differences. What role does the brain play in mental health and what is the influence of the environment? For answers to these questions, listen to the ‘(Un)gendered…

The Minister of Education, Culture and Science has approved the application for the master’s programme in Pharmacy in Leiden. This is an important step on the road to a new master’s programme.

AI is playing an increasingly important role in our lives, but that is not without danger. Eduard Fosch-Villaronga at eLaw warns that AI does not pay enough attention to the LGBTQ community.

Scientists of the faculty of Governance and Global Affairs research completely different subject, among which terrorism, cybercrime and migration. In the upcoming weeks we will give the floor to several of our very best researchers. In this episode: development researcher David Ehrhardt.

There seem to be genes that influence how our brains develop over time. A large international consortium has discovered this with an extensive study. The results of the study were recently published in Nature Neuroscience.

On 8 October, the Independent Expert, Prof. Manfred Nowak, leading the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty presented his report to the UN General Assembly. The presentation of the final report is set for 19 November 2019, at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the…

A therapeutic vaccine against HPV-16 (type 16 human papillomavirus) improves the survival rate in cervical cancer patients. A new study by ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V. (a Leiden-based biotechnology company) and the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) shows that this vaccine produces a more robust response…

Research on Asian plants is his life's work. Now a crown is added to that: a plant from the coffee family bearing his name. Paul Kessler is LUF professor of botanical gardens and botany of South East Asia and Scientific Director of the Hortus botanicus. 'Completely unexpectedly, you get to see the results…

Many children experience trauma and if they are unable to deal with it properly, it can have a huge personal and societal effect. Building resilience in vulnerable children and young people should therefore have the highest priority. This is the message of Anne-Laura van Harmelen, Professor of Brain,…

Wednesday the 23d of March, Olexander Horin, the ambassador of the Ukraine honoured us with a visit to discuss his vision on the referendum and the current political situation in Ukraine. Hereby a short summary of the lecture by Professor Madeleine Hosli, who attended the event.

Successfully completing a master’s thesis in Political Science is no small feat. Not only is this for most students the most extensive and in-depth research report they have ever written, the work is also held to very high standards. Yet, every year students manage to impress their instructors and demonstrate…

Annelot did an internship with the crisis management team of ‘Rijkswaterstaat’. During her internship, she was involved in improving an app used for information management during crisis situations.

Some sectors have been hard hit by the pandemic, whereas others have grown. Yet there was no influx of workers from shrinking to growing sectors. This is the conclusion of research by economists from Leiden University. They published their results in the journal Economisch Statistische Berichten.

Foreign investments in the Dutch East Indies during the colonial period could have been of more benefit to the Indonesian economy. Foreign investments in the Dutch East Indies during the colonial period could have been of more benefit to the Indonesian economy. But the complicated relationship between…

‘Make use of us!’ This is what the collaborating universities of Rotterdam, Delft and Leiden have to say to administrators and policymakers. And the call has not fallen on deaf ears, says Marja van Bijsterveldt, the Mayor of Delft. ‘Now more than ever we can use knowledge to solve societal issues in…

In 2020, the organizing committee of ICEHL-21 made the decision to host the conference in 2021 as an online conference. After careful consideration, and taking the feedback of participants into account, the organizing committee has made the following practical decisions:

Keep improving: that’s the philosophy of LEAN, a method to tackle practical problems at the workplace yourself. After a successful start in 2017, in 2019 a third group started working with the LEAN training in self-selected improvement trajectories. In October the participants received their diploma.…

Former masterstudent Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences Maddalena Centanni will be awarded the 2020 Arenberg Coimbra Prize for Erasmus Students. Centanni spent her six month Erasmus exchange at Uppsala Universiy in Sweden where she looked for ways to improve anti-cancer drug dosing.

Persecution, conflicts and crises threaten academic facilities and researchers worldwide. This has major implications for science. Leiden University's Scholars for Scholars programme helps scientists in need through crowdfunding.

