After four years of hard work, the time has finally come: your thesis is finished. But who of your family and friends will ever read it? Biologist Lizah van der Aart decided to make a magazine for layman. 'It was precisely the explanation of the difficult, fundamental parts that gave me good tools for…

‘Leiden University's code of conduct on Integrity is comprehensive and complete,' says Zeger van der Wal, Professor by Special Appointment in Public Administration at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. He is the holder of the Dales chair, funded by the CAOP. Van der Wal's specialist field…

After studying Life Science and Technology, David Louwrier conducted his PhD research at LUCAS about bioart and societal debates around biotechnology. Now that his PhD thesis has been submitted, David is developing educational material about the societal aspects of the biobased economy.

Protostars, data science, and the James Webb Space Telescope—Adriaan Janssen’s curiosity knows no bounds. As a double bachelor’s student in Physics and Astronomy, he has truly found his calling, underscored by his nomination for the title of Leiden Science Young Talent 2024.

Friday afternoon, 1 October. Location: one of the most vibration-free places in the world. In this setting, Leiden top scientists launched Quantum Leiden. For decades, researchers at the Faculty of Science have been investigating quantum technology at the highest level and also have been brainstorming…

Leiden University's International Honours College, Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) experienced empty halls and empty classrooms this past year on the residential campus on the Anna van Buerenplein in The Hague due to the global pandemic. Dr Paul Hudson designed a Covid-proof course that enabled…

Markus Davidsen, assistant professor of Religious Studies, is the winner of the 2021 Impact Prize. He is receiving the prize of 1,000 euros for the material he has developed for religious education in secondary schools.

Geert de Snoo is making the transition from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology to the management of KNAW. Starting 1 October, the professor of Environmental Biology will begin his role as Director of Research Policy in a new, consensus-based management team.

Monday 5 September the eighth edition of the interdisciplinary Minor Sustainable Development started. With 65 students coming from more than 20 different disciplines we've a record number of students and backgrounds.

From 19 to 21 September, the Third annual conference of the Law and Development Research Network took place at the National Museum of Ethnology (Museum Volkenkunde) Leiden.

Master's student Vicente Fischer de Miranda Rodrigues is the winner of the KHMW Brewer Thesis Prize for History. He was awarded the prize for his research on donatism.

Under the urgency of the Corona pandemic, and driven by both national and international projects dedicated to the creation of FAIR COVID data, the GO FAIR Foundation has worked with its stakeholder community to consolidate a broad range of technologies into the Three-Point FAIRification Framework (3PFF).…

Ineke Sluiter, Professor of Greek Language and Literature, has been appointed Corresponding Fellow by the British Academy. Every year the Academy selects the best researchers from the humanities and social sciences in the UK as well as outside as Fellows.

Alexander Geurds, Andrea Waters-Rist, and Laura Van Broekhoven are in the race for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant (Canada).

Starting March 2015, the Honours Class ‘Miscarriages of justice and fact-finding in (Dutch) criminal procedure’ has given me, a student of Education and Child Studies, the opportunity to submerge myself into this area of law, together with twelve other enthusiastic students.

In the 2015 QS World University rankings the area of Politics and International Studies at Leiden University, which includes Public Administration, has climbed to the 23rd place worldwide. Politics and International Studies at Leiden University holds the first position in The Netherlands and a top 10…

The Centre for Global Heritage and Development has been successful in applying for a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on the topic of threatened heritage at ICTO, the platform for innovation and education at Leiden University.

Eduard Fosch Villaronga, Assistant Professor at eLaw, co-organised together with Aurelia Tamò-Larrieux, Christoph Lutz, Anton Fedesov, and Anto Čartolovni the GoodBrother International Conference on Privacy-friendly and Trustworthy Technology for Society on 28 June 2022 in Zagreb, Croatia.

Have you ever wondered what law has accomplished in different countries and jurisdictions? If it even has accomplished anything at all, or that it are all promises of a better world? And have you ever thought about the role of law in the war on terror, in climate change, in emancipation and protection…

December 5th, Antoaneta Dimitrova associated with the Institute of Public Administration, was one of the main guests at the conference

Leiden University has held its first university-wide iftar, an event aimed at fostering connection and dialogue on cultural and religious diversity. This initiative was made possible by the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, POPcorner-FSW, SABR student association and POPcorner The Hague.

