A bloody civil war has raged for years in the Central African Republic. PhD candidate Crépin Mouguia points out a tragic pattern: young people have been recruited as fighters or soldiers for generations and thus fuel the conflicts.

SAILS and CAIRELab, the LUMC’s AI expertise centre, recently held an event that gave healthcare professionals and computer scientists the chance to meet. The meeting proved fertile ground for new collaborations.

What do you do if you want to reach the widest possible consensus on a decision, ensuring it represents all the feelings and ideas within your team? The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) tried the Deep Democracy method. It proved successful: ‘Everyone had a say without us getting stuck…

Nearly 19,000 runners lined up at the start of Leiden Marathon on Sunday, among them students and staff from the university. For some this was their first race, for others a highlight of their year. This year, in celebration of our 450th anniversary, they ran in a special jubilee t-shirt.

Would you like to take concrete steps toward a sustainable university or do you have a broad interest in sustainability? Over 200 staff members have already joined the Leiden University Sustainability Network. And there is always room for more – even if you’re no expert on sustainability, says project…

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from 15 departments at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) realised they could do more for patients if they joined forces. This is how the BEAT-COVID group has been able to rapidly gain knowledge about COVID-19, the role of the immune system and…

The Social Citizenship and Migration interdisciplinary research programme is holding its annual symposium on 17 January 2024. This is the chance for Leiden researchers to share their experiences with a large network of colleagues with expertise in migration and social impact.

As of 1 September, archaeologist Amanda Henry has been appointed Full Professor at the Faculty of Archaeology, where she will hold the chair in Evolution in Hominin Diets. The appointment marks a new chapter in her academic journey, building on her longstanding research into ancient human diets and…

The new Neurodiversity Platform supports staff who need better working conditions because they have ADHD or autism, for instance. Stefan de Jong, who is organising the Platform’s first online meeting on 15 November, tells us about the initiative. Register now if you’re interested.

‘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,’…

How do you get citizens more involved in energy transition projects? This is the central question of the new transdisciplinary research project EmPowerEd. As a consortium partner, Leiden University is focusing on effective and inclusive collaboration between citizens, municipalities and industry.

Who is the real creator when a musician uses AI? This was the burning question for Adam Lukawski, himself a composer. During a fascinating premiere at Amare, The Hague’s cultural hub, he demonstrated what cocreation sounds like.

People in the Early Bonze Age used bronze artefacts as a means of payment. This is the conclusion reached by archaeologists Maikel Kuijpers and Catalin Popa in a PLOS ONE article published on 20 January.

When do we say violence was used in an incident? The answer may seem obvious at first. But interim results from a study by Jolien van Breen show that Dutch people are labelling events in increasingly broad contexts as violent.

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…

The book ‘The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Futures from the Frontiers of Climate Science’ by Paul Behrens has been launched in the US, a year after its original release in Europe. In his book, Behrens describes both hopeful and pessimistic scenarios for our planet.

Research

Jeroen Touwen officially joined the Campus The Hague Board on 28 November.

Organisation

Organisation

Leiden University wants to be a safe and inclusive learning and working environment for all its students and staff. In an interview with XperHR HR knowledge platform, Diversity Officer and lecturer Aya Ezawa and HR director Esther van Opstal explain why all-gender toilets are an important part of our…

Organisation, Social

Auke-Florian Hiemstra is the Leidsch Dagblad Person of the Year 2022.

Education

Els de Busser (Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs), Ayo Adedokun (LUC The Hague) and David Fontijn (Faculty of Archaeology) have been nominated for the LUS Teaching Prize 2020-2021.

Finance

Face masks and plastic gloves are supposed to protect us from corona, but they are becoming an increasing problem for the environment. In a special series of the New York Times, Leiden biologist Liselotte Rambonnet and alumnus Auke-Florian Hiemstra talk about their research and the special website they…

Organisation

This page provides updates on the protest today at the Academy Building and Hortus botanicus in Leiden.

Social

Facility

The academic playing field is becoming more complex all the time, making a strong research support network crucial. Over 100 research support professionals shared knowledge, gained inspiration and became acquainted or got to know each other even better at the third Leiden Research Support Conference…

The quality of academic education depends on good teaching. A taskforce of lecturers, education specialists and HRM experts is therefore calling for Leiden lecturers to be given more opportunities and scope to develop their talents. The group hopes that, with a new lecturer development model and concrete…

With its ‘Quality Agreements’, Leiden University is working to improve the quality of its teaching. Much has been done since they began at the end of 2018. At a meeting for delegates from all the faculties and the University Council on 11 June, it became clear just how much has already been achieved…

Speaking with your manager more often, focusing explicitly on well-being and giving more recognition and rewards for teamwork and team performance: the annual Performance & Development (P&D) interview will have a new format and also a new name. With the acronym GROW (Gesprekken over Resultaat, Ontwikkeling…

On 8 March, International Women’s Day, equal opportunities for women worldwide, empowerment, and gender equality take centre stage. For years, the role of women in the past has been nearly invisible. Four archaeologists reflect on this inequality of focus, from hunter-gatherers in the palaeolithic to…

Immigration and naturalisation policies are an important theme in the upcoming Dutch elections. The Netherlands should be mindful of its immigration narrative, says PhD candidate Hannah Bliersbach, as this greatly influences the relationship between ‘new’ citizens and their new home country.

Leiden University contributed to colonialism and slavery through its research and teaching. And governors and residents of Leiden had an active role in colonial networks. These are the findings of two explorative studies presented on 3 April.

For some it will sound like music to their ears, but for others is may sound less appealing: now the advice on working from home has changed, we can once again go to the office. After a period of working from home, which for some lasted almost two years (with maybe a short break), it can be a big transition.…

Academics from Leiden University have started a campaign against cuts at universities.

In a few weeks’ time Carel Stolker will be retiring as Rector Magnificus. In a double episode of the Science Shots podcast, we take stock: what were the key lessons, how has the coronavirus crisis been and of course, what will he do to avoid the post-retirement void? Stolker shares his experiences in…

Elizabeth Hicks won first runner-up in the Netherlands Institute of the Near East (NINO) MA thesis 2021 competition at the end of January.

Human resources

Organisation

Between November 2022 and December 2023, 45 one-off and 14 structural security measures were taken for academics or university staff. This is what it says in the External Intimidation, Hatred and Threats against Academics Monitor published by the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), the Dutch Research…