For the first time ever, a float from Leiden University is taking part in the Grand Parade during the Relief of Leiden or Leidens Ontzet. October 3 is one big party in Leiden, and the University is joining in big style to celebrate its 444th anniversary.

Leiden artist Jos Agasi gets to create the artwork for the atrium of the new Gorlaeus Building. His work was chosen from several entries and will be a real eye-catcher in the building. The artist has a fascination for light and uses it to create works of art with all kinds of materials, objects and…

A highly refined drone camera that inspects the grape harvest or new microtechnology that can make painful biopsies redundant. Enthusiastic entrepreneurs presented their promising plans on 30 June in the HUBspot start-up centre.

Political scientist Kevin Köhler (Leiden University) has been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This prestigious grant enables him to set up a research group in the coming five years. Köhler and his team will examine how elite conflict affects processes of regime change…

The Defence White Paper, titled ‘Strong, smart and together’, is debated in the House of Representatives along with the Defence Budget and raises concerns especially in uncertain times.

In Bronze Age Europe many bronze objects such as axes, swords and jewels were deliberately left at specific spots in the landscape. PhD research by Leiden archaeologist Marieke Visser shows that these practices were expressions of people’s relationship with the world around them. ‘It was a completely…

Former student of Leiden University professor Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, Cyprus-born ACPA researcher Yannis Kyriakides, currently developing his PhD dissertation under the supervision of Professor Frans de Ruiter and docARTES PhD supervisor/ORCiM research fellow Dr. Bob…

For decades, unmarried girls and women in the Netherlands were forced to give up their newborn children. The impact was profound and persists to this day for the mothers, fathers, relinquished children, and the adoptive families in which they were raised.

Can a robot help prepare cancer medication in a hospital pharmacy? That’s what hospital pharmacist Tjerk Geersing investigated in his PhD research. He compared manual and automated preparations in terms of quality, efficiency, and safety. He graduated on 19 March.

Historians recently started preliminary research on Leiden University’s role in colonialism and historical slavery. Our knowledge about this is too limited and fragmented. They are looking with fresh eyes at Leiden’s archives and collections. An interview with historians Alicia Schrikker and Ligia G…

New volume in the Jus Post Bellum series

A report by interest group Tax Justice Network shows that the Netherlands is still one of the most attractive countries for companies when it comes to tax: we hold a dubious fourth position on a list of seventy coutries. In Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland Jan Vleggeert, Professor of Tax Law, explains…

On 24-25 October 2017, the Council of Europe organized an international conference to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo Convention).

On 28 January 2022, the Department of Legal Studies (Central European University), the Europa Institute (Leiden University), and the ESIL Interest Group ‘The EU as a Global Actor’ hosted an Expert Panel Discussion on the topic 'AI in the EU and Access to Justice'.

In accordance with the present travel advice issued by Leiden University and KU Leuven concerning student mobility abroad, it is highly unlikely that the ‘Egyptology in the Field’ programme will be able to take place as normal in Egypt during the 2020-2021 academic year

On 24 April 2024, Carlotta Rigotti and Gianclaudio presented their new report on sexual violence and harassment in the metaverse during a webinar co-organised by AUDRi, Equality Now, and VULNERA.

K-pop band BTS joining the Korean military is a compulsory obligation, one with increased meaning as tension builds on the Korean Peninsula and around the world, postdoc Aleydis Nissen writes in an article in The Diplomat.

A new chapter has been added to the ongoing discussion on Islamic schools in the Netherlands. Dutch television programme ‘Nieuwsuur’ and Dutch newspaper NRC conducted research into approximately 50 Islamic educational institutions which do not take part in the conventional Dutch educational system.…

On 20 November 2025, eLaw hosted the second capacity-building session of the BIAS project, coinciding with the city’s first snowfall of the year. The training brought together HR practitioners, scholars, consultants, and policymakers to discuss the opportunities and challenges of using AI systems in…

Carlotta Rigotti, postdoctoral researcher at eLaw, has just published her new monograph, The Regulation of Sex Robots: Gender and Sexuality in the Era of Artificial Intelligence.

On 27 November 2019, David de Boer defended his PhD dissertation 'Religious Persecution and Transnational Compassion in the Dutch Vernacular Press 1655-1745'. For his research, he analysed several hundred pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals published primarily in the seventeenth-century Netherlands,…

On 7 September 2016, Melanie Fink and Merinda Stewart presented at a Research Forum organised by the European Society of International Law (ESIL) Interest Group on the Law of the Sea. The Research Forum took place in the framework of the Annual ESIL Conference held in Riga from 8-10 September 2016 to…

The Asser Institute organised an interdisciplinary conference on ‘Law and ethics of artificial intelligence in the public sector: From principles to practice and policy’ that took place from 10 to 11 March 2022. Melanie Fink presented a paper co-authored with Michèle Finck.

