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

With a perspective-based approach to education, students' knowledge, skills and attitude are linked.

The world is becoming clogged with plastic, with tiny plastic particles found everywhere, from the oceans’ depths to the mountain tops, soil, plants, animals and even inside us. The question is: what harm, if any, are they causing? In a new article on The Conversation, environmental scientists Meiru…

Nanoplastics can accumulate in developing hearts, according to a study by biologist Meiru Wang from Leiden University. Her research on chicken embryos sheds new light on how these tiny plastic particles pose a threat to our health.

In Democratie en totalitarisme zijn de invloedrijkste opstellen van de Franse denker Claude Lefort samengebracht. Lefort laat overtuigend zien dat de kwetsbaarheid van de democratie juist ook haar kracht is. Voor democratie is essentieel dat de macht als ‘lege plaats’ verschijnt. Zij mag slechts tijdelijk…

This is the team of LAPP:

This year Leiden University exists for 444 years! This will be celebrated together with the residents of Leiden and The Hague during various activities. One of these is scientists and residents doing research on plastics and psychology together.

What is better for waste recycling: a plastic, paper or ceramic cup? A bio-based or fossil-based coating? Waste sorting at the source or at a recycling facility? Ask ten experts and you will get ten different opinions. We can all agree on one thing: doing nothing is not an option. Thus, Leiden University…

news sustainable sustainability activities

In this project we ask: how does pollution manifest as part of different practices, both socially and materially.

Join the Pipe is a project committed to reduce plastic waste and to provide people both in the Global South and in the Global North with drinkable water.

Join the Pipe is a project committed to reduce plastic waste and to provide people both in the Global South and in the Global North with drinkable water.

Roll your sustainable sleeves! Our students and staff have found various ways to do just that, both at home and at our university.

What happens to the different waste streams?

Leiden academics Remco Breuker and Auke-Florian Hiemstra stand to win the title of Person of the Year.

Develop a prototype combined chemical-microbial enzymatical process for the sustainable, green recycling and revalorization of polyamides and polystyrene

Dutch archaeologists are making three-dimensional virtual reconstructions of archaeological objects lost in the Syrian civil war.

We are very excited to announce our Sustainability Series for 2023-2024. Each month an interactive workshop will be organised that discusses a specific theme of sustainability. Interested about sustainability? Do not hesitate to sign up to our events !

How dangerous are micro- and nanoplastics? Do they affect the environment? What harm can they do to our bodies? Questions that we can now finally answer because of Fazel Abdolahpur Monikh. Together with his colleagues, he developed a method to detect and quantify nano-sized plastics. Their paper has…

The Institute of Private Law is part of the Leiden Law School.

Programs that aim to reduce symptoms of social anxiety in children generally include multiple components, such as exposure and cognitive restructuring. It is unknown if separate components yield positive intervention effects in children or whether a combination of components is required.

HZ Kenniscentrum Zeeuwse Samenleving doet op vraag van regionale overheden en maatschappelijke organisaties onderzoek naar actuele en maatschappelijke thema’s in de provincie Zeeland. De uitkomsten van onderzoeken en analyses worden gebruikt voor kennisopbouw en als basis voor beleidsopbouw en -ontwikkeling.…

The Leiden Leadership Centre is an international and interdisciplinary network organisation connecting people and perspectives.

Plead

Leiden Law School is working hard to improve sustainability both in education and teaching within the faculty, at our campus and in our research. You can read all about the university's vision and ambitions, recent developments in this area, our current sustainability projects and how students and…

From where litter ends up to which languages are spoken in Leiden and The Hague: over 50 interesting, surprising, complex and entertaining questions were sent in for the Citizen Science project to mark our 444th anniversary. Not one but two Citizen Science projects will be starting this year in Leiden…

What is the effect of pesticides, fertilizers or plastic on water quality? And how do wind and rain affect the data? These are just some of the things that Leiden environmental scientists study in the 32 ditches of the Living Lab.

Have you spotted the special voting bins on campus yet? Send us your suggestions for challenging, non-scientific questions and who knows? Your burning question might just be the next butt-kicker!

duurzaamheidsthema's onderzoek

Mission: The Environmental Biology department aims to increase the scientific understanding of how current and emerging anthropogenic threats affect biodiversity and ecosystem services. Through this understanding they facilitate strategic management of natural resources by addressing urgent challenges…

In films kunnen de meest wonderlijke acties plaatsvinden. Maar zijn die acties in de 'echte' wereld ook mogelijk? En in hoeverre houden filmmakers ons voor de gek? Tijdens het Leiden International Film Festival komen film en wetenschap samen.

Eine Archäobotanische untersuchung zu Umwelt und Landwirtschaft der Ältesten Bankkeramik.

The opening of the Academic Year 2017-2018 took place on Monday 4 September 2017 in Pieterskerk church.

Our institute contributes to multiple curricula. 

New technology offers many new possibilities for research, such as on dementia. ‘Organ-on-a-chip’ is a new technology in which small bits of organ are grown out of stem cells on a small plastic plate. A small piece of blood vessel, heart or nerve offers many new possibilities for research, such as…

Lets hit the water! Our students joined us on Saturday 30 August 2025 for a Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) and canal clean-up session on Leiden’s canals with Plastic Soup Surfer Merijn Tinga.

Netwerk en projecten duurzaamheid verduurzaming green office en green team

This project combines and reconsiders all the available evidence of the Scheurrak SO1, and use new archival databases and modern archaeological techniques to shed new light on the material culture of the Baltic grain trade and the Holland shipbuilding industry at the turn of the sixteenth century.

Promotor: Prof.dr. J. Schaye, Co-promotor: Marcello Cacciato

The Department of Child Law and Health Law is a knowledge centre dedicated to academic research and education for both students and professionals in two fields: child law (and children's rights) and health law.

The Film Club is a ProParte sub-group.

Research at Leiden Law School means research at the highest level.

Why are not all children equally responsive to variations in the social environment?

Product packaging is essential. It prolongs shelf-live and highly influences purchasing decisions. However, it’s also a big source of waste, especially single-use plastic. Have you ever felt conflicted choosing a product due to the material it’s packaged in? Or opted for a different product due to its…

Projects in the department of Environmental Biology

Western thought has often dismissed shadows as fictional, but what if fictions reveal original truths?

Diacylglycerol lipases (DAGLα and DAGLβ) convert diacylglycerol to the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol. Our understanding of DAGL function has been hindered by a lack of chemical probes that can perturb these enzymes in vivo.