Two Leiden scientists - Ignas Snellen and Bernhard Hommel - have been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant. The grant will fund their research over the coming five years on exoplanets and free will.

What is the effect of training children to exercise self-control? Niko Steinbeis has been awarded a major European subsidy to find the answer to this question. The innovative aspects of this research are the target group, an individual approach to the training and examining the child brain the scann…

The ERC project ‘Healthscaping Urban Europe’ will hold a concluding plenary event on 30 September, where three experts will explore the history of premodern public health and especially reflect on possible future directions within this research field. All are welcome to join in person in the Doelenzaal.…

A temporary position of Senior Researcher (SKO 1109) in Medieval Studies is available at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo. The position will be linked to the ERC Advanced Grant project 101018645 MINiTEXTS “Minuscule Texts: Marginalized Voices in Early Medieval…

Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval Manuscript Studies (0.8 FTE) to be part of the research team of the ERC-funded project "Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages. The Dissemination, Manipulation, and Interpretation of Late-Antique Sermons in…

On 17-20 October 2023, the ERC-funded project PASSIM (Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages), based at Radboud University Nijmegen, will organise an international conference on the medieval reception and transmission of patristic sermons and the collections in which they are compiled. The conference…

The University of Lille offers four postdoc positions in the ERC Advanced Grant 2020 AGRELITA Project, « The reception of ancient Greece in pre-modern French literature and illustrations of manuscripts and printed books (1320-1550): how invented memories shaped the identity of European communities »,…

With Sylvestre Bonnet, Jeroen Codée and Remus Dame, the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) will be getting no less than three new professors. Bonnet will become professor in Bioinorganic Chemistry, Codée professor in Organic Chemistry and Dame professor in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry.

To safeguard the quality of research within Leiden University, a committee of external experts evaluates the University’s institutes once every six years according to the Standard Evaluation Protocol, which is drawn up by the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), the Royal Netherlands…

This research hopes to contribute to social awareness of the consequences of colonialism for Indigenous Peoples, to the deconstruction of still existing colonial and discriminatory notions and to a better appreciation of Indigenous art and thought.

Leiden and The Hague are home to many museums with large numbers of artefacts and archives. Leiden University also and the Leiden University Library also house special collections. Museums, Collections & Society stimulates research and education and raises ethical questions regarding the collections’…

Receiving a PhD degree is considered the highest educational proof of possessing the research skills necessary to carry out independent academic research. PhD candidates are stimulated to present research results at international scientific meetings and publish in high-ranking scientific journals. Doing…

Time, Religion and Sacred Discourses of the Ayuuk People

ERC StG SAFE and SOUND has the ambition to connect the policy cycle with data generated in robot testing zones to support evidence-based policymaking for robot technologies.

In this research group, headed by Bob Van de Water, cell signaling programs that underlie adverse drug reactions as well as cancer development and progression are unraveled. Adverse drug reactions involve cell injury in critical target organ cells which leads to the activation of cellular stress response…

Leiden University has been promoting studies on Latin America and the Caribbean for a long time.

The Mycenaean civilization of ancient Greek times offers enormous potential for useful information: from innovative construction methods to ways of handling crisis situations as a society. Archaeologist Ann Brysbaert and her team analyse Mycenaean construction processes in the ERC Consolidator project…

Many important topics in computer science, such as the correctness of software, the efficiency of algorithms and the modeling of complicated systems, depend on sound theoretical underpinnings. In the Theory group, we study these fundamental building blocks and develop verification methods to prove system…

A study concerning the collective memory in the region of the Bene lo Ya/ Ene lo I'ya, Sierra Norte, Oaxaca.

Since the 16th century, religious concerns have motivated the study of Old English and its speakers. In the 19th century, scholars turned to the study of Old English literature in particular to find traces of pre-Christian, ‘Germanic’ religion, as discussed in Eric G. Stanley’s seminal work The Search…

What follows is a survey of existing programs and current projects for each of the participating universities.

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The Leiden Greek and Roman History Team concentrates on the study of the economies, societies and cultures of the large empires of the Graeco-Roman world, starting with the empires of Alexander the Great and his successors.

By effectively integrating world-class scientific research and excellent education, you will become a professional astronomer with an internationally recognized degree.

Conference, Workshop

Professor of Neurocognitive Developmental Psychology Eveline Crone will receive an Ammodo KNAW Award. This was announced by Ammodo, an institute for arts and sciences, and the Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) on 25 January.

The Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) has awarded Professor Joanita Vroom with the Aspasia grant of €200,000. She will use this grant to develop a new line in research and education focusing on the long-term dynamics of material culture in the eastern Mediterranean and adjacent…

What are the new challenges for collective organisations in the logistic sector? On 25 November 2021, Raquel Alquézar Crusellas has visited the ERC group to exchange insights about her new research about collective organisations among delivery riders in Europe.

Global Interactions sponsors a number of research projects of Leiden University researchers.

EURAXESS asked Mariana de Campos Françozo about her current research conducted with an ERC Starting Grant.

A couple of years ago Guy Geltner and Daniel Lord Smail founded BodoArxiv. It provides an open, non-profit repository for papers in medieval studies at different stages of gestation. Anyone can access and download any item on BodoArXiv freely and immediately (see: https://bodoarxiv.wordpress.com/) .…

In the 13th century BC, Mycenaean Greece was the stage for ambitious monumental building programmes. How were people and means deployed, and with what socio-economic influence? Leiden Archaeologist dr. Ann Brysbaert investigates the matter with an ERC Consolidator Grant.

Introducing the team's work on Comparison

The short documentary film was selected to the short film corner of the Cannes Film Festival.

Vasiliki Kosta spoke at the international conference on ‘La liberté academique dans la démocratie universitaire’, taking place at Nantes University on 17 – 18 November 2025.

Many of our staff and students have won prizes over the past year. Others have been awarded a subsidy, or, because of their eminence in their field, they have been appointed member of an academic society or have taken on a position in the community. Reasons enough to be proud of them and to include…

Back in 2008, Jason Laffoon moved from Chicago to Leiden. He came to join the Faculty of Archaeology’s Caribbean research group as a PhD candidate. Now he is an assistant professor, bridging departments through his innovative research methods. ‘I focus both on the archaeology of the Americas, as well…

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded chemist Dr Alexander Kros a Starting Independent Researcher Grant of 1.4 million euro. He will be using the grant to study how molecules penetrate the natural barrier of a cell membrane. If his research is successful, it will in time bring about a revolution…

The 4th Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) meeting was held at the Faculty of Archaeology on 20 November. Ambassadors and representatives from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean region met with the Leiden LAC region group to strengthen academic cooperation and discuss the internationalisation…

The Institute of Psychology is committed to play a prominent role in teaching and research at the national and international level.

If a pill containing no active ingredients still helps, this positive expectation is called a placebo effect. A negative expectation is called a nocebo effect. Both can be produced by verbal suggestions and conditioning. According to Andrea Evers’ research group, combining these is the most promising…

The Leiden Observatory has appointed a new professor. Selena Viti will hold a chair in Molecular Astrophysics. Viti will build a research group that combines different research techniques to unravel the secrets of local and external galaxies. ‘My main ambition is to change the way scientists interpret…

Dr Amy Strecker has recently been awarded a LGI BREED grant to develop her project on property and spatial justice in international law. Building on her previous research into landscape protection from cultural heritage, environmental and human rights perspectives, Amy will combine legal analysis with…

Irma Johanna Mosquera Valderrama, principal investigator of the ERC GLOBTAXGOV project and Associate Professor of Tax Law has participated in the T20 task force on Trade, Investment and Tax Cooperation under the Argentinian Presidency. As a member of the task force, she has contributed to the policy…

Marileen Dogterom, Professor bionanoscience in Delft and Professor molecular physics in Leiden, will take a seat at the KNAW board as of June 1st. She is appointed for four years, one day per week. Dogterom succeeds Nobel Prize winner Ben Feringa, who completed his term.

Plants are vital resources throughout human history, but we know little about how they were used and valued prior to agriculture. Sandrine Gallois, an ethnoecologist working in the ERC-funded HARVEST project, has developed an interdisciplinary approach, combining anthropology and botany to explore how…

Horizon2020 is the European Union’s research and innovation programme. Now that this programme has almost ended, it is time to think about its successor. Excellence must be at the forefront of this new programme, says the League for European Research Universities (LERU).

Professor Bert Meijer has been appointed to the Board of Governors of Leiden University by Minister of Education, Culture and Science Jet Bussemaker for a term of four years from 1 January 2017.

How do insurance products transform intimate and personal relations? What are the consequences of the classifications that insurance companies use and how do these affect solidarity, morality and inequality?

This project intends to provide an integrated linguistic assessment of the hypothesised migration route of the Tocharians.