On 20 June, Freya Baetens delivered the keynote presentation at a workshop on

One of the EU's most heralded weapons against tax avoidance and evasion falls prey to political whims, is applied arbitrarily, and lacks transparency, according to tax observers and lawmakers.

The recently published book ‘Avian Cognition’ is the first multi-author book to provide a comprehensive treatment of the cognitive abilities of birds and how they compare to those of other animals. Carel ten Cate, professor of animal behavior at the Institute of Biology, and Susan D. Healy (StAndrews…

Anthe Janssen graduated ‘summa cum laude’ for the master’s programme Chemistry.He used NMR methods to gain insight in the syntheses and behavior of bio sugars. With this knowledge future therapeutics and research tools in hemical and medicinal biology can be developed. Anthe was awarded € 2.500.

Could water be present in planet-forming disks before the formation of rocky planets? The James Webb Space Telescope may have found evidence for that. Webb has for the first time observed water in the inner disc around young star where at greater distance, giant planets have already formed. The research…

On Thursday 21 October 2021, the Europa Institute held a hybrid roundtable on the legal feasibility of financing future EU policies – such as EU Green Deal measures – through debts and of thereby extending the novel funding mechanism introduced by Next Generation EU (NGEU). This roundtable was organised…

Carlotta Rigotti, postdoctoral researcher at eLaw – Center for Law and Digital Technologies, and Professor Clare McGlynn of Durham University have co-authored a new article in the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, titled 'Online and technology-facilitated violence against women: The EDVAW platform's…

On 11 January, the book chapter ‘Duty of care as a judicial review tool for SSM composite procedures’ written by Barbora Budinská and Jouke Tegelaar was awarded the 2023 Meijers Prize for best publication by a PhD candidate published in 2022–2023 in the research programme ‘The Progression of EU law’…

On 10 October 2018 Cees de Groot and Jelle Nijland organized a round-table-symposium ‘Government and private governance’ for experts in the field of private governance issues. This day was made possible by the LUF. The main objective of the symposium was to brainstorm with experts from various backgrounds,…

. Belle Beems, Assistant Professor at the Europa Institute, joined the sixth meeting of the DMA High-Level Group in Brussels. During the meeting with representatives from regulatory authorities, she shared her insights on the future of digital regulation and highlighted the importance of cooperation…

The Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan or LPDP) has officially released the list of international universities and study programs for 2026, eligible to receive scholarship funding. The list serves as a guide for prospective applicants in determining their study…

Just Peace Festival

Lecture

International courts and tribunals depend on state funding, creating a potential risk of undue state interference in judicial processes. In her doctoral thesis, Maria Manolecsu explores mechanisms that safeguard judicial independence, ensuring that courts can adjudicate without external pressure or…

Claartje Levelt is professor of First Language Acquisition. She researches how babies and toddlers learn their mother tongue. Besides her work, she enjoys being involved with music.

AI can help scientists to collect data about the earth faster. This saves them a lot of time on trying to figure out how to analyze all the data they collect. Julia Wasala, PhD student at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Sciences(LIACS), tells us how AI can be used to save time.

The fact that scientists are increasingly better able to access molecular cell and tissue data also brings with it a new challenge: how can scientists find the information they need for research among the vast amount of data available?

Steeds drukker is het in populaire banen rond de aarde voor ruimtevaart. Niet alleen met satellieten, vooral met meer afval, wat onveilig is. Zhuang Tian promoveert op de juridische kant van afgedankte ruimte-apparaten. Wie troep veroorzaakt, moet het weer opruimen.

With a Vici grant of 1.5 million euros, Professor of Mathematical biology Roeland Merks will look for ways to fix messy and leaky blood vessels in tumours. His research combines mathematical simulations and lab experiments in a unique way.

Catalysts are indispensable in everyday life. We know what they do and more or less how they do it, but we still lack a fundamental understanding about their functioning at an atomic scale. Therefore, Irene Groot from the Leiden Institute of Chemistry develops new measuring techniques to unravel the…

‘Walking around in a new environment activates our brain’s learning centre. This allows us to learn better, even once we’ve returned to a familiar environment.’ This is the conclusion drawn by neuroscientist Judith Schomaker in her recent publication in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

Having a bachelor's, a master's and a PhD in Chemistry, Elena Sánchez López shifted to a more biological field of research for her postdoc. She completed all her studies at the University of Alcala, in Spain, before applying for a LEaDing fellowship at Leiden University, a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Cofund…

Diversity and inclusion within the police creates opportunities but also meets resistance. Professor by special appointment and former police officer, Saniye Çelik, emphasises how ambivalent feelings about D&I are essential to the learning process and can lead to informed decisions and real change.

‘We didn’t find any mechanisms in the brain for transmitting child abuse from generation to generation. What we did find is that experiences of neglect and abuse affect the brain differently,’ concludes Lisa van den Berg (Clinical Psychology). PhD defence 30 June.

Due to technological and societal developments, we are being flooded with more information than our brains can process. How does this affect our decision-making, both as individuals and as a society? And can we learn to make better choices? This is what Lotte van Dillen will explore with her profess…

Young people influence one another to take greater risks, although it's not quite that cut and dried. This is what development psychologist Jorien van Hoorn discovered. Peers also have a positive influence on one another, an aspect that has so far been under-researched. PhD defence 12 January.