How can party bans be justified? Which parties were banned in post-war Europe – and why? Do militant democracy instruments work? Is an international militant democracy concept in the making?

On Tuesday December 19, Museum Boerhaave, the Lorentz Center and eLaw organize a public lecture on ‘Fairness and Accountability of Sociotechnical Algorithmic Systems’.

An interdisciplinary international consortium to address critical healthcare gaps for older adults in indigenous Dayak communities has been awarded an LDE Global Support grant (INUCoST).

Vincent Bakker, PhD Candidate at the Department of Economics, was awarded the Research Master’s Thesis Prize 2017 of the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Science.

This week, several media reported on a confidential research report in response to internal investigation into the working environment at the Institute of Education and Child Studies. The Board of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences wants to repeat its commitment to a safe working environment…

In the booklet ‘Research with Windows Wide Open’, eight professors in the social sciences and humanities advise colleagues who want to make an impact with their research. They include Leiden professors Andrea Evers and Leo Lucassen. The booklet, published by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and…

COVID-19 has shaken the world. 170 academics of eight different Dutch universities believe the time is right for a positive and meaningful vision. They signed a manifesto with a list of five policy proposals for a post-COVID 19 development model to cope with this pandemic and other social and environmental…

The Sanquin blood bank gathers data on every donation. Around 720,000 donations are made every year. ‘That generates a mountain of highly valuable data,’ says Leiden PhD candidate Marieke Vinkenoog.

Talking about suicide is important, but anything but comfortable. To make this difficult subject easier for students and staff to discuss, the university is organising a campaign week in line with the national campaign ‘1K Z1E J3’ (I see you) being run by Stichting 113 Zelfmoordpreventie (113 is the…

Study information

Jean-Eric Paquet, a Director-General at the European Commission, visited Leiden University on 20 February. He was impressed by the researchers’ drive, the wide range of topics that they research and the strong collaboration with Leiden Bio Science Park.

King Willem-Alexander visited Leiden on 6 December to open the new wing of the Leiden Instrumentmakers School. Students of this vocational programme make instruments needed for scientific research.

LUC students and staff came together this past semester to transform a local urban garden into a hands-on space for learning, experimentation, and community building.

Without scientific knowledge, we won’t be able to tackle the grand challenges of the 21st century: climate change, energy transition, social inequality and coronavirus, for example. Professor by Special Appointment of the Social Value of Science Laurens Hessels is therefore calling for more transdisciplinary…

An international consortium of research institutes, universities and non-academic partners in six European countries has been awarded with a research grant from the Department for Research and Innovation of the European Commission in June 2018. MIDA is coordinated by the ‘Centre National de la Recherche…

From 1 to 2 June 2017 Leiden University hosts the annual 24-hour Political Science Conference (‘Politicologenetmaal’). This event will bring together political scientists and practitioners from Flanders and The Netherlands, who will participate in several workshops to discuss subjects like elections,…

Patients on patient forums share all sorts of things about their illness: from side effects and advice to messages of support. PhD candidate Anne Dirkson uses artificial intelligence (AI) to retrieve this information. ‘Ninety per cent of the side effects weren’t officially registered.’

This was the programme for The Knowledge Orchard 2025:

Data science offers great opportunities for legal research, according to Simone van der Hof and Bart Custers (eLaw). But at the same time, we have to keep an eye on the unwanted side effects of big data - such as ethnic profiling.

Every year, around 400 PhD candidates defend their dissertation at Leiden University, spread across all the University’s different disciplines.

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 mission of Software and AI in Business (SA&B)connects the domains of science, business, and policy. Scientific research we focus on at Leiden in areas such as artificial intelligence promises to reshape our societies for the better. Translating science into positive societal impact however requires…

Statistics & Data Science is highly multidisciplinary. Within the programme we offer you a unique combination of knowledge and expertise through close collaboration.

Lecture