On 29 and 30 June 2018, a book workshop on the subject of general principles was held in Leicester, UK.

On 15 and 16 May, Vestert Borger participated in the conference ‘Governing through funding in the EU’. The conference was organised by Lilian Tsourdi and Marijn van der Sluis, who are both affiliated with Maastricht University.

Jos Gommans is guest curator of the exhibition

This volume contains the first edition of 66 papyri and ostraca in the collection of the Leiden Papyrological Institute.

On 12 July, a workshop was held in hybrid format (on site and online) at the University of Reading in the UK on the subject of 'EU law teaching in the UK post-Brexit: Learning from EU law colleagues based in other non-EU states and seeking UK solutions'.

Leiden Law School has been ranked number 32 on the QS World University Rankings 2018. Once again, it has been ranked best law faculty in the Netherlands and eighth in the whole of Europe.

Assistant professor Rogier Creemers of Leiden University discusses in The Economist the vulnerabilities in China’s handling of personal data.

Together with Erwin Muller, Professor of Safety, Security and Law, Jasmina Mačkić discussed on 8 September different judicial and ethical dilemmas and themes that arise in the movie ‘Eye in the Sky’.

The New York Times quotes university lecturer Fenneke Sysling in an article about the return of the ‘Java Man’ Bones.

Find out how indigenous knowledge contributes to climate solutions. Anthropologist Marja Spierenburg explains in the KlimaatHelpdesk why local insights are essential for effective climate adaptation and how equal collaboration between science and indigenous communities can be achieved.

Economies worldwide are increasingly interconnected; trade in raw materials and semi-finished products is increasing. Many products we use in the Netherlands originate abroad, and many products we make in the Netherlands are destined for other countries. Almost all countries around us participate in…

Professor Nira Wickramasinghe will research forgotten lineages with an NWO Open Competition grant, in particular the afterlife of Dutch slavery in the Indian Ocean World.

Many international students are keen to work in the Netherlands after completing their studies. What are the possibilities and the obstacles? The International Student Career Event on 20 April helped students on their way.

Working in an operating theatre is a highly competitive sport. High work pressure, stress, and unexpected developments during operations. This requires a lot from care professionals who need to be mentally resilient to be able to deliver peak performances time and time again. What makes a care professional…

Dutch and Flemish partners, including Leiden University, are joining forces as the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) in the fight against the spread of fake news, and have received the support of the European Commission.

An international team led by astronomers at Leiden University has shown in laboratory experiments that sulfur can bind with ammonium under icy cosmic conditions and form a salt that sticks to dust and pebbles. The resulting sulfur salt not only helps to explain the mystery of the missing sulfur gas,…

Mexico will be electing a new president on 1 July. No matter who wins, there will be little change in the deep political crisis affecting the country. This is the message given by José Carlos G. Aguiar, university lecturer in Latin American studies.

Each year on the university’s birthday, children at primary schools in Leiden and The Hague have a lesson from a professor – about children’s rights and robots in surgery, for example. The children get to do activities. And ask questions: ‘How do you become a professor?’

A design created by student Jill Stoelinga has won our 450 mural competition! From May 12, you can help us paint the artwork. Read on to learn all about what the painting represents and how you can help.

Inspired by a gift she received at a conference abroad, Laura Kamsma, coordinator of the FGGA International Office, went looking for new promotional goodies to hand out to the representatives of international exchange programmes at Leiden University - Campus The Hague. The gifts had to meet three requirements:…

Is my cap on straight? Where in the cortège will I be walking? These are some of the questions asked by professors joining the Dies Natalis procession for the first time.

Terrorism is not a successful communication strategy. After an attack, the attention quickly shifts from the terrorists to authorities and citizens. This is what Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn argues in her dissertation: 'The aftermath: meaning-making after terrorist attacks in Western Europe'. ‘A year…

The Municipality of The Hague, Leiden University and CBRE Investment Management (CBRE IM) will together try to realise a University building in the former Hudson’s Bay premises at Grote Marktstraat 48-50/Spui 3. This will facilitate the growth of Campus The Hague. A cooperation agreement was signed…

Dr. Bart Custers, associate professor and director of research at eLaw, the center for law and digital technologies, has been appointed as member of the Honours Council of the Honours Academy.

Craft your own empirical research in workshops of the ELS lab @Leiden!

Distance / Fiction is a sound installation that deals with the ways listening is entwined with processes and techniques of sound mediation.

Yesterday marked the start of the National Accessibility Week. How accessible is Leiden University for people with a disability? We asked Lucia Langerak, disabled herself and working at the Honours Academy, about her experiences: ‘Significant improvements are being made.’