On Thursday 1 February, the symposium ‘On interdisciplinary collaboration: How do we foster connections?’ will take place. The event will discuss lessons learned, but also look at the future. An essential event for every Leiden researcher who is involved in an interdisciplinary collaboration, or would…

Today’s protest at the University’s Academy Building and the Hortus botanicus ended at around 16.30. The dozens of demonstrators left the grounds voluntarily after the university summoned them to leave.

Research

Since 24 March, the Kamerlingh Onnes Building of the Faculty of Law has been full of hundreds of colourful jellyfish. But behind that enchanting sight is a serious message: the exhibition symbolises the loss of biodiversity in the oceans due to climate change.

The Economics Department at Leiden University is pleased to announce a junior workshop focusing on The Economic, Social and Political Effects of Migration, which will be held Friday 19 April 2024, at the Gravensteen in Leiden.

Liveable Planet, the Leiden interdisciplinary research programme on sustainability, has a full presence at the LUGO Sustainability Day on Tuesday 9 May. Professor Jan Willem Erisman will deliver the keynote lecture. You can also ask questions about sustainability research and interdisciplinary collaboration…

If universities and research institutions want to tackle unacceptable behaviour in academia, they must shift their focus from dealing with complaints to preventing such behaviour in the first place. This is what the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has concluded. It has therefore…

SRON, the Netherlands Institute for Space Research, is holding an open day on Sunday 25 September. It has had a branch at the Leiden Bio Science Park since 2021 and works closely with Leiden University.

This month, the first part of the quality assurance audit (ITK) took place. A team of auditors from the Nederlands-Vlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie (NVAO) visited us to review how we ensure quality in education and how this aligns with our overall vision.

Education

Facility, Organisation

Students for Palestine – a group of students from Leiden and The Hague – are holding a panel discussion in the Leiden University in The Hague Wijnhaven building on Tuesday 24 May entitled ‘Silencing Palestine’.

We have all been deeply affected by the events that took place in Rotterdam on Thursday evening. Our colleagues at Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University have lost a valued colleague and have been involved in a very serious incident, which will undoubtedly leave deep scars. The witnesses to this…

On Friday June 2, the Liveable Planet event 'Interdisciplinary Collaborations - Food, Sustainability & Health' will take place. Here, researchers can learn everything about how to set up successful interdisciplinary collaborations. Why should you attend this event? We’ll give you three reasons.

One of the largest roofs at Leiden University, that of the Snellius building, has recently been equipped with 590 solar panels and 57,000 sedum plants, making it the largest combined roof in the Benelux. The roof was officially opened on Monday 10 October by Annetje Ottow and Martijn Ridderbos, President…

Leiden University has appointed a new supplier for furniture procurement, signing a contract emphasising sustainability and reuse. This approach is already delivering results: when furnishing the new Spui Campus this year, more than half of the furniture was reused.

ICT

Who holds rights to Greenland’s surrounding waters and natural resources? Which interests are at stake and for whose benefit? We put these questions to Hilde Woker, who specialises in the law of the sea in the Arctic.

With its FestivOWL theme, Orientation Week Leiden (OWL) promises to be one big festival for new international students in Leiden.

The University Council gives the Executive Board (un)solicited advice and helps decide on important topics. For example, permanent contracts for lecturers and the workload and well-being of our students and staff. It’s an important organ, but many staff have no idea what it does. ‘I think it’s great…

‘We may have taken steps together, but there is still much to do in the fight against racism and discrimination’, says Annetje Ottow, President of Leiden University’s Executive Board. ‘We have to be aware of this and continue to focus on this difficult, uncomfortable and often confronting topic.’

Towards the end of February, three Leiden University buildings will be assessed for their accessibility to people with a disability. The assessment will be carried out by Ongehinderd, a social enterprise committed to making the Netherlands more accessible. Its founder and director, Gerard de Nooij,…

A lot of municipalities work with a points system to encourage construction projects to take biodiversity and creating green areas into account. But this way of working also benefits local neighbourhoods and residents, master's student Marije Sesink discovered. She based her study on The Hague.

Learn how silence can benefit your well-being during Work Stress Week from 11 to 15 November. It’s no surprise that we sometimes need a bit of peace and quiet, says Professor of Auditory Culture Marcel Cobussen. ‘Our brain is exposed day and night to auditory stimuli.’

