In 2025, Leiden University College (LUC) celebrates its 15th anniversary with the theme 'Global challenges, local impact'. To kick off this anniversary year, we have shared fifteen stories over the past few weeks showcasing how LUC students, researchers, and alumni contribute to societal challenges…

The academic year officially commences on 1 September and ends on 31 August. On collective closing days the university is closed and no lectures take place. The academic calendar applies to the whole university and to all study programmes with the exception of medicine.

MyTimetable is Leiden University’s timetabling publication tool.

PhD defence

How do you combine the growth of wind energy with the protection of vulnerable seabirds? With her master’s thesis on this delicate balance, Sofie Hajer won the 2025 Unilever Research Prize. Her work provides new insights into how ecology and policy can strengthen each other.

Seminar

Sebastian Diessner, assistant professor at the Institute of Public Administration, has won a grant from the Leverhulme Fund together with three researchers from the United Kingdom. The grant, worth 350,000 euros, is for the research project: 'The Political Economy of Knowledge-Based Growth.'

Exploring logging's real impact: Insights from Anthropologist Tessa Minter in the Solomon Islands.

Over the past year, historian Fenna IJtsma delved into 'four centuries of historical greenery'. As part of the Heritage Deal, with input from biologists at Naturalis and others, she looked for inspiration and examples from the past to contribute to a future climate-proof city centre.

Conference, Call for papers

Professor Ariadne Schmidt and Associate Professor Arie van Steensel (University of Groningen) have produced A Companion to Medieval and Early Modern Leiden, the first English-language history of Leiden. Mayor Peter Heijkoop received the first copy.

His Surinamese neighbours in Amsterdam gave Russia expert and economic historian Isaac Scarborough an idea: a re-evaluation of the Surinamese economy in the twentieth century. An NWO XS grant will enable him to make a start on this.

Money, cultural anthropologist Coco Kanters concludes in her dissertation, is not an intangible or acultural phenomenon. It is a ‘product’ that arises from specific values and can be used for certain goals.

Countries that import plastic waste recycle an average of at least 63 percent of it. This is surprising, as we previously believed that the vast majority was incinerated or ended up as litter. This was discovered by PhD candidate Kai Li and his colleagues from the Institute of Environmental Sciences in…

Eiko Fried has been appointed professor of Mental Health & Data Science. This combined chair neatly fits the view that understanding complex mental health issues require the integration of statistical methods. ‘The idea that mental health problems are monocausal entities with simple etiologies is no…

Inviting members of the public to help monitor wildlife, photograph plants or conduct samplings. These are some of the many examples of Citizen Science. It is increasingly recognized as effective and impactful for collecting data, but also for engaging the public in scientific research. In Nature reviews…

A consortium of research infrastructures focused on water quality has received €4.18 million in funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This grant will support the transformation of outdoor laboratories at Leiden University, NIOO-KNAW, Radboud University, and Wageningen University & Research…

Starting 1 September, three new Programme Directors will begin at FWN. Daan van der Es, Reinout van Weeren, and Amineh Ghorbani will each be responsible for a master's programme in our faculty.

Lecture

Professor Edmund Amann will be the new Professor of Brazilian Studies. A short introduction.

One million migrant workers are employed in the Netherlands, often in poor conditions. If we want to reduce labour migration, we need to restructure the economy, says economist Olaf van Vliet. Either way, we need to address abuses, says FNV lawyer Imke van Gardingen.

What is the effect of a certain regime on a country’s migration policy? Political scientist Katharina Natter compared the migration policy of autocratic Morocco with that of democratising Tunisia. Her findings challenge some of the core assumptions.

Lecture

‘The climate crisis is the greatest threat we face,’ says Leiden University environmental scientist Paul Behrens. ‘And yet, there is hope. In the near future, I think we will wonder why we didn’t make these changes earlier.’

Ancois de Villiers, PhD candidate at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, received the PeerJ Award for Best Student Presentation at the International Mediterranean Ecosystems Conference.

Geert de Snoo is making the transition from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology to the management of KNAW. Starting 1 October, the professor of Environmental Biology will begin his role as Director of Research Policy in a new, consensus-based management team.

Using biomethane to produce ammonia, a crucial chemical in agriculture, could drastically reduce the climate impact of the process. In a study published in One Earth, researcher Robert Istrate shows it’s even possible to make ammonia production net-zero or carbon negative.

Leiden University is expanding its educational offering in The Hague with two Dutch-taught bachelor's programmes: Economie & Samenleving and Cybersecurity & Cybercrime. These programmes address current societal issues and provide students with the opportunity to combine different disciplines to solve…

Researchers Dr. Natascha van der Zwan and Dr. Philipp Golka from the Institute for Public Administration have started an evaluation of Dutch pension funds at the request of the Monitoringcommissie Code Pensioenfondsen. Focus of the evaluation is the role of internal supervision in ensuring good governance…

LUC students research the Geul river’s restoration, combining sediment studies, biodiversity assessments, and policy insights for global environmental challenges

I think we should go this way. This way! THIS! WAY!! Making yourself heard in a city can be difficult. That is not only the case for humans, but birds seem to be hindered by urban noise as well. Researcher Hans Slabbekoorn of Leiden University already showed that great tits in Leiden communicate differently…

Due to an exception in the law, domestic workers employed by private persons cannot automatially benefit from social security schemes. Home help Carol Kollmann did not agree with this and took her case to court.

Hunter-gatherers acquire their food through complex gender-specific foraging techniques for a relatively stable and diverse supply of energy. New research indicates that this specialisation by boys and girls starts at a very young age. Most likely, this enabled the human species to evolve much larger…

Research

How can society let go of its obsession with economic growth and focus on goals as wellbeing, inclusion and sustainability? This is one of the core questions which a new 3 million euro European project will tackle the upcoming four years. Leiden University researcher Rutger Hoekstra is project coordinator…

How do you really measure how a country is doing? Researcher Annegeke Jansen is looking for alternatives to gross domestic product (GDP) to assess the state of society. As an economist, she focuses on well-being, inclusivity, and a healthier environment. ‘The economy should be a tool to achieve those…

Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) will hold its first international conference on 8-10 June 2022 in The Hague. Deadline submissions: 22 April 2022.