Kiem projects 2024-2025
From health to migration to climate: 25 interdisciplinary research and education initiatives received a Kiem grant in 2024.
Here you can find an overview of all Kiem projects funded in 2024.
Quantum science and technology are often framed as mysterious and spooky, making it difficult for the public to engage with this rapidly evolving field. But what if the right metaphors could bridge the gap? This research explores how metaphors shape the way we understand quantum concepts – and how we can use them to enhance societal engagement with quantum science.
Collaboration
- Science
- Humanities
The aim of this project is to explore a new method to assess the effectiveness of interventions in urban public spaces on citizens' sense of security. By creating photorealistic 3D scenes using Gaussian Splatting techniques, potential users can be exposed to proposed interventions.
Collaboration
- Law
- Leiden Learning and Innovation Centre
For science-informed decisions, decision-makers should incorporate scientific results in their choices, for example regarding important topics like climate, law, and health. However, science is intrinsically imperfect, and predictions are inherently uncertain. This project will bring together researchers from different faculties to study the interdisciplinary problem of communicating uncertainty from their own different perspectives.
Collaboration
- Social Sciences
- Science
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that leads to the progressive destruction of bone and cartilage in the joints. Recent studies suggest that the protein proteoglycan 4 (PRG4), which plays a key role in joint lubrication and has anti-inflammatory properties, could be a promising new avenue for preventing or alleviating the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. This research aims to explore the potential anti-inflammatory and protective benefits of PRG4 in treating this debilitating condition.
Collaboration
- Science
- LUMC
New therapeutic strategies against antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, including tuberculosis (TB), are urgently needed. This project explores a novel approach: boosting the body’s natural ability to fight infections by enhancing a cellular process called autophagy, in which cells fight infections by ‘eating’ harmful bacteria and clearing out damaged components.
Collaboration
- Science
- LUMC
This is an innovative project designed to engage students in speculative fiction writing about the future of warfare. This initiative aims to enhance students' creative and critical thinking skills while providing fresh perspectives for military and government professionals.
Collaboration
- Governance and Global Affairs
- Humanities
Contact person
Bob Siegerink (b.siegerink@lumc.nl)
Collaboration
- LUMC
- Law
This project studies the classifications of people by society, focusing on migrants and disabled people. Researchers of various disciplines work together to understand the past and current processes that shape these classifications.
Collaboration
- Law
- Humanities
- Social Sciences
At Leiden University, 'heritage' is a prominent theme studied from various (inter)disciplinary perspectives, primarily within the faculties of Humanities, Archaeology, Law, and Social Sciences. This project aims to enhance the visibility and collaborations of interdisciplinary heritage studies.
Collaboration
- Social Sciences
- Humanities
- Archeology
- Law
The structures, processes, and systems of the government often do not align with the expectations, capacities, and behaviours of people. There are numerous scientific and societal knowledge needs at the intersection of psychology and public administration that call for behavioural insights for governance and policy. The aim of this application is to strengthen our interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary capacity to generate behavioural insights for a government that works better for people.
Collaboration
- Governance and Global Aaffairs
- Social Sciences
Contact person
Collaboration
- Social Sciences
- LUMC
Can we target tuberculosis bacteria by attacking their key enzymes? Recent research has revealed a family of lipases (enzymes that break down fats) in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacteria responsible for TB. These enzymes are suspected to play a crucial role in the bacteria’s survival by helping manage the bacteria’s cell structure or by degrading the host’s lipids (fats). Understanding their role could open the door to novel treatment strategies for TB.
Collaboration
- Science
- LUMC
Contact person
Collaboration
- Social Sciences
- Humanities
This projects calls for an experimental collaboration with feedback loops between researchers, aiming at gaining knowledge together. SoUnD joins an astrochemist, a sound-designer and a philosopher, with the aim to interpret interstellar chemical reactivity through digital composition to gain new and unexpected insight.
Collaboration
- Humanities
- Science
This project aims to identify essential learning goals and teaching methods for students in higher education to learn to effectively engage with complex, interdisciplinary, 'wicked' problems. In addition the project will explore realistic ways to integrate these goals and methods into educational curricula.
Collaboration
- Governance and Global Affairs
- African Studies Centre Leiden
Healthcare professionals have been concerned about health misinformation on topics of nutritional supplements and contraception. To combat misinformation and associated consequences regarding health damage and increased pressure in the healthcare system, this project aims to acquire an improved understanding of who is susceptible to what types of misinformation, and which factors determine information seeking behavior and message acceptance of these topics.
Collaboration
- Social Sciences
- LUMC
Imagining Scholasticide is a multimodal exhibition of the scholasticide in Gaza. Through photography, testimonies, and the curation of additional resources, it depicts the destruction of universities in Gaza, and places it in the longer history of the onslaught on scholarly life in Palestine. The project explores the everyday life of scholasticide, as well as the theoretical and legal underpinnings of this term. Throughout the process, the researchers will raise awareness and foster ongoing conversations about what the role of academics and universities should be.
Collaboration
- Law
- Humanities
- Social Sciences
This project will critically reflect on the consequences of the growing confrontation between the defenders of the so-called ‘rules-based international order’ and the defenders of international law for the prospect of a law-governed world, or its potential collapse.
Collaboration
- Governance and Global Affairs
- Humanities
Contact person
Collaboration
- Governance and Global Affairs
- Humanities
Contact person
Collaboration
- Archeology
- LUMC
This project aims to learn how interest organisations in the Netherlands use the courts to realise political, social or legal change. The project examines the nature and size of this phenomenon and how strategic court litigation relates to other classical strategies for influencing policy. 
Collaboration
- Law
- Governance and Global Affairs
Excessive and resource intensive food demand has significant effects on both our health and the environment. But not all consumers have the same impact. This research seeks to uncover the differences in environmental and health impacts across various consumer groups, helping us create more effective strategies for transitioning to a more sustainable and equitable patterns of food consumption, both within individual countries and globally.
Collaboration
- Science
- LUMC
Contact person
Collaboration
- LUMC
- Social Sciences
Contact person
Martijn Sijbom (m.sijbom@lumc.nl)
Collaboration
- LUMC
- Humanities
- Law
- Science
- Governance and Global Affairs
Non-traditional research data and outputs (NTROs), such as films, sound recordings, and dance performances, are generally less visible in the digital scholarly record than their tabular and text-based counterparts. The limited findability and reuse of such resources threatens knowledge production and collaborations in fields where NTROs proliferate – especially the social sciences, humanities, and arts. Responding to this challenge, this project will facilitate transdisciplinary encounters among researchers and professional staff aiming to improve the visibility of NTROs in the digital scholarly record, and further cultivate a culture of sharing and reuse of these outputs among the community.
Collaboration
- Social Sciences
- Humanities
- Leiden University Libraries