On 15 June 2023, the book presentation for the ‘Panta Rhei: recht en duurzaamheid’ (Panta Rhei: law and sustainability) was held at the Oude Sterrenwacht in Leiden. The book provides an overview of research in the field of sustainability conducted at Leiden Law School and was compiled by Yvonne Erkens,…

Het onderzoeksproject heeft als doel ouders te helpen hun kleuters gezonde eetgewoonten aan te leren door het bevorderen van sensitieve voeding tijdens de fase wanneer peuters kieskeurig met eten worden.

Eduard Fosch-Villaronga and Bart Custers from eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies wrote an article on Fair Medicine and AI highlighting that AI for biomedical research and healthcare should be beneficent and equitable for everyone.

The Justice and AI Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence is striving to become a European hub of excellence on fairness in AI. Eduard Fosch-Villaronga was invited to explain the role of fairness in robots and AI systems.

What if AI doesn’t just support engineers, but actually works alongside them? A large consortium, including Leiden University, gets 3.7 million euros. They will explore novel synergies between engineers and AI, in industrial engineering design areas such as automotive engineering.

What do ten-year-old children and chatbots have in common? PhD researcher Bram van Dijk studied language development in both children and AI language models. ‘It’s actually quite practical that we attribute human traits to a chatbot.’

eLaw - Center of Law and Digital technologies from Leiden Law School, and the Vascular Surgery Department at Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, join forces to explore the use of AI for diabetes and secondary prevention of diabetic foot problems and won a prize for it.

In the ‘Educatips’ column, Psychology lecturers share their most important insights about teaching. This month: Ambra Brizi uses AI to encourage students to reflect and think more critically. ‘What are the limitations, and what is the potential of this technology?’

Carlotta Rigotti and Eduard Fosch-Villaronga launch a call for workshop papers on fairness and AI in the labour market at the 16th JSAI International Symposia on AI as part of the Horizon Europe BIAS project.

The free AI and Ethics course (in Dutch) is available online to anyone who wants to find out more about the ethical implications of artificial intelligence. One of the eight experts featured in the course is Professor Reijer Passchier. ‘Artificial Intelligence is spreading so fast and has such an impact…

The law and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications need to be better aligned to ensure our personal data and privacy are protected. PhD candidate Andreas Häuselmann can see opportunities with AI, but dangers if this does not happen.

Leiden University's eLaw Center's BIAS Project and the Universidad de la Laguna's AEQUITAS project will collaborate to develop a deeper understanding of AI technologies' impact on workers and inform policies accordingly.

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.

A growing number of AI tools are being developed for the legal sector, to help professionals search lengthy texts or check court rulings. Leiden SAILS researcher Masha Medvedeva, an expert on the technical development of these systems, warns: ‘Users should know what’s under the hood.’

Research

Education, ICT

Eduard Fosch-Villaronga and Hadassah Drukarch from eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies, recently published the book ‘AI for Healthcare Robotics’, published by CRC Press from Taylor and Francis Group in their AI for Everything Series.

AI-related activities and programmes are springing up throughout the university. In research, for example, at SAILS, and for staff in workshops and co-creation labs. As an AI champion at the ISSC, Julian van der Kraats is involved in various AI developments.

Following a highly successful first edition, we are delighted to announce the second Leiden eLaw Summer School on ‘Regulating AI in the EU Digital Market’ taking place from 23 to 27 June 2025, both in person in Leiden and online.

Stephan Raaijmakers has been Professor of Communicative AI since 1 May. Prior to this, he had held this position for five years as professor by special appointment. How has his approach to AI changed in that time?

Are AI models such as Midjourney violating artists' copyright? Dirk Visser, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, spoke about this topic on Dutch current affairs news programme 'NOS Radio 1 Journaal' .

Gianclaudio Malgieri, Associate Professor at eLaw, was a a speaker in the very popular Luiza's Live Talks.

Education

eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University, hosted the first Horizon Europe BIAS Project co-creational workshop geared towards defining the requirements for identifying and mitigating diversity bias in AI systems used for recruitment purposes.

The ROBUST consortium, which is the initiative of the Innovation Center for Artificial intelligence (ICAI), has received 25 million euros from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) to strengthen fundamental AI research.

During the final event of the PRE-Class Rechtsgeleerdheid, secondary school pupils organised a mock trial on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on society. Together with the audience, they explored the possibilities and pitfalls of AI. ‘They all did a wonderful job.’

Education

Professor Sjef Barbiers is leaving his job as scientific director of LUCL for the position of scientific director of the Institute for the Dutch Language (INT) from 1 September.

Joining forces HR HRM Finance FEZ Mariska Costeris Gertia Knorr

High demand at emergency departments is not a reliable indicator of the number of patients that will be sent to the Acute Admissions Unit. The LUMC has therefore developed an admissions predictor.

Inaugural lecture

We want FGGA to become a place where everyone feels welcome, at ease, and included. The outcomes of last year's personnel monitor and D&I survey show that we are not quite there yet.

Going beyond gender diversiteit en inclusie wetenschap

It is a familiar phenomenon: you ask the assistant on your phone to call your mother, but it calls a friend instead. Tom Kouwenhoven, PhD student in the SAILS programme, investigates how humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can better communicate with each other, so that these kinds of situations…

Fifteen knowledge institutions and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science have signed the covenant for Open Science NL. Leiden University has also joined the covenant, via the Universities of the Netherlands. This marks the start of the Dutch Research Council’s and brings the transition to open…

Writing essays, refining grant applications, or creating a new course curriculum—ChatGPT assists students and researchers in these endeavours. What this new technology means for working in academia, was discussion at the fourth Psychology Connected event.

Social

The university newsletter of Tuesday 18 June featured a story on the outline agreement. It is not yet clear what the government's plans are for higher education but we are particularly concerned about proposed cuts and calls for fewer international students.

De studentassessor: één student die als lid van het faculteitsbestuur aanschuift bij alle belangrijke overleggen en projecten. Zo wordt de student, een van de belangrijkste doelgroepen, vertegenwoordigd bij bestuurlijke besluitvorming. Assessor Julie Külsen draagt volgend collegejaar per 1 september…

De Universiteit Leiden vindt de aanpassing van het bindend studieadvies geen verstandig plan.

Johan Christensen, universitair docent bij het Instituut Bestuurskunde, heeft 1,2 miljoen euro subsidie gekregen van de Research Council of Norway. Christensen is co-leider van een project genaamd INFLUEX dat de invloed van experts gaat onderzoeken. Naast Christensen maakt ook Valérie Pattyn van het…

Maak kennis met Siggie, online coaching voor FGGA Studenten

Grondstoffen werden vroeger over duizenden kilometers afstand vervoerd. Waarvoor werden ze geruild en waarom sloten mensen in West-Azië zich aan bij deze handelsnetwerken?