Plants could be regarded as small chemical factories, which produce chemical substances via photosynthesis. If we can imitate photosynthesis in an artificial system, we can make clean fuels and materials out of sunlight and CO2. Huub de Groot is very close to designing a system of this kind.

How do processes of coalition-formation influence patterns of decision-making in the European Union?

Composer Paul Craenen (1972) is actually a pianist, but as part of his PhD ceremony, he performed a composition on PVC pipes. Craenen studies the position and role of the body in music. ‘I am interested in what precedes the resulting sound’.

The sixth issue of Ex Novo explores how ‘peripheral’ regions currently approach both the practice and theory of public archaeology placing particular emphasis on usually underrepresented regions of Eastern and Central Europe, the Mediterranean and beyond.

Innovation in nest building: bird nests made from anti-bird spikes. Researchers from Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the Natural History Museum Rotterdam describe this behaviour in a publication.

The research of this PhD project can be subdivided into two main disease areas: migraine and stroke. For both we will be investigating how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques can be used to study these afflictions, their (early) detection, and their potential treatment.

In the world of Ancient Greece the interpretation of supernatural signs was a versatile tool to facilitate decision-making. This is the central hypothesis of the PhD dissertation of historian Kim Beerden. Defence on 14 February.

How can teachers be motivated by their students’ data in making stepwise changes to their teaching practices?

This thesis focuses on the question: What is the content of mentor teachers’ practical knowledge of adaptive response to their mentee teachers’ learning?

How do individuals make decisions? What determines the quality of group decisions? When and why do people cooperate with others? How does intergroup competition evolve?

On 1 July 2020, Niek Strohmaier defended his thesis 'Making Sense of Business Failure'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.A.A. Adriaanse en dr. H. Pluut.

How to make educational innovations practical for teachers

This book offers a concise and accessible introduction to debates about expertise, policy-making and democracy. It uniquely combines an overview of recent research on the policy role of experts with discussions in political philosophy and the philosophy of expertise.

Piecing together the urnfield mortuary process in the Lower-Rhine-Basin, ca. 1300 - 400 BC

Simona Demková, Assistant professor at the Europa Institute of Leiden University, publishes her book ‘Automated Decision-Making and Effective Remedies: The New Dynamics in the Protection of EU Fundamental Rights in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice’.

The ability to create objects and structures with our hands has been essential to human development. This ability is something modern society is at risk of losing. Leiden archaeologists gather knowledge about ancient processes of ‘making and creating’ over the centuries, knowledge that helps our current…

This minor focuses on how our thoughts, emotions and behaviour are influenced by other people, and how we influence other people.

Müller, Braun & Fraussen examine the conditions under which commissioners appear in the news and which communication strategies they pursue.

How can the concept of Critical Making be expanded into a general approach that ties the critical methodology of artistic research, and the established concepts of artistic autonomy, together with contemporary creative-technological development?

Health inequities, obesity among children, loneliness, performance stress among youngsters. What are the drivers behind such ‘wicked problems’ and how might they be related? This interdisciplinary minor offers you the possibility to work with societal partners to gain a deeper understanding of real-life…

The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) of Leiden University and art institute West Den Haag are pleased to announce their close collaboration in the new public series In the Making. In six public sessions they will present to the public different practices of research in the arts.

Advanced biotechnology allows us to select or alter the genetic makeup of human embryos. What limits do we impose on biotechnological intervention in nature and the human body? And whose call is that?