The Salt Farm Texel, supported by a number of professors from various Dutch universities, offered a report on saline agriculture to the Minister for Agriculture van Dam on Wednesday 22nd of February. The researchers report that a number of important crops are much more tolerant to salt than assumed…

A team of students from Leiden won the iGEM international biology contest in 2020 with their Rapidemic mobile testing kit. The kit makes it easy to detect viruses. The team has now been nominated for the Most Innovative Student in the Netherlands prize. Cast your vote and help them develop their inv…

Dutch Parliament members are reluctant to discuss their urgent need for more support staff. They are afraid to be labelled as “greedy” or profiteers if they were to put in a request for more assistance. But times seem to be changing.

Sander Blok has won the third edition of the annual LION Image Award. He created a colorful image of gold nanoparticles with a low-energy electron microscope.

Each year, the Faculty awards two Meijers PhD positions to talented researchers. One position is open to participants from the Pre-PhD Programme (PPP) and one position is open to other candidates from inside and outside Leiden University.

On 3 December the Europa Institute organised a debate about the figure of Black Pete. The central theme of the debate was the role which the law can play in deciding the future of Black Pete.

Cultural Anthropology graduate Tommie Lambregts conducted fieldwork in the Slaaghwijk neighbourhood in Leiden as part of a Policy in Practice research internship commissioned by the municipality. Leiden Science City nominated his research as one of four 'most impactful student projects'. Award ceremony…

On 11 December Armin Cuyvers, Associate Professor European Law at the Europa Institute of Leiden Law School, was a studio guest on the news programme EenVandaag to talk about the possible scenarios for Brexit.

Africa is online. Leiden Africa expert Mirjam de Bruijn is fascinated by the fast development of mobile telephony and social media in Africa. She maintains a website on the topic, focusing on isolated, marginalised and conflict-ridden areas in Middle Africa.

On 1 February 2018 Professor Maartje van der Woude (professor of Law and Society at the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society) became Associate Director of the Oxford-based Border Criminologies Network.

A national survey conducted by Dutch newspapers Dagblad van het Noorden, Turbantia, Brabants Dagblad and the Dutch Federation of Trade Unions (FNV) shows that staff working in disability and mental health care often face violence in the workplace. In the three northern provinces of the Netherlands,…

Professor Tom Huizinga (LUMC) specialises in rheumatoid arthritis. He joined forces with alumni and the Natuurwetenschappelijk Gezelschap Leiden, a society that aims to share knowledge of the natural sciences and medicine, to explore the symptoms of the disease. With this form of arthritis the fluid…

On November 12, dean prof. Willem J.H. Willems was elected as one of the twelve members of the European Union’s academic committee Joint Programming Initiative Cultural Heritage and Global Change.

Professor Paul van der Heijden (International Labour Law) has been awarded a grant of 50,000 euros by the city council of The Hague to start building a Business & Human Rights database.

Mariska Kret, Professor in Cognitive psychology has been awarded the European Research Council (ERC) Public Engagement with Research Awards 2022. Kret convinces the jury with 'RecognizeYourself - Bringing science to the zoo. Involving the public into the study of great apes emotions'.

Leiden University has taken eighth place in this year’s SustainaBul, the sustainability ranking for universities and universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands. It was in 18th place last year.

De Code voor Kinderrechten op het internet toont makers van apps en games hoe zij de rechten van kinderen kunnen beschermen en meenemen in hun ontwerp. Dat is hard nodig, zeggen de opstellers hoogleraar Recht en Digitale Technologie Simone van der Hof en onderzoeksdirecteur Sander van der Waal van stichting…

The 'Groot Nederlands Student Kampioenschap' student games have been held for the first time in two cities, Delft and The Hague. To make this happen our Campus The Hague worked together with The Hague University of Applied Sciences and Inholland University of Applied Sciences. Three students look back…

On 1 November 2018, Rina Visser-Rotgans obtained her doctorate with her thesis on ‘Veranderend kunstenaarschap. De rol en betekenis van de kunstenaar in participatieve kunstpraktijken’ (Artistry evolving. The function and definition of the artist in participational practices of art). Rina’s research…

Salt crystals, a nano-sized golf stick and molten glass. The LION Image Award competition of 2023 yielded a lot of beautiful images once again. But in the end, only one can be the winner.

On Monday 29 April, Liesbeth van der Heide, researcher at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs of Leiden University, was a guest on the Dutch television programme ‘Nieuwsuur’. She reflected on the interview with Jason Walters, a former member of the Dutch Hofstad terrorist group. The ‘Hofstad…

How do our cells keep DNA stored away? To find out, biochemist Remus Dame received a 3 million euro Science-Groot grant. Leiden University will share the grant with TU Delft, VU Amsterdam and the Hubrecht Institute.

How many species of butterfly are living in my garden? Do I recognise the Leiden dialect? What is the air quality like in my area? Do you have a question about something that affects you, your neighbours or the whole city of Leiden or The Hague? Residents and scientists have until 15 March 2019 to send…

The word bureaucracy does not have negative connotations for Ken Meier. Meier, Professor of Bureaucracy and Democracy, has a clear grasp of the relationship between elected politicians and bureaucracy, or the civil service. Inaugural lecture on Monday 20 May.