Elephant toothpaste, a trip among the stars or a lecture on mathematical juggling: on Sunday 8 October 2023, the Faculty of Science opened its doors for the third edition of the Leiden Science Family Day. A programme jam-packed with workshops, demonstrations, lectures and peeks behind the scenes for…

Submissions are sought for a special issue with Frontiers in Political Science that explores the conceptual and practical aspects of a ‘just’ energy transition both within and beyond Europe. In particular, contributions to the theoretical and interdisciplinary foundations of just transitions, as well…

A night sky of more than 40 petabytes in size, simulating young star clusters and understanding how the body inhibits viruses: three Leiden projects have received computing time on one of the national computer systems.

People appear to release their feelings of anxiety more quickly when the vagus nerve in the brain is stimulated with a device in the ear. In his doctoral research at Clinical Psychology, Andreas Burger examined new possibilities for treating symptoms of anxiety. PhD defence on 15 May.

For the first time, it was shown in living cells how the bacterium E. coli regulates genes that help it survive in a new environment. Biochemist Fatema Zahra Rashid managed to do this using a technique she fine-tuned. Her research into changes in 3-dimensional chromosome structure offers clues for ways…

Rich, white, urban: Western politicians often represent a small segment of the population. Political scientist Hélène Landemore advocates for a more inclusive democracy. She will deliver the Cleveringa Lecture on November 26.

An international team of laboratory astrophysicists and astrochemical modellers has shown that glycine, the simplest amino acid and an important building block of life, can form under the harsh conditions that govern chemistry in space. The results have been published this week in Nature Astronomy and…

On Monday, 09 April 2018, Aron Fischer Ph.D., freelance mathematician and researcher of Colony and Ethereum Foundation’s Swarm team, delivered an absorbing presentation on the Ethereum blockchain, smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) at Leiden Law School. These headline-grabbing…

A flu virus could cause a pandemic. And then we would be poorly armed because flu viruses are starting to become resistant to flu medications like Tamiflu. Chemist Merijn Vriends successfully worked on an improved version of such medications. He will be awarded his doctorate on September 12th.

What happens to children of extremist parents? Commissioned by the Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC) of the Ministry of Justice and Security, four ISGA researchers, Layla van Wieringen, Daan Weggemans, Katharina Krüsselmann and Marieke Liem, wrote a report on the nature and extent…

Thomas Moerland studied medicine and mathematics in Leiden and has a lifelong fascination with the origins and workings of intelligence. He brought all that together in his popular science book Van IQ naar AI (From IQ to AI).

The United Nations (UN) made history in October 2000 when Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) was unanimously adopted.

Synthetic fuel is cleaner than natural oil, but its production process needs to be more efficient. Now for the first time, physicists have directly observed the molecules produced in the chemical process. This paves the way for designing more efficient catalysts. Publication on September 19th in Nature…

The team of Alireza Mashaghi at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research has found a way to determine and classify the shape of proteins. Their new theory defines the topology of proteins as a simple and precise barcode that allows the identification of all types of folds. ‘This barcode enables…

Toxys, Leiden University and Leiden University Medical Center have agreed immediately to commercialise and also develop further the ToxProfiler technology invented at the two institutions. ToxProfiler allows for rapid toxicity hazard identification of novel and existing drugs, chemicals, and other substances.…

Paco Barona Gomez is the newest associate professor at the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL). The Mexican researcher is fascinated by the evolution of natural products: compounds made by microbes, but also plants and animals. ‘It’s like we investigate chemical dark matter.’

Two bacterial species team up inside the plant root system to rescue their host from fungal infection. This was discovered by a team of microbiologists and bioinformaticians from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Wageningen University, and the Institute of Biology Leiden. They also identified the…

The Veni grant is awarded annually by NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research). This year, multiple researchers from Leiden University and 2 researchers who will soon be working at the university will receive a Veni grant from the NWO. Thanks to this grant, which can amount to up to 320,000…

In brain diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, proteins clump together to form fibres. ‘Chaperone proteins’ unravel those fibres, but in the test tube biochemist Anne Wentink saw that this can also cause new problems. She is going to find out what happens inside cells to determine what a drug…

Our vision of stress is starting to change fundamentally. We can suffer stress without even being aware of it, while sleeping as wall as during the day. Professor of Psychology Jos Brosschot will discuss this phenomenon in his inaugural lecture on 2 December.

The European Union Cyber Diplomacy Initiative (EU Cyber Direct), of which Leiden University is one of the implementing partners, joins forces with the Federal Public Service of Foreign Affairs of Belgium and numerous research institutions and civil society organisations around the world to organize…

An international group of scientists has discovered that certain cells of our immune system – the so-called T cells – communicate with each other and work together as a team. To fight an infection they stimulate each other’s growth, but at the same time, they inhibit each other when there is a surplus…

Leiden University co-hosts Council of Europe expert exchange on accountability for crimes against children in Ukraine

About one and a half million people worldwide die each year from tuberculosis. For thirty years, therapy with antibiotics has been the same, while it takes far too long and can lead to resistant pathogens. Leiden researchers from four institutes are now joining forces to develop more effective and efficient…