In the coming years, Hilde De Weerdt gets to spend over three million euros. She received grants from both the European Research Council (ERC) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for research on Chinese infrastructure. ‘It is great that it is also possible to develop large projects in the social sciences…

Working towards resilient communities, transparency in science and connecting with the employment market – these are the three key themes being addressed by the departments of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Dutch universities. On 11 February, they presented a joint sector plan to Marcelis Boereboom,…

In the autumn, the programme boards submitted Development Plans. The plans were then analysed by the Educational Advice and Quality Assurance (O&K) team. This analysis shows that the programme boards have taken a serious look at their curriculums. The study programme Religious Studies offers a glimpse…

Cursus, Workshop

Starting on the 1st of September is our new Student Assessor Zoë van Litsenburg, current Research Master's student at our Faculty. Zoë will succeed Rory Granleese who, for the past two years, assumed the role of Assessor in the Faculty Board. Zoë is excited to start. 'I love being involved in faculty…

The National Bee Count initiative of Professor Koos Biesmeijer (Naturalis/Leiden) and Vincent Kalkman (Naturalis) has received the NWO Communication Initiative Award. The jury praises the initiative, which manages to reach a very wide and diverse audience, while at the same time contributing to the…

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.

Loes Janssen would like to foster well-being of families by using an app and sending families short and fun activities each day to do together. For the Synergy Award ’21, PhD candidates were invited to submit their innovative idea on how to create societal impact. Watch the final on 4 February and vote…

Three Leiden researchers will each receive a Vici grant of 1.5m euros. They are historian Cátia Antunes, cell biologist Dennis Claessen and archaeologist Marie Soressi. This grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) will give them the opportunity to form their own research group over the next five…

Prof. Mark Leiser and a team of thirteen law students from Leiden University’s Advanced LLM programmes in European and International Human Rights Law as well as in Law and Digital Technologies together drafted a report for the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom…

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded a €4.84 million NWO Large grant to set up a new state-of-the-art laboratory for isotope geochemistry. The new lab, the “Netherlands Isotope GEochemistry Laboratory” (NIGEL), will be built in the brand new VU Research Building at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.…

Organisatie

Onderwijs, Organisatie

Der Spiegel reports about the planned reform of the EU Code of Conduct aimed at tackling harmful tax practices of EU Member States. A reform is urgently needed to tackle remaining forms of tax competition, which cost EU countries billons of euros every year.

We regret to share the news that our colleague, friend, and former professor of Assyriology at Leiden University, passed away on 15 May 2021.

On Monday 10 February 2020, guest lecturer Prof. Dr. Cedric Ryngaert (Utrecht University) will deliver a lecture on ‘Jurisdiction and the Territorialisation of the Extraterritorial’. This event is hosted by the ‘Interaction between Legal Systems 2.0’ (ILS) projects ‘Policing the high seas’ and SOLID…

The University of Oslo and Leiden University have joined forces to organise a Tutorial on Robots and Society: Ethical, Legal, and Technical Perspectives on Integrating Robots in the Home and Healthcare Systems and Services at the IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communica…

The LUF International Study Fund (LISF) will make changes to its allocation process following an investigation into diversity in its grants policy. This investigation, which was carried out for the LISF by, among others, former committee member Mariska Kret and master’s student Marjolijn Wijnen, has…

P&O

Is scientific research useful? In his dissertation, Jorrit Smit argues that in order to answer this question one should not look at, for example, prominent scholars or influential organisations, but at places where knowledge exchange and co-creation take place. Promotion 6 May.

Master's students of Vitality & Ageing work together with older individuals in the so-called ‘Living Lab’ to combat loneliness. You can watch four brief video’s that show their creative solutions for the course ‘the older individual’ that is coordinated by health psychologist Sandra van Dijk and former…

The coronavirus crisis has had a major impact on the work of PhD candidates and postdocs at Leiden University. As a result, some of them will not be able to complete their research within the term of their contract, despite having made radical changes to their research and seeking other options. For…

Information meeting

Would you like to take a walk with a fellow student who you don’t know? That is the idea behind Walk & Talk. With this new initiative, International Studies aims to provide more opportunities for social contact.

Lezing, Leiden Interdisciplinary Migration Seminar (LIMS)

48 student teams from all over the world will be taking part in the international online moot court competition. The event is organised by Leiden University in partnership with Baker McKenzie.

Women In International Security (WIIS) is a global organisation dedicated to advancing the leadership and professional development of women in the field of international peace and security. As part of her research on women, peace and security, Dr. Vanessa Newby at the Institute for Security and Global…

Congres/symposium

The projects of nine researchers at Leiden University have received funding through the new NWO Science Diplomacy Fund. The Fund is for scientific activities that will improve relations between the Netherlands and other countries.

On 1 January Irma Mosquera Valderrama succeeded Jean-Pierre van der Rest as PhD Dean, completing the changes to the team of PhD deans at Leiden Law School.

Three young lecturers are to receive a Comenius Teaching Fellow grant of 50,000 euros. The grant will allow each of them to implement an innovation project in their teaching.

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has awarded the Heineken Young Scientist Award 2020 in the Social Sciences to developmental psychologist Anna van Duijvenvoorde for her research on the development of the brain and behaviour in adolescents.

2021 saw many prizes awarded to staff and students of Leiden Law School. Grants for new research projects were also awarded and our staff were invited to particpate on committees or recognised in other ways too. An overview of this year’s achievements is given below.

Promotie

De Verbranders, a podcast produced by PhD candidates Neske Baerwaldt (FdR/VVI) and Wiebe Ruijtenberg (FSW/CAOS), is online! You can now listen to the first episode on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Episodes of the podcast will be introduced in various courses this year.

Ben de Jong and Paul Abels, both working for ISGA, discuss the Russian claim that espionage equipment was found in Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD). According to the Russians the equipment was found in one of the cars used by their diplomats in The Hague.

How can you see something that’s invisible? Well, with Euclid! This future ESA telescope will map the structure of the Universe and teach us more about invisible dark matter and dark energy. Scientific coordinator of Euclid and Leiden astronomer Henk Hoekstra explains how this works.

Webinar

Throughout this past year many students and staff at Leiden Law Staff received a prize or grant, were shortlisted for a prize or appointed to an academic body, or were honoured in some other way. All good reason to include them in our Hall of Fame 2020 to show how very proud we are of them!

What does research support involve? And what should we do to improve the support for researchers at the University? We spoke to Maribel Adame Valero, research policy officer and external cooperation coordinator at the Institute of Biology and a member of the Leiden Research Support (LRS) focus group.…

Oxford University Press has published the edited volume based on the European Law Institute's (ELI) project 'Rescue of Business in Insolvency Law'. The project ran from 2013 to 2017 under the auspices of the ELI and was conducted by Bob Wessels and Stephan Madaus, who were assisted by Gert-Jan Boon.

The title of European City of Science was officially handed over to a delegation from Leiden in the Italian city of Trieste on 6 September. Leiden will be the science capital of Europe for the year 2022. The EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), the largest interdisciplinary science conference in Europe, will…

On Tuesday 12 January 2021, the annual Meijers prizes and thesis prizes were awarded at the online New Year’s event broadcast from the Old Observatory.

From fake news via WhatsApp to mini hearts from a 3D printer: four Leiden researchers have been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council. These grants, of up to 2m euros, enable researchers to establish or expand their research team and continue to develop their career.

Roel Wouters (24), a biology student at Leiden University, is a finalist in the election for UN youth delegate for Biodiversity and Food. The digital polls open for a week on Friday 22 October. Under-30s can vote for Roel at www.stemroel.nl.