Liveable Planet, the Leiden interdisciplinary research programme on sustainability, has a full presence at the LUGO Sustainability Day on Tuesday 9 May. Professor Jan Willem Erisman will deliver the keynote lecture. You can also ask questions about sustainability research and interdisciplinary collaboration…

The interdisciplinary research programme ‘Liveable Planet’ has created a new network, aimed at all young Leiden researchers working on sustainability issues.

On Friday June 2, the Liveable Planet event 'Interdisciplinary Collaborations - Food, Sustainability & Health' will take place. Here, researchers can learn everything about how to set up successful interdisciplinary collaborations. Why should you attend this event? We’ll give you three reasons.

Lecture

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.

How should we organise interdisciplinary work within Leiden University? This was the key question at a symposium organised by the Liveable Planet interdisciplinary research programme. Radical ideas, like getting rid of the faculties, came up for discussion.

Neanderthals were able to outwit straight-tusked elephants, the largest land mammals of the past few million years. Leiden professor Wil Roebroeks has published an article about this together with his German colleague Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser in the Science Advances journal.

Lecture

Lecture

The Council of Ministers has appointed Jan Willem Erisman, Professor of Environment and Sustainability at Leiden University, as chair of the new Scientific Climate Council (WKR) from 1 March. This council will advise the government on climate policy.

We hebben 6 van de 9 grenzen overschreden die bepalen of menselijk leven in de komende generaties nog mogelijk is op aarde. Kunnen we het tij nog keren?

Leiden University and the Municipality of The Hague signed a collaboration agreement on sustainability on 1 November. Their main goals are to build a network, share knowledge and explore the possibilities of a Climate Centre for the people of The Hague.

Conducting research with academics from different disciplines is not easy. ‘But collaboration is vital to society,’ says Professor of Environmental Sustainability, Jan Willem Erisman. On behalf of Leiden’s Liveable Planet interdisciplinary programme, he is organising a symposium that will be held on…

It’s Circular Economy Week, from 1 to 6 February. But what is it that makes an economy circular? And just how circular is our university? René Kleijn, lecturer on the honours class Circular Economy: from challenge to opportunity, explains.

Lecture

A consortium led by Eefje Cuppen, Professor Governance of Sustainability at the Institute of Public Administration, has been granted NWO funding for a research project looking into the social, societal, and technical aspects of the energy transition.

The effects of sustainability projects on poorer, marginalised people should be considered at a much earlier stage. This is the opinion of Marja Spierenburg, Professor of Anthropology of Sustainable Development and Livelihood, who will give her inaugural lecture on 25 February.

A lot of municipalities work with a points system to encourage construction projects to take biodiversity and creating green areas into account. But this way of working also benefits local neighbourhoods and residents, master's student Marije Sesink discovered. She based her study on The Hague.

Buurtlab 070 is a new Leiden University project in which residents, researchers and students from The Hague work together on climate, sustainability and biodiversity solutions. What do they expect of the lab?

Debate

Research

Although there is considerable evidence that nature in the city is beneficial to both people and animals, we still do not have an overall picture of those benefits. To rectify that, a Leiden PhD candidate and a student – armed with a cargo bike – are using The Hague as a life-size laboratory.

Conference

Research

Event for all Leiden researchers

Lecture

PhD defence

Bring over a hundred driven researchers together in one room and the good ideas will start to flow: that was the thinking behind the internal networking meeting on interdisciplinary collaboration on Wednesday 17 May. Representatives from the nine interdisciplinary programmes were waiting at their stalls…

Conference

Research, Social

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

From the effects of hormone fluctuations in women via the interior structure of giant planets to the prehistory of the languages: six Leiden researchers have been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council.

Care conferences for long-term residents (15+ years) in forensic mental health care are widely appreciated by all parties involved. Research by Leiden University shows that the demand for these meetings is so great that the supply cannot be met within the desired time frame.

Social

Soil ecologists Emilia Hannula (Leiden) and Elly Morriën (UvA) received the Golden Medal of Teylers Tweede Genootschap on 5 November. They received the prize for their submission to a competition on sustainable soil management.

Kool made a conscious choice to work for a non profit organisation. Recently, inspired by the pandemic, she also made a career switch.

A symposium on space diplomacy for experts and the general public will take place in The Hague on Monday 12 June. Everyone has an interest in learning more about this topic, says Professor Jan Melissen. ‘The scope of international relations has expanded beyond our planet.’

The book ‘The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Futures from the Frontiers of Climate Science’ by Paul Behrens has been launched in the US, a year after its original release in Europe. In his book, Behrens describes both hopeful and pessimistic scenarios for our planet.

Academic ceremony

Museum Boerhaave commemorated the hundredth anniversary of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity with the exhibition ‘Einstein & Friends’. The exhibition shined light on the famous physicist’s Dutch friends and his love for Leiden. A review featuring seven images can be found below.

What will happen if the lights in a large part of the city are switched off? How many stars can you see without all that light pollution? This is what researchers, artists and the residents of Leiden are going to investigate during Seeing Stars Leiden on 25 September. ‘Leiden is the ideal place for…

Alumni event

Finally we know for sure that there is a black hole at the centre of our own galaxy. Today, astronomers unveiled the first ever photo of Sagittarius A*, a super-massive object at the centre of the Milky Way. This picture could only be taken thanks to the cooperation of telescopes worldwide.

Should Leiden University cut its ties with the fossil fuel industry forthwith? This was the main question in a debate between students and staff. The answer was clearer for some than for others.