Researchers need to work in specialized environments when they work with dangerous bacteria and viruses. These microbes spread easily, so only in labs with a high biosafety levels they can be studied. Unfortunately, to look at the microbes properly, expensive microscopes are needed that are not always…

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.

How can the Dutch Sand Motor strengthen our coasts in a natural way? And how can this knowledge and experience help prevent coastal erosion in Jamaica? Researchers Alexander van Oudenhoven (Institute of Environmental Sciences Leiden) and Arjen Luijendijk (Delft University of Technology) have compiled…

Leiden patriot Pieter Vreede fought for greater popular influence. Historian Dirk Alkemade reveals how this pioneer used radical means to shape Dutch democracy.

By reforming agriculture in targeted areas, we can protect the Natura 2000 areas much more effectively. This is what Jan Willem Erisman of Leiden University and Ton Brouwer of Gispoint consultancy write in a new report. They have created a special, nitrogen map of the Netherlands that shows the areas…

Making justice accessible to all residents in Libya. This week, a new website is launched which should contribute to this. Leiden University and the University of Benghazi have been working together on several projects since 2012. Project leader Suliman Ibrahim explains why this project is unique.

It’s become somewhat of a tradition at Leiden University: the strategic conference at the end of June each year. About a hundred staff including the faculty boards, academic directors, directors of the expertise centres and Administration and Central Services, the representative councils and student…

Smiling faces, a mass dance and a bit of awkwardness: after two ‘corona editions’ of EL CID, the Leiden introduction week is back with a vengeance this year. A total of 3,412 first-year students from Leiden University and University of Applied Sciences Leiden, accompanied by 486 mentors, started EL…

On 29 August 2025, the Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights programme celebrated its 10th anniversary with alumni, partners, and friends, marking the milestone with reflection, dialogue, and the launch of a new Education Fund.

The start of the renovation of Cluster Zuid was a long time coming, but the moment has finally arrived. On Wednesday 8 June, Dean Mark Rutgers, accompanied by the contractor Constructif, symbolically marked the start of the demolition and reconstruction works by demolishing part of the roof.

With the new academic year, the Honours Academy welcomes a new assessor: Maarten Kolpa. What does an assessor do? And what can he do for honours students? Maarten talks about it in an interview.

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…

PhD defence

This series of seminars convenes researchers based in North America and Europe in order to inspire and further establish reflections about race, race-thinking, and racialization among scholars of late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The first seminar will be held on Monday, October 19, at 12:00 EDT by…

The Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society (VVI), in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), will organize a two day conference on the continued importance of adat law in present day Indonesia on 22 and 23 May 2017.

As of 1 October, David Holmes has been appointed full professor of Pure Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute (MI). His work lies at the intersection of algebra, geometry and number theory.

Collaborating and learning from other fields – that is what bioinformatician Hannah Augustijn enjoys most about doing research. During her PhD at Leiden University, she developed new ways to search within bacteria for the antibiotics of the future.

Jianfeng Ge and Milan Allen of Leiden University look for majorana quasiparticles using shot noise measurements

Swarms of drones, pedestrians or the cells in your body. Those are all examples of active matter: materials whose building blocks can move autonomously. That’s what Luca Giomi studies. Giomi has been appointed Professor of theoretical physics in the area of soft matter and biological physics at the…

Historian Alanna O’Malley has been appointed to a brand-new Professorial Chair in United Nations Studies in Peace and Justice in The Hague. This extra attention for the UN comes at a significant moment in world history, she says.

Could we stop cancer cells by cutting off their energy supply? That’s what Dione Blok, a bachelor’s student in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences, aimed to find out during her thesis research. She investigated a compound that affects the tumour cells’ energy metabolism. ‘Hopefully, these insights will provide…

As of 1 September 2015, Michiel van Groesen is Professor of Maritime History at Leiden University. He succeeds Professor Henk den Heijer, who retired and gave his farewell lecture at 25 September. Den Heijer held the chair from 2010 to 2015. Before coming to Leiden Van Groesen worked as Associate Professor…

Vedran Dunjko appointed to full professor of quantum computing at Leiden University, the Netherlands.

Every year the newly arriving Archaeology students are invited to join an introduction day during which they get to know the Faculty and each other. This year, however, for the first time, the students were invited to join in on introductory activities of a less static and more fun nature, organised…

Since 2023 the newly arriving Archaeology students are invited to join an active introduction day during which they get to know the Faculty and each other in a playful and fun way. The activities are organised by Study Adviser Cleody van der Eijk. ‘It helps people to loosen up and get to know each o…

Last year, Dr. Henk van Steenbergen received a Grass Shoot grant to completely redevelop the research master's course 'Experimentation I: Programming Psychological Experiments'. The revised course was taught for first time last block and has just come to an end. Time for a brief recap.

Over 100 participants joined the first grant matchmaking and working session on the call for the Dutch National Research Agenda, on 25 June in the PLNT building. They explored topics ranging from health care to smart cities.

A consortium of knowledge institutes, led by Leiden University launched an online platform for analysis and research of sports and movement data on 7 September: Sport Data Valley. The platform offers coaches and athletes insight into their data and makes research on sports and exercise more efficient,…

Simon van Hoeve is a student of the master’s degree programme International Relations. Every week, he makes a podcast episode for his study association, in which he discusses topics related to his study programme with his guests.

Claartje Levelt was appointed Scientific Director of LUCL on 1 September. We want to create new opportunities, especially now.’

In 2021, the KABK, KC and ACPA established a joint research platform, called the Platform for Arts Research in Collaboration (PARC). How did PARC move forward the last year?

The theme of the project is the way education has adapted to the Covid- 19 circumstances

The Dublin claim determines which country of the European Union is responsible for processing the asylum application of a particular asylum seeker. In general, the first country in Europe where the asylum seeker arrives or transits is responsible for processing the asylum application. It is also possible…

The new scholarly journal ‘Voetbal- & Sportjuridische Zaken’, published by Boom Juridische Uitgevers, will focus on current legal aspects related to sport with particular attention for football.

On December 4, 2024, Prof. dr. Sarah Cramsey gave a short lecture before a film at the Czechoslovak New Wave Film Festival in Rotterdam. The festival was expertly organized by Ms. Hana Schenkova, the Director of the Czech Centre in Rotterdam, and featured more than a dozen films from Czechoslovakia…

What is involved in setting up and carrying out clinical research? To give researchers a helping hand, LUMC Campus The Hague has brought together tips and tricks in the new massive open online course (MOOC) Population Health: Study Design.

The new Dutch cabinet aims to reduce the number of asylum seeks coming to the Netherlands by introducing a number of asylum policy measures. Dr Mark Klaassen, Assistant Professor of Immigration Law, discusses this in Dutch daily newspaper 'de Telegraaf'.

A.F. (Ab) van der Touw (1955) is to become the new Chairman of the Board of Governors of Leiden University. Jet Bussemaker, Minister of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), has appointed him from 1 September 2016 for a period of four years. Van der Touw succeeds Nout Wellink whose term of office comes…

On Wednesday 23 September, the European Commission presented its new migration pact, where EU countries will have to improve cooperation in receiving and allocating migrants. Does this mean the end of refugee camps?

BrainTrain: an initiative from Leiden University in which a team of students visit high schools to make adolescents more resilient against disinformation on the news and on their socials. In an interactive two-hour guest lesson, high school pupils discover how easily their brains can be tricked into…

With financial support from the Dutch National Archives, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, as well as the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a new collaboration project will be launched between India and the Netherlands in 2021.

Over the past two centuries, the concept of human dignity has moved from the fringes to the centre of the international legal system. This book is the first single-authored detailed historical, theoretical and legal investigation of human dignity as a normative value, the intellectual sources that shaped…

A new report on admissibility under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on a Communications Procedure (OP3) has been published.

Recently, a new edition of the ELS bulletin was sent out. Furthermore, we are thrilled to share the Midterm Report of the ELS lab @Leiden with you!

On the occasion of the launch of the Council of Europe’s new children’s rights strategy 2016-2021, the Republic of Bulgaria hosted a high-level conference in Sofia on the 5th and 6th of April, 2016.

The Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law is the leading general series for monographs in international law which will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year.

Mariëlle Bruning, Professor of Children and the Law at Leiden University, responded in various media to the new draft agreement aimed at reducing work pressure of youth protectors.

Professor Eric De Brabandere has been appointed as the new Director/Head of Department of the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, succeeding to Professor Nico Schrijver who has led the Centre for more than 12 years. Eric De Brabandere holds the chair of international dispute settlement law…

What lessons can public leaders draw from crisis management? In the second Leiden Leadership Lunch in our series on ‘Leadership opportunities in times of crisis’ Dr. Jaap van Lakerveld and Dr. Jeroen Wolbers – experts in the field of crisis management – shared their insights from the recently published…

ASTRON en de Universiteit Leiden beginnen samen een nieuwe leerstoel over sterrenkunde en AI. Bijzonder hoogleraar Joeri van Leeuwen gaat deze positie vullen.