This year's Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to the three American researchers who have unravelled the mechanism behind the biological clock. Joke Meijer, Professor of Neurophysiology and an expert in the field of the sleep-wake rhythm, explained in Dutch newspapers Trouw and NRC why this discovery is…

This month's news and events by the profile area Political Legitimacy features the announcement of two PhD defences and several interesting seminars and conferences at Leiden University.

Exotic marsh frogs from distant lands are colonising the south-east of the Netherlands. This has been demonstrated by biology students from our faculty. Although the amphibians thrive in our little country, they are harmful to native biodiversity.

Physicists understand little about quantum matter, which is a building block of future quantum computers. Theorists have now discovered that black holes with ‘dreadlocks’ harbor a similarly exotic order pattern, which makes calculations on quantum matter easier. Publication in Physical Review Letter…

Hoogleraar Jeugdrecht Mariëlle Bruning vertelde in Met het Oog op Morgen over schadelijke patronen in de pleegzorg.

On Thursday 22 September 2022, the posthumous PhD ceremony will be held of Thijmen Nuninga who passed away February this year. His doctoral thesis had already been approved at that time.

Sarah Cramsey's first book, Uprooting the Diaspora: Jewish Belonging and the

It is not possible for juvenile courts to properly assess whether it is necessary to place a child in care. This is evident from a fact sheet that has been prepared by legal scholars from Leiden University, commissioned by the Dutch House of Representatives and others.

The German professor of Information Systems and Statistics Heike Trautmann accepted the Pascal chair this month at LIACS, the computer science institute of Leiden University. Trautmann’s main research areas are evolutionary multiobjective optimisation and data science, in which LIACS is strong as we…

A radical reduction in the amount of meat, dairy and other products sourced from animals is possible in the coming decades, as people turn to an increasing variety of alternatives. This would unlock vast amounts of land that we could use to produce energy and remove carbon from the atmosphere. Leiden…

Samuel Jong has won the Institute of Political Science MSc Thesis Prize 2016. With ‘Bridging the Gap: Do Ideological Differences Determine Whether Center-Right Parties Cooperate with the Radical Right?’, Jong completed his Political Science master studies. His research findings, according to the jury,…

In November 2017, six status holders attended an introduction training course on Dutch education at ICLON.

Emeritus professor of international law, Nico Schrijver, spoke on NPO Radio 1’s program Spraakmakers about the law of warfare and humanitarian law. He characterized the recent Israeli action that took place in Qatar as ‘brazen, because the attack affected not only Qatar and Hamas, but also the United…

Melanie Fink has been awarded the APART-GSK grant of the Austrian Academy of Sciences to carry out her research project ‘No right without a remedy: Making EU fundamental rights enforceable’ for a period of four years.

Max Bader has been awarded a € 300,000 grant by the WOTRO Science for Global Development of NWO for a project about the role of civil society in fighting corruption in Ukraine. The project will be implemented jointly with the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv.

Ankie Broekers-Knol, President of the Dutch Senate and Leiden alumna, opened the new Alumni House at Rapenburg 68 on 5 September. The Alumni House, next door to the Old University Library, where the University's Administration and General Services are located, is the new home of the Leiden University…

Are you worried about your smartphone addiction? Trust us, it could have been far worse… A shocking discovery, by an interdisciplinary team of specialists from Leiden University, revealed that Neolithic people were heavily addicted to stone axes. The axes were produced under horrific circumstances in…

In 2011, the Udhruh Archaeological Project was launched, bringing together teams of Jordanian and Dutch archaeologists to investigate the region and reconstruct ancient water harvesting techniques in the extremely arid landscape of Udhruh. Access to fresh water remains one of the most pressing global…

A better integration of Digital Humanities into study programmes, so that students develop their digital skills as well as possible. That is what Hossam Ahmed wants to achieve in the coming years. He received a senior Comenius Fellowship to develop a digital programme for students.

You can hardly avoid it if you want to quickly implement satellite internet. Elon Musk's company Starlink is

De maatregelen die het kabinet voorstelt om het asielbeleid strenger te maken kunnen eigenlijk niet direct leiden tot een lager aantal asielzoekers dat in Nederland asiel aanvraagt. Dit betoogt Mark Klaassen, universitair docent Immigratierecht bij Nieuwsuur.

On Monday 9 September, the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) published its report 'Voorbereidingen op digitale ontwrichting' (Preparing for digital disruption). The report shows that our infrastructure is not secure enough to withstand digital threats and that we are lacking a clear…

Drug use during pregnancy seems like a choice without any consequences. However, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) has decided to prosecute a mother for using alcohol and drugs during her pregnancy. Mariëlle Bruning, Professor of Child Law, tells current affairs programme ‘Nieuwsuur’ that she…

The MORE project covers the development of the new entrance area for the Leiden Bio Science Park. Partners Leiden University, the Municipality of Leiden and the Amstelveen-based development agency Yisheng signed the agreement on 18 March, marking the official start of the project.

When I am working with master's students, I often hear myself or my colleagues praising the importance of establishing good relations with collaborators in the field

'I hope to contribute to a better understanding of social dilemmas we constantly face, like those that arise with climate change or the current pandemic,' says social and organisational psychologist Jörg Gross in an interview on his Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC).