Last weekend, all university buildings were closed and the university systems were unavailable. The reason for this was the major maintenance of the university network. The network’s core needed to be shut down for this, including all supplies and services. A large group of staff from ISSC as well as…

A consortium led by Eefje Cuppen, Professor Governance of Sustainability at the Institute of Public Administration, has been granted NWO funding for a research project looking into the social, societal, and technical aspects of the energy transition.

Eight university vegetable patches will soon join the display at the Hortus botanicus. The sun shone down on almost 40 enthusiastic students and staff as they started work on the new Community Garden there earlier this month.

It is almost two and a half years since Russia invaded Ukraine, but the conflict between the two countries has been going on for much longer. Central to it is the question of what it means to be Ukrainian. Guest researcher Viktoriia Ryhovanova teaches a course on the subject. Last academic year, the…

These are turbulent times at Dutch universities. We have all seen what has been and is still happening at various campuses in the country. Protests, demonstrations, occupations. Situations and scenes that deeply affect us all.

On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February) RISE puts the spotlight on four women in our faculty. The Researchers in Science for Equality (RISE) network is launching a junior board on this special day. Their main task? Optimise the information provision between RISE and the…

Publish Your Reviews is an initiative encouraging peer reviewers to share their reviews and to contribute to open science and transparant research communication.

The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) and the Ethical Data Initiative (EDI) are pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at fostering a collaborative partnership to advance responsible data initiatives and enhance communication within the realms of…

Picturing Scholasticide is a multimodal initiative that brings urgent attention to the social and legal consequences of Israel’s systematic destruction of Palestinian institutions of higher education. The project consists of both a physical exhibition and a website.

The Rein Dool painting depicting board members of Leiden University will be moving soon to the Reception Room in the Academy Building, where more people will be able to see it.

Psychologist Floor van Meer won the first Trial & Error Award for her research on the effect of being distracted while eating on eating behavior. This award from the Journal of Trial & Error (JOTE) honors the often underappreciated aspect of research: learning from errors. For her publication, Van Meer…

Investigations conducted by several Dutch child protection bodies within family situations are inadequate. Due to lack of knowledge, time and money, these investigations are not carried out properly, with major consequences for the families involved.

Leiden Child Law Department at Leiden University in the Netherlands formally entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF)

Mohammad Bin Khidzer recently joined the Institute for History as a Postdoc, as part of Fenneke Sysling's ERC Starting Grant project COMET: Human Subject Research and Medical Ethics in Colonial Southeast Asia. Below he introduces himself.

Through Kiem, Leiden University is providing 25 annual seed grants between 2024 and 2026 to develop new interdisciplinary (interfaculty) teaching/research collaborations and encounters.

Since 1 November 2025, Prof. Dr. Luc Sels has been the new president of Leiden University's Executive Board. In a message to our university he introduces himself and shares his first impressions.

In a new article in the journal Scientific Reports, Leiden archaeologist Wei Chu and colleagues report on recent excavations in Western Romania at the site of Româneşti, one of the most important sites in southeastern Europe associated with the earliest Homo sapiens. The site gives an important glimpse…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has acquired a rare manuscript map of Suriname. The map from 1830 is almost 2.5 meters long and is highly detailed. It was hand-drawn by Helmuth Hendrik Hiemcke (1808-1858), one of the official surveyors employed by the colonial administration, and shows Suriname in…

On Tuesday 25 November, Leiden University is holding the first of four sessions on ‘Building Academic Freedom’. Students and staff are invited to a conversation about today’s hot-button issues.

NUFFIC’s Orange Knowledge programme, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, awarded a grant to the proposal of Jacqueline Vel, Adriaan Bedner and Leiden alumnus Fachrizal Afandi just before the Christmas holidays.

The Vrouw Vennepolder near Oud Ade has been transformed into the Polderlab. Scientists and students from Leiden University, together with farmers and citizens, investigate how to manage peatland in a sustainable and profitable manner. A great opportunity for students to experience how scientific knowledge…

Rick Lawson, Professor of European Law and former Dean of Leiden Law School, was appointed as the new president of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights on 30 June.

That one handy little tool to do a quiz with students: can you use that or will you inadvertently put their privacy at risk? New privacy guidelines offers a solution.

As of 1 November, Jan Vonk has been appointed full professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute (MI). The institute is delighted with Jan’s appointment, as is he. ‘At the MI we combine the abstract with the concrete like no other.’

Mums posting photos and videos of their child on Instagram and TikTok and also earning loads of money doing so. Kidfluencers, momvloggers and familyvlogs are very popular, in the Netherlands too. But the lack of legislation regulating these activities means that these children are barely protected.…

Fanny Wonu Veys was appointed Professor of Art and Material Culture of Oceania on 1 August. Time for an introduction.

Vanessa mak knaw

Technological developments never stop. Machines can already perform many tasks and in the future they will probably take over even more of the work we do. Which jobs could disappear and which will remain in the future? Olaf van Vliet, Professor of Economics at Leiden Law School, commented on these issues…

It’ll be a sight to behold: 54 begowned beadles striding through the streets of Leiden. The beadles from 14 universities will gather in Leiden on 25 and 26 August for the 30th National Beadle Day.

During the HALON hacking competition, 28 teams had one goal: to find as many vulnerabilities as possible in the systems of Dutch higher education institutions. Research software engineer Chris Handy participated on his own and ended up in second place in the category ‘Vulnerabilities found at the highest…

Marta Fiocco has been appointed as of 1 April as professor of applied mathematics, in particular medical statistics. Fiocco's appointment is at the Faculty of Science and at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC). She conducts research into 'personalised medicine', tailor-made medicines for cancer…

‘It truly is a plan by and for us all,’ said Annetje Ottow, President of the Executive Board, at the Dies Natalis celebration on 8 February. Leiden Law School was also actively involved developing in the strategic plan.

Food security is increasingly under pressure due to rising inequality, climate change, and armed conflict. From 28 October, Leiden University College (LUC) in The Hague offers a seven-week course

Two teams of astronomers, including one from Leiden University, have discovered oxygen in the most distant known galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0. This groundbreaking discovery shows that galaxies could form much faster in the early universe than was previously thought.

Recently, Jaap van den Herik, professor emeritus Law and IT, was interviewed by the BNVKI (Benelux Association for Artificial Intelligence).

Ten underage boys are due to appear before a juvenile court. They are accused of luring and attacking nine men whom they believed were paedophiles. Last October, one attack cost a 73-year-old former teacher from Arnhem his life.

On Tuesday 12 January 2021, the Leiden Law School thesis prizes were awarded at the New Year’s event.

From 1 August, Hermen Jan Hupkes has been appointed Professor of Non-Linear Analysis at the Mathematical Institute. 'Initially I don't think that much will change,' Hupkes says. 'My research and supervising future researchers will continue as before.'

De Declaration of equity helpt studieverenigingen op het gebied van diversiteit en inclusie.

Assistant Professor Juan Masullo of the Institute of Political Science has been awarded the 2025 Alexander George Best Article Award for his work on interviews and process tracing.

At the end of 2020 researcher/lecturer Erwin Dijkstra joined the editorial team of academic journal Handicap & Recht (Disability & Law), published by Boom Juridisch. The December issue also includes an article he wrote.

The tour for programme chairs through the new Humanities Hub covered just one corridor. Previously, the labs were spread across the campus, but now most of them have been consolidated in the Huizinga Building.

Is your strategic vote actually strategic? How can the Netherlands form a stable government? And what should the next government do about migration, defence and the housing crisis? This is what our experts have to say.

An article by Georgina Kuipers has been published this month in Dutch journal Overheid & Aansprakelijkheid (Government and Accountability). It deals with policy introduced in response to damage caused by the construction of the Amsterdam North/South metro line and its aim to rebuild trust. The title…

Organisation

Dutch municipalities are racing to digitalise, introducing virtual services, fraud-detection algorithms and more. The digital city may not always serve its residents. Professor Jiska Engelbert calls for civil servants who dare to push back.

It can be irritating, all that logging in to university systems: entering your password for the umpteenth time and confirming in an app or with a code that you are the one who is trying to log in. Find out why we really do need to do this.

Freya Baetens, Professor of European Law, has been awarded a Chair by the Francqui Foundation in Belgium for the impact of her work on lawmaking and policymaking in Europe and beyond.

As of this academic year, all our faculties will be using the same platform for digital assessment: Ans. While this platform is already familiar in many faculties, it will be new for the staff and students of Social & Behavioural Sciences (from 1 September) and Humanities (from 1 February), as they…