Five projects with a lead applicant from Leiden will receive an Open Science Fund grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

It’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and we’re spotlighting the importance of digital safety in the workplace. Our Chief Information Security Officer, Sylvia Bunte-Thelen, shares how staff can help keep our university a safe place to work and study. ‘We need to work together to protect our knowledge.…

Anthropologist Rodrigo Ochigame studies how AI is changing the practice of scientific research. From astrophysics to mathematics to climate science, they find that the adoption of new AI models is raising questions about what counts as reliable scientific evidence.

Today, ESA’s Gaia mission releases its new treasure trove of data about our home galaxy. Astronomers, led by the Leiden astronomer Anthony Brown, describe strange ‘starquakes’, stellar DNA, asymmetric motions and other fascinating insights in this most detailed Milky Way survey to date.

The university makes staff aware of the importance of cybersecurity at work. And that is essential, say our privacy and security officers. Because the number of cyberattacks is increasing, hackers are getting smarter all the time and by far the majority of problems are caused by human error. ‘Is that…

Public agencies are keen to use new technology such as AI to speed up their primary processes. But the internal organisation is often a major stumbling block. SAILS researcher Friso Selten conducts research at the interface between data science and public administration.

Two Leiden Science researchers received an NWO-XS grant for their research. Both projects are highly promising, but also high-risk. Macrophages that trap bacteria and data storage made from 2D materials convinced the board of their potential.

This practical guide is aimed at PhD candidates, Research Master Students, and early-career researchers from all academic disciplines. The instructions in the guide intend to inspire young researchers and to help them practice Open Science, by sharing all aspects of research as open possible.

How anonymous is an individual in a social network? And is it possible for hackers to extract sensitive information from data? These were the main topics of the hackathon organized by POPNET and the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on May 3 at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science.

On 31 January 2014 Professor Willem Heiser (Psychology, Statistics and Data Theory) was awarded the distinction of Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion. After his farewell lecture he received the royal honour for his exceptional academic, social and administrative achievements.

Crucial information about research, funding or how university rankings are created is often not freely accessible. The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information calls for such information to be made open. Professor Ludo Waltman is one of its initiators. What needs to change?

Better health for all the residents of The Hague region. This is the mission of Health Campus The Hague – formerly LUMC Campus The Hague. Eight partners – the LUMC, Leiden University, the municipality of The Hague and five healthcare institutions (see box) – are collaborating intensively in healthcare…

Sharing scientific data, transferring money, or sending other sensitive information online: with cryptography, applications make sure your data does not fall into the wrong hands. Mathematician Thomas Attema (CWI/TNO/Leiden University) helps with this. For his PhD research, he developed a new technique…

Henk Hoekstra and Alessandra Silvestri work on the astronomy and theoretical physics in the Euclid mission. These Dutch researchers are part of the mission.

ICT

Data from 41 million galaxies does not shake up the standard cosmological model after all. To that conclusion, to their own surprise, comes an international team of researchers including Koen Kuijken, professor at the Leiden Observatory.

ICT, Security

It may look a little weird: you spot a person pressing their nose to a tree, clipboard at the ready. That is our PhD student Tim Claerhout, who is carrying out fieldwork!

Researchers from Leiden University have developed a method to predict which sellers will be successful in illegal online marketplaces. This could help the police track down big players on the dark web, the hidden part of the internet.

Two Leiden researchers have been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This grant of up to 2 million euros will enable them to continue and develop their research.

Education

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

The brightness peak of the ring around M87's supermassive black hole has shifted 30 degrees counterclockwise in a year. This is shown by new images released by the Event Horizon Telescope consortium.

Matthijs van Leeuwen and Frank Takes have been appointed directors of education at LIACS as of 1 September. They will succeed Marcello Bonsangue, who has held the position since 2016. Van Leeuwen and Takes have been appointed for a period of four years.

Digitalisation can make a huge contribution to a greener future, but it must also be as sustainable as possible. To make significant progress, more collaboration and national leadership will be needed. Leiden University has therefore signed the Digital Sustainability Manifesto, which was presented on…

A time-lapse of the universe in more detail than ever before: that’s the aim of the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which will unveil its first images of the night sky on 23 June. Researchers at Leiden Observatory have played a major role in making it all possible.