On Monday 28 March a ‘pen test’ will be carried out to check the security of the classroom scanners. These people counters in University buildings were temporarily switched off in December after there was growing disquiet about privacy aspects of the devices. The pen test will be carried out in the…

A discount on textbooks is always welcome. But for these students joining a study association has meant much more than that alone.

Wat gebeurt er op het schoolplein? Sensoren op kleding openbaren pijnlijke patronen

‘Be yourself. Be as gay, queer, trans as you can and show the world you exist.’ These rousing words from Looi van Kessel marked the start of the third Pride Leiden for the university boat, with the theme: ‘450 years of being yourself’.

What does academic freedom mean? And how do we give shape to it in Leiden? The Academic Freedom Core Team considered these questions and presented its final report on 17 June.

The Lorentz Center is a melting pot that is visited by researchers from around the world. ‘Miracles happen’ during the five-day interactive workshops at the Center. And there is an extra reason to celebrate the center’s 25th anniversary. On 28 April, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and Leiden University…

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.…

Few people would associate the name Anton de Kom with Leiden. Yet the Surinamese freedom fighter is the subject of an exhibition at Museum De Lakenhal.

Seed funding to summer schools, research collaborations and joint degree programmes: in these ways and more, we’re creating impact as a partner in Una Europa, an alliance of 11 leading research universities. To wrap up the year, we asked six colleagues to reflect on what they’ve achieved through Una…

Researchers, civil servants and local residents met on 27 September to talk about partnering for sustainability. What were the results? In a green ‘city oasis’ in the centre of The Hague they spoke about the energy transition, bottom-up initiatives and citizen science.

No fewer than 55 applications were submitted for a Kiem seed grant, an initiative for developing new interdisciplinary, interfaculty research partnerships and encounters. The draw took place on Monday for the allocation of 22 seed grants. The Executive Board was so impressed with the number of applications…

Chris Suijker, since 1 July the new director of Real Estate, likes healthy and sustainable university buildings where you ‘get the feeling you’re right at the heart of society’. Her aim is to achieve the same effect with even more buildings.

Glorious sunshine, dozens of enthusiastic academics and huge numbers of Leiden residents ensured that this year’s special jubilee version of 3 October University was a great success.

Almost two months have passed since the negotiation agreement was reached on the new CAO. Employers and unions have now signed there are still some unanswered questions. We are curious to know the latest status, so we got together on Teams with our HRM Director Heleen Cocu.

How are you doing in these strange and unprecedented times? This is the question we are asking our colleagues in this series of articles. This time we asked Erick van Zuylen, the University beadle. 'This year, I haven't been leading the PhD committee into and out of the chamber, wielding my beadle's…

We all know smoking is bad for our health. But we might not have known that the cigarette filters that litter our streets also impact the environment. Esther Kentin is a lecturer at Leiden Law School. She is raising awareness of the University’s cigarette butt problem.

How do digital technologies affect adolescent mental health and resilience? How do we foster a secure online environment? How should we deal with increasing rates of online crimes among adolescents? During the mini-symposium ‘The effect of the online world on adolescents’, presented by the interdisciplinary…

As technology transforms healthcare and services come under mounting pressure, one question remains the same: Will the advice or treatment offered help patients lead the lives they want to live? In her inaugural lecture, Professor Maxime Kummeling stresses the importance of quality.

Alumni and researchers met at two well-attended alumni dinners in Yogyakarta and Jakarta. The alumni reminisced about their time in Leiden and got to see their lecturers once again.

In Poland the commemoration of acts of resistance is being misused to distort the history of the Holocaust. That is what Cleveringa Professor Jan Grabowski said in his inaugural lecture on 26 November. In her lecture, the second Cleveringa Professor, Barbara Engelking, pointed to the often indifferent…

Protests have been raging in Iran for two months since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The role of social media in the protests against the Iranian regime should not be underestimated, says Senior Assistant Professor and Iranian Babak RezaeeDaryakenari.

Research

The Leiden University interdisciplinary program Liveable Planet is working on a ‘Liveable Planet Academy’ as a follow-up to its activities. The coordinating team visited the transdisciplinary Leuphana University (Germany) to get inspiration for the setup of the academy.

Professor of Modern China Florian Schneider researches what people do with technology and what technology does with people. Social media, for example. And then mainly in China.

At one time, the railway from Kimberley to Kambove in Southern Africa symbolised prosperity and progress. Today, the exhausted mining towns along its route are marked by decay and pollution. Professor Jan-Bart Gewald has been awarded an NWO L grant to investigate the long-term global consequences.