New publication reviews Dutch colonial sources on the Indigenous Brazilian Tapuia people: ‘For them the Dutch were another piece on the political chess board’

Teachers have to find a balance between routine and renewal of their teaching repertoire. Eveline de Boer (PhD student at ICLON) investigated how didactic building blocks can help them with this. Defence on June 15.

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…

How unique is the human capacity for learning and adapting to an environment? In field research – in the rainforest and Artis Zoo – primatologist Karline Janmaat is studying how humans and other primates adapt to their environment in their search for food. She will give her inaugural lecture as Professor…

In higher education, Open Educational Resources (OER) are available for anyone to use, but they are not widely used. Marjon Baas, PhD student at ICLON, investigated how instructors deal with OER. Defence on 5 October.

175 years ago, the Netherlands took great strides towards parliamentary democracy with a revamped Constitution. Where does the Constitution stand today?

Organisation, Research

They are only a few tens of micrometres long — far smaller than the width of a human hair – yet these robots can swim, sense, navigate and adapt in ways that look surprisingly life-like. And all this without having a brain.

Research

Self-directed learning is more suitable for intermediate and advanced language learners than for beginners.

Nederlandse gepromoveerden voelen zich onvoldoende voorbereid op een baan. In een nieuw onderzoek ontwikkelen Leidse promovendi nu alvast hun competenties met behulp van een zelfevaluatietool, persoonlijke coaching en groepsinterventie. Doe mee met dit onderzoek en Empower your PhD.

At the Dies Natalis Willem Otterspeer, Professor Emeritus of University History, presented the fourth and final volume of Groepsportret met Dame, his series on the history of Leiden University. De 'Strategie van de Aanpassing' covers the period 1876-1975. Otterspeer talked about his book in a podcast…

A project to improve practicals in science courses has been awarded a 175,000 subsidy. Leiden physicist Paul Logman is one of the applicants, together with colleagues from the UvA and Eindhoven University of Technology.

ICT

The Neumark-Nord 2 site in central Germany, dates back to 125,000 years ago. During an interglacial period with temperatures similar to those today, Neanderthals where doing something we previously thought happened only tens of thousands of years later.

Erik de Maaker and Radhika Gupta received a Seed Grant to initiate research on how heritage has been and can be mobilised to address climate change governance in Himalayan Asia. This project will address a significant knowledge gap on the potentials and pitfalls of climate governance, with an initial…

Anthropologist Sander Hölsgens explores how skateboarding philosophy can revolutionise education by embracing failure, fostering creativity, and building supportive learning communities. Read his research on The Conversation.

Two research projects with researchers from Leiden University have been awarded a Dutch Research Council (NWO) Open Competition Domain Science-M programme grant. These grants fund curiosity-driven, fundamental research in the Science domain.

The EU Product Safety Award encourages and honors innovative business initiatives and research that make a difference for consumers. This year, the Gold Medal was awarded to Eduard and Hadassah for their innovative research on diversity in robot design, testbed, and safety standardization

With a Kick Off Meeting on 10 December 2021, we are proud to present the partnership of Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) in the LIFE SECURDOMINO project!

Soil that is too wet, or too dry. Or with a lot or few nutrients. Due to climate change, the differences are becoming bigger, and plants must increasingly be able to adapt to survive. How do you make plants more stress-resistant? For this purpose, researchers from Leiden, along with other universities,…

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.

Nikki Ikani, Assistant Professor Intelligence and Security at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA), has recently published her latest monograph 'Crisis and change in European Union foreign policy' with Manchester University Press.

What do you build with when trees are scarce and winters are brutal? For hunter-gatherers living in current-day Ukraine some 18,000 years ago, the answer was simple: mammoth bones.

BPS MSc student Guus Ruiter: This year I followed this new course called Design, Analysis, and Practical Use of Biologicals at the LUMC given by Rawi Ramautar and developed for both BPS MSc and Pharmacy students. During this course, there were many different speakers, in particular from biotech companies…

Plants not only sense when they are touched, but they can also adapt to it. For example, by strengthening or defending themselves. But how do plants do this? The Green TE (Green Tissue Engineering) consortium has been granted a Gravitation grant of almost 23 million euros to investigate exactly this…

How did a fifteen year old paper receive an award? It happened to LIACS professor Todor Stefanov and his colleagues. Their paper was awarded with the Test of Time Award, an international award for papers that had the highest impact over time. This paper in particular is about Daedalus, a framework used…

During the event 'Fout?' by De Jonge Akademie, Ellen de Bruijn held a lecture about the social context of making mistakes and the psychological elements of learning from it.

Doctorates, scholarships, or a trip around the world during a sabbatical: when it comes to our careers, we often talk about what went well. The CV of Failures exhibition at the Herta Mohr Building shows the other side of the coin. On large boards, university staff talk about rejections, setbacks, and…

Barbara Gravendeel has been appointed as the new scientific director of Hortus botanicus Leiden. Additionally, she has been named Professor of Plants and Society. Gravendeel succeeds Paul Keßler, who held the position for nineteen years. Currently, she works as a group leader at Naturalis Biodiversity…

Racism and discrimination come in many different shapes and forms – in the Netherlands too. Verbal attacks, stereotypes and violence: some people are confronted with these on a daily basis. A group that is often not included in research and the debate on racism is people of Asian descent. The Diversity…

The Academic Language Centre (ATC) is one of the cornerstones of Leiden University. Director Gea Hakker explains how this organisation is providing quality (online) language courses and meeting new demands.

Psychologist Bernou Melisse was shocked at the long waiting lists in the Netherlands for people with binge-eating disorders. The problem was not yet on the map in Saudi Arabia. She therefore decided to study how people suffering from binge eating can be helped better in their own region of the world.…

Bullying, abuse or a difficult divorce: many young people struggle with mental health problems after traumatic experiences. But why do some suffer much more than others? This is the question that Hannah Dorsman is exploring within the THRIVE project.

What is freedom worth in times of hunger? ‘Beleg’ is a modern interpretation of Lucretia van Merken’s 1774 play. With five performances in Leiden’s Schouwburg theatre, the play is a prominent part of the Relief of Leiden celebrations, and Leiden alumni are playing a big role. Take a look behind the…

Search engines are getting better at answering our questions. And chatbots are increasingly likely to search the internet for relevant sources. ‘Search engines and chatbots will become more closely entwined’, says Professor Suzan Verberne.

Her plan was to obtain a PhD, but, during her master’s, alumnus Sangbreeta Moitra discovered that her true interest lay in applying neuroscience in everyday life.

Level Up is a non-profit project led by a multi-disciplinary team of doctoral researchers in the framework of the Europaeum Network was founded by the University of Oxford University. Sophie Veriter explains the importance of Level Up, the development of the ‘Level Up Toolkit’, and why this project…

On Monday 26 August, students were warmly welcomed at the Wijnhaven location with a blue carpet and live music. Accompanied by their friends and family, they gathered to receive their BSc Security Studies diploma.

The image of the European Union (EU) as a remote law-making machine is widespread. Quite often journalists and politicians deliberately depict ‘Brussels’ as bureaucratic, even undemocratic, bypassing its citizens. And many of us buy into that image. Nikoleta Yordanova, Anastasia Ershova and Aleksandra…

Three new ministries have been formed in the Netherlands: Asylum and Migration, Housing and Spatial Planning & Climate and Green Growth. Of course, this is not merely an administrative act. These ministries carry a strong and political charge and play a crucial role in shaping a government's political…

International alumnus Alejandro tells us in a flash about why it is so important to physically be in Leiden for your studies, about how important his Advanced Master was to his employers and how AI and tech affects his line of work.

Cultural anthropology students study how architecture influences student behavior, safety, and community at MBORijnland through fieldwork research.

Does a communal garden provide cool air and warm neighbourly relations? Does an additional row of trees increase biodiversity? These kinds of questions are key in the COMBINED project, on which Leiden scientists and residents of The Hague, among others, can work for six years with 4 million euros from…

Green cities and a well-protected food system: Roy Remme and Oliver Taherzadeh study ways to achieve these. But how can their scientific findings lead to societal change? They share their experiences with science-policy initiatives.

The number of Waldorf schools in the Netherlands is growing rapidly. Over the past ten years, student enrolment has increased by more than 40 percent. Thijs Jan van Schie not only teaches at such a school, he has also conducted research on this type of education — not in the Netherlands, but in the…

Forest degradation has limited the Orang Rimba's access to forest resources. As a result, they've had to make significant cultural modifications and adaptations. Ekoningtyas Margu Wardani explains in her PhD dissertation these transformation processes among Contemporary Indonesian Hunter-Gatherers through…

This year too, the faculty year was opened in the Hortus Botanicus. In the centuries-old garden, staff and students met with drinks and snacks.

Highland Bhutan is facing unprecedented challenges from a combination of climate change, new economic opportunities, and changing cultural aspirations of its residents. Today, what does highland heritage constitute, to who, and how does it matter?