In our lives we often have little attention or appreciation for plants, let alone the ones we commonly call weeds. This inattention for plants has been described as plant blindness. The Stoepplantjes project aspires to decrease plant blindness by changing the image of weeds and using citizen science.…

Science communication is a lot more than writing a column or giving a lecture now and then. The communication itself also has to be firmly based in sound scientific research, is the message of Professor Ionica Smeets in her inaugural lecture.

The RIPEET project will support Responsible, Research and Innovation (RRI) policy experimentations for energy transition in three European territories - in Extremadura (ES), Highlands and Islands of Scotland (UK) and Ostrobothnia (FI). The framework conditions, processes, and outcomes of these experiments…

The new cabinet threatens to cut nearly a billion euros from higher education. This not only endangers academic work, it is a disaster for the Netherlands itself. The proposed penalty on study extensions and other financial measures will heavily impact students and will reduce education accessibility.…

The KNAW has rewarded 11 Leiden scientists for their commitment to science communication, by awarding them 10,000 euros each from the ‘Appreciated!’ fund.

Laurens Hessels was appointed Professor by Special Appointment, lecturing in the Social Value of Science at Leiden University, effective 1 September 2021. His research will focus how best science and industry can work together. Alongside his new position he will continue his work at the Rathenau Institute…

In this article Jeroen Wolbers and Sanneke Kuipers take a closer look at disaster preparedness to reinvigorate the academic debate.

By delivering his inaugural lecture titled ‘Where Science Meets Business,’ Simcha Jong accepted his appointment as Leiden’s first Professor of Science Based Business. In his lecture in the Large Auditorium of the Academy Building, Simcha argued that broad universities with a focus on fundamental research,…

The registrations for the Science Based Business specialisation of the Fall 2017 (Management track, starting in September) has now been opened, and it is thus now possible to apply. The ability to apply for the New Technology Ventures track will also follow soon.

Tahir Abbas, associate professor at ISGA, has been appointed as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. The Academy of Social Sciences is the UK’s national academy of academics, learned societies and practitioners in the social sciences. Its purpose is to promote social science in the United Kingdom…

Lecture

Defending your PhD research in front of nearly 300 elementary school students: that was the challenge faced by PhD candidates Jo-Anne Verschoor and Marinka de Willigen during the VUURVLIEGEN competition organised by the Centrum JongerenCommunicatie Chemie (C3). After an exciting competition, the children…

Leiden will be scientific capital of Europe in 2022. The theme of the festivities was announce on 28 October: Who Knows. After all, does anyone have a monopoloy on wisdom these days? Who decides what is true? And does anyone actually know what the future holds?

Science in Transition joins an international chorus that points out flaws in the science system and aim for change in the governance of science.

In case you asked yourself this question, or even if you didn't, here is the answer.

With a barbecue at the Scheveningen beach the Leiden Science Buddy Programme was kicked off on 7 August. In this first round, 64 new international students are paired to current students. These buddies will do their very best to make the new students feel right at home in Leiden.

The Science faculties of Universitas Indonesia (UI) and the Universiteit Leiden signed agreements on Tuesday April 12 that will strengthen cooperation between the Faculties. The agreements were signed at the closing of a two day visit of a delegation from Indonesia. The delegation, which was led by…

As of January 2022, Ivo van Vulpen has been Professor by Special Appointment of Science Communication at the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION). Van Vulpen will be researching science communication in general and will aim to underline the value and importance of science communication.

Master Computer Science in Leiden nr.1 according to Elsevier

A festival that combines music and science, and a digital 'time machine' for science history: four Leiden projects that focus on science communication have been awarded a subsidy in the context of the National Science Agenda.

Two new Assistant Professors are joining Science Based Business (SBB) this Autumn. ‘Xishu Li and Jian Wang are the first two Assistant Professors we recruited. This is an exciting, crucial next step for SBB,’ said Professor Simcha Jong who joined Leiden University as the Director and first Professor…

Contribute to shaping the content and methods of future computer science education. That is what researchers hope to achieve with the Digital Transformation Research project. The Swiss National Science Foundation awarded 544,000 euros to this four-year project in December. The project will map the ideas…

The first successful Leiden Networks day took place on September 23, 2016. Six world-renowned speakers (see photo) in the field of complexity and network science provided their view on the field.

This project aims to situate the current policy concept of ‘valorization of scientific knowledge’ in historical and epistemological perspectives. Conceptual understanding of the utility of scientific practices is developed in dialogue with historical analyses of the politics of knowledge in European…

In 2022, Leiden will be the European Capital of Science. An enthusiastic team from our Faculty is already busy planning the activities. Today we speak with Marin Visscher. As a project coordinator, he seeks the connection between university and society.

The Executive Board has appointed Professor Hubertus Irth as Interim Dean of the Faculty of Science at Leiden University. Professor Irth will take up his post on 15 September 2019, replacing Geert de Snoo, who has been appointed as Director of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW).

The latest episode of the ‘Betrouwbare Bronnen’ political podcast is devoted to the Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP). One of the speakers is Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl, who talks about the importance and future of this internationally renowned Leiden knowledge centre.

Cognitive neuroscientist Anne Urai is part of the Neuromatch Conference team. With the prize for open science, Neuromatch wants to reduce or remove barriers in financing, education, and closed networks among well-funded labs that many scientists face, by providing always-affordable, pay-what-you-can…

The Dutch universities, university medical centres and Research Council have reached an agreement with Elsevier Publishing on a national open science partnership. The partnership includes open access publishing and reading services for Elsevier journals and open science services for disseminating and…

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,…

Scientists regularly appear in the media. They participate in science cafés, write a popular-science book or visit school classes. In that way, they want to convey their knowledge and enthusiasm to society. But do they succeed? To answer that question, a new website is launched, with a toolbox full…

Do you like running or helping charity? Then join the Leiden Science Run on 29 September! Form a team together with friends, colleagues, roommates for this relay race of 5 km at the Bio Science Park in Leiden and Oegstgeest. Leiden University is organising this sponsor contest for the UAF, in collaboration…

Technology holds so much promise – from self-driving cars to enhanced physical performance from smart implants under the skin. But we should not let ourselves be caught off guard. That is the message of Bart Custers, Professor of Law and Data Science in his inaugural lecture on 21 May. ‘We don’t talk…

The book ‘Forty years of Leiden Environmental Science’ is available in digital format (PDF). It relates to the history of the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML).

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy is delighted to announce it will be starting its own podcast series! The series will be aimed at bringing the themes of the journal’s research off the page, and onto the discussion table. Each episode will feature a guest who will share their insights and personal experience…

On 9 October 2023, Carlotta Rigotti and Eduard Fosch-Villaronga participated in the BIAS webinar on citizen science and AI technologies, namely the first awareness-raising activity of the Horizon Europe BIAS project. They discussed online citizens’ engagement on tackling gender and intersectional biases…

Each year, Latin American diplomats meet the researchers and students from Leiden University who specialise in their region. This year, they visited the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. ‘The social and behavioural sciences have improved our understanding of social unrest.’

Leiden University and the Beijing Institute of Technology will be collaborating in the area of computer science teaching and research. One of the first outcomes of this collaboration will be a joint four-year bachelor's programme. Willem te Beest, Vice-President of the Executive Board, and Professor…

Investigating epistemic and ethical practices in medical experimentation on humans in the colonial period in Southeast Asia.

Professor of Ecotoxicology Martina Vijver of the Institute of Environmental Sciences has given a public talk at Paradiso Amsterdam for Science & Cocktails on 4 March 2019. Her presentation was called: 'The added value & added risk of size: nanomaterials'.

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'.

The right student in the right place. That is what LIACS program director Frank Takes and education coordinator Joyce Glerum are aiming to do with the ‘Wisselstroom’ project. By next year, they hope to have a standardized protocol that will make it easier for computer science students to transfer from…

Professor Jasper Knoester has been appointed Dean of the Faculty of Science at Leiden University. He will take up the role on 1 January 2022. Knoester is currently Dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering at the University of Groningen. He succeeds Paul Wouters (Dean of the Faculty of Social and…

Leiden University’s Political Science and International Studies programmes continue to enjoy a solid academic reputation. In the 2016 QS World University Rankings, Leiden is in the top 25 of the most esteemed institutes worldwide. Within the Netherlands, Leiden has retained the first position.

Leiden was ‘European City of Science’ in 2022. Leiden University looks back on a fantastic year with activities, lectures and workshops full of science and curiosity.

In this publication, the authors explore the reality of accessing and interviewing hard-to-reach populations such as extremists and terrorists

Do you like running or helping charity? Then join the Leiden Science Run on 29 September! Form a team together with, for example, your old study mates or old roommates for this relay race of 5 km at the Bio Science Park in Leiden and Oegstgeest.

Massive science communication projects should be based on strong and relevant science cases. They should engage with a large number of stakeholders, not only in research, academia, policy, funding and governance but also in less traditional communities, such as the arts field. This is the outcome of…

What is life like as an academic? Twelve PhD candidates will report on their daily work in videos and blogs on the Faces of Science website (in Dutch). They include three researchers from Leiden who are researching topics such as North Korean support for African liberation movements, how differently…

Under a sunny sky 44 teams completed the Leiden Science Run this weekend. They raised as much as 3450 euros for refugee-students’ association UAF.