‘Violence as a Population Health Problem’ is one of 33 interdisciplinary projects that have been launched thanks to a Kiem grant. The project team will analyse a large patient database to identify links between violence and other health problems. ‘Violence can also be an expression of other factors,’…

Research

From choosing the right tools to locking your screen when you go to get a coffee: it’s often the little things that help you work securely. With our campaign ‘Check it: work privacy and security smart’, in the coming month we are focusing on protecting our information and data, including personal data.…

‘We can only achieve this if we work together.’ This is what Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl emphasised as she spoke about professional research support at the opening of the second Research Support Conference at PLNT on 14 June. For the 80 research support staff present, learning and inspiration was…

Our banking, DigiD and sensitive medical data: what if our entire digital infrastructure can no longer be trusted? Jelle Don has this question permanently in mind as he goes about his research. And that is no bad thing because without new digital security measures, our society will be extremely vuln…

With the new Euclid satellite, scientists are going to map a large part of the sky. The satellite ofthe European Space Agency (ESA) will soon give them a better view of the galaxies and matter in the universe. Professor of Galactic Astronomy Koen Kuijken and a team of Dutch scientists are receiving…

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) is investing 197 million euros in 11 infrastructure projects that will be of great value to science and society. Leiden University and the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) are participating in eight of the eleven proposals.

PhD candidate Julia Wąsala searches for greenhouse gas emissions in satellite data. As a computer scientist, she bridges the gap between computer science and space research. ‘We really can't do this research without collaboration.’

Whom do you ask for permission to conduct research at a primary school? And how do you collect data in countries where freedom of expression is under threat? This is what staff directly involved in the – often complex – process of research ethics recently discussed at a meeting, with the aid of some…

How ethical is research involving humans and robots? And can research on artificial intelligence cause problems when it ends up in the wrong hands? In any research involving humans or their data, the ethics committee assesses where the issues are. Associate professor at LIACS Suzan Verberne chairs the…

Not only dark matter, but also ordinary matter and dark energy are tracked in the largest ever cosmological computer simulation ever. In the FLAMINGO simulations, you can see virtual galaxies and clusters of galaxies emerging over the course of billions of years. This is no easy task: with more than…

The Netherlands is losing plant species that rely on pollination by insects. Leiden environmental scientist Kaixuan Pan demonstrates this after analysing 87 years of measurements from over 365,000 plots. The news is alarming for our biodiversity and food security. ‘75 per cent of our crops and 90% of…

At the Netherlands National Open Science Festival in Rotterdam, 400 people with a heart for research and sharing knowledge came together — including many Leiden University employees. Four colleagues told us about their Festival experience, and their work to practice Open Science at Leiden University…

All persons making use of Leiden University buildings and grounds must comply with the general University house rules. These are listed in the Regulations on the Use of University Buildings, Grounds and Other Facilities, and are intended to guarantee order and safety for guests and staff alike.

Nederlanders met lage inkomens lopen tot 1,5 keer meer risico op het krijgen van een hartaanval of beroerte dan rijkere landgenoten. Bij Surinaamse Hindoestanen is dit risico 1,9 keer hoger. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van het LUMC en het HagaZiekenhuis. Nederlandse artsen kijken tot nu toe niet naar deze…

Did you know that algorithms can help with the prevention of air pollution and ships sinking in the sea? A team of Leiden University researchers have worked together with the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management to look in data-driven inspection of ships. In this interview, Gerrit Jan…

Data scientist Lindsey Burggraaff has won the second edition of the Krijn Rietveld Memorial Innovation Award. She receives the prize for her research into bioactive substances in food. ‘Burggraaff's work is situated at a unique intersection of data science, biochemistry and the fields of food and nutrition,’…

An escape room gave staff the chance to test their knowledge about cybersecurity at work. Would they manage to defuse the bomb in time without falling for the phishing emails or causing a data breach?

Life returned to something resembling normal after Covid but other crises soon took its place. These great challenges are also being felt at the University and our researchers are working on solutions. The nitrogen crisis, problems with young people’s services and an increasingly urgent climate crisis:…

In a new Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities white paper, researchers and practitioners start the conversation that society desperately needs to have. ‘We’ve outsourced the visionary thinking to tech companies.’

As of 1 October Rob van Nieuwpoort is the new professor of Efficient Computing and eScience at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS). Van Nieuwpoort brings with him a wealth of expertise: he is an expert in eScience, high performace computing and advanced algorithms.

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) in partnership with Elsevier hosted a series of online seminars on the challenges involved in achieving reproducibility in research. The seminars aimed to identify best practices that can help to overcome central challenges around reproducibility, and to convey several…