At this year's Leiden Canal Run (Singelloop) on 5 April, €4.44 per runner will go to charity instead of the usual €4. This is because Leiden University is donating the symbolic sum of 44 cents for each runner who enters the race.

What is it like to be old? Many young people cannot really imagine what it is like. For a group of Honours students, however, this question has been answered. They had the chance to wear an age simulation suit during the Bachelor Honours Class ‘Vitality and Ageing’.

Thanks in part to the persistence of a Leiden research group, cancer could be detected in the near future with just a single drop of blood. Not only can the diagnosis be determined at an earlier stage, but the blood test is also cheap, fast and patient friendly. The first results of this method seem…

How do you offer high-quality and interesting education with simple means? Universe Awareness of Leiden University spoke about this during the annual science festival in Botswana. With among others a laser experiment compiled of household materials, they showed the possibilities to interest young people…

The quantum computer is on its way, but is society ready for it? Quantum computers have a reputation of being difficult to grasp because of their complexity. This limits society’s ability to envision future applications creating a gap between society and quantum computers. A consortium of 14 knowledge…

eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies, has promoted Dr. Eduard Fosch-Villaronga to Assistant Professor to work on Law and Artificial Intelligence.

The Netherlands cannot stop European labour migrants coming here. Nor does The Hague have much influence on the influx of asylum seekers. But experts believe that we should be able to reduce the need for labour migrants by using intelligent economic policies.

Vincent Bakker has won the 2017 Thesis Prize of the research master’s programme Political Science and Public Administration. His study of labour market effects of social investment policies is the crowning achievement of Bakker’s work as a MSc student. It also marks the start of his academic career.…

The Netherlands Association for Sleep-Wake Research is studying this issue. Lead researcher Kristiaan van der Heijden, Leiden psychologist and sleep specialist, invites students to take part in the study.

The Dutch police face complex challenges, from organised crime and polarisation to digitalisation and new forms of crime. To deal with this effectively, they need innovation and intensive collaboration, says Professor by Special Appointment of Police Studies, Monica den Boer, in her inaugural lectur…

Nieuwscheckers, the fact-checking initiative at Leiden University, will check the claims made by politicians during the European elections. Lots of individuals and organisations supported their crowdfunding campaign. ‘During the elections, it’s hugely important that the emphasis is on facts, and that…

Leiden University has designed a new Urban Development Plan for the Humanities Campus. This plan incorporates participation from the immediate environment (neighbours and nearby residents). The plan will be available for viewing at the Leiden city council offices from 22 December for six weeks.

Abstract sounds that draw visitors upstairs, an 'escape womb' and a Christmas game that gets you thinking about the limits of creating our own happiness. Master's students of Media Technology created a special exhibition on the theme of 'self', in the Old School art centre in the Pieterskerkhof in…

111 years ago, Heike Kamerlingh Onnis liquified helium for the first time, a tour the force that netted him the Nobel prize. It took a laboratory of a size rarely seen. Now, ultracold helium has become a commodity for physics research. In Wolfgang Löffler's lab, it is ready at hand thanks to a coffee…

Two research projects from Leiden University have been awarded funding within the NWO (Dutch Research Council) Open Competition Domain Science programme. This funding finances innovative, fundamental research of high quality within the domain of Exact and Natural Sciences.

A bloody civil war has raged for years in the Central African Republic. PhD candidate Crépin Mouguia points out a tragic pattern: young people have been recruited as fighters or soldiers for generations and thus fuel the conflicts.

30 July is the International Day of Friendship. The student years are a time when many close friendships are formed, and a surprising number of them last a whole lifetime. Two of our alumni share their stories about a special friendship.

Bacteria found in soil specialise in the colony by division of labour. Some of the bacteria produce antibiotics, even when it comes at the expense of their individual reproduction success, to defend their colony against competitors. Publication in Science Advances.

Leiden University is an internationally oriented Dutch university, where we communicate with one another in both Dutch and English. To ensure that we handle this bilingual convention with due care, the Executive Board has established a set of guidelines on language policy. These guidelines set out the…