PhD candidates carry out a programme of independent research, leading to a PhD thesis in typically 4 years.

The Department of Archaeological Sciences seeks to achieve the highest standards of excellence in science-driven education and archaeological research across the globe and across all periods.

We also conduct research to make meaningful contributions to society. For instance, by talking about our research, contributing to community projects or by inviting people to help us with our research. Scroll down and discover how Science and Society can mutually reinforce each other.

Are you thinking about studying Computer Science? Learn more and watch the videos. Note: As of September 2025 you can also combine this master programme with the Business Studies specialisation.

Ever did something for the first time and got an award for it? Sabine Wenzel did. Her research about the surface of zinc oxide won her the Surface Science Young Investigator award.

We perform multidisciplinary research at molecular, cellular, and organismal levels of animal biology to increase fundamental understanding of health and disease.

Anthropogenic noise has been shown to affect marine animals in various ways, this may have fitness consequences at individual and population level. This thesis aims to increase insight into the quantification of sound-induced behavioural responses that are relevant to fitness, and into factors that…

In order to be able to develop effective medicine and treatments to prevent or cure autoimmune diseases or cancer we need to understand the mechanisms how they arise and what drives their course.Unravelling the fundamental molecular mechanisms influencing the onset and course of diseases such as allergies,…

On Monday 28 November 2016, Ton Liefaard spoke at the International Conference on Crime Prevention and Resocialization of Children in Contact with the Criminal Justice System in Chile. In his lecture he discussed European perspectives on crime and prevention and reintegration.

When under duress innocent suspects can make a false confession. Why is this? Legal psychologist Linda Geven will give a talk about this at the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition’s Brain & Law event. At this symposium (in Dutch) on 16 September you can attend talks on fascinating brain research…

The mission of the Plant Sciences cluster is to contribute to the sustainable production of high-quality crops, flowers and high-value bio-based products, and to contribute to the maintenance and restoration of biodiversity in natural ecosystems. This is realised by generating fundamental knowledge…

The master’s specialisation Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences and Science Communication & Society at Leiden University is a two-year programme which combines research training in chemistry with one in techniques of communication.

If you know a crime is about to occur, should you be able to prevent it before it has even happened? This was one of the questions that was posed in light of predictive policing as a form of mass surveillance during the debate in the elective Governance of Crime and Social Disorder class of the Crisis…

Human trafficking is a very topical social problem, which because of both its social and legal complexity, can only be studied in an interdisciplinary way. Combating human trafficking currently features high on national and international policy agendas.

With the emergence of new methods and technologies such as improved DNA analysis and big data, archaeological research has changed radically in recent decades. The researchers from the Department of Archaeological Sciences at the Faculty of Archaeology use new scientific knowledge to answer fundamental…

The wave of restitutions expected after French President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 promise to return stolen art to Africa has hit legal and political roadblocks. But while former colonial powers are shying away, it seems 'New World' countries have started doing more to repair crimes against First Natio…

BE-OPEN is a structural project funded under the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education action. The project is coordinated by the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. The main objective of the project is to develop conditions for the implementation of the core principles of Open Science at universities…

The global population speaks approximately 7,000 different languages and approximately half of the world’s population is bilingual. The unique orthographic characteristics of different languages can help us to gain insight into the seemingly simple process of transforming written to spoken words (i.e.,…

Gorlaeus Gebouw, Einsteinweg 55, 2333 CC, Leiden

In films kunnen de meest wonderlijke acties plaatsvinden. Maar zijn die acties in de 'echte' wereld ook mogelijk? En in hoeverre houden filmmakers ons voor de gek? Tijdens het Leiden International Film Festival komen film en wetenschap samen.

The research reported in this thesis is concerned with the knowledge development of a small sample of experienced science teachers in the context of a broad innovation in Dutch secondary education, including the introduction of a new syllabus on Public Understanding of Science.

This doctoral thesis comprises four studies on the content and structure of physics teachers’ belief systems about teaching and learning physics in secondary education in the Netherlands.

The two-year master’s programme in Computer Science at Leiden University offers seven specialisations ranging from AI to Bioinformatics and Data Science. The programme combines excellent theoretical teaching with possibilities for applied work with industrial relevance.

Social Science Matters is an online variant on London’s famous Speakers’ Corner – a platform for the researchers in the various disciplines in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences to react to the news. This soapbox gives our social scientists an opportunity to voice their opinions on current…

Politics is about the authorised allocation of values: who gets what, when and how much? This question is relevant at many different levels, in many different places and in very different ways.

How to facilitate the translation of science into innovation

The Biomedical Sciences Communication specialisation focuses on the interaction between science and society and concerns science communication in a broad sense. You combine your research training with different aspects of science communication. The entire programme is taught in English.

The research group Science Communication and Society aims to understand how science communication works to improve the interaction between science and society. Central themes are ‘Bridging the gap between experts and the general public’ and ‘Evaluating Science Communication’.

The research group Science Communication and Society has been physically within the Institute of Biology (IBL) since 2012 and has become a formal part of the institute in 2018. The mission of this group is understanding how science communication works to improve the interaction between science and s…

The Citizen Science Lab brings together scientists, citizens and community stakeholders to arrive at new insights for both science and society through citizen science.

Leiden University's Citizen Science Lab supports and organizes initiatives where anyone can get started with scientific data and research. This is how we enrich research with insights from the community, make science accessible to all, and tackle important local issues together.

Would you like to learn more about communicating your research with audiences other than the scientific community? The Science Communication and Society department from Leiden University is inviting young researchers (PhD, postdoc, or other early career) to join our Summer School about science communication…

The Data Science Research Programme aims to advance the state of the art in Data Science research and to accelerate the use of Data Science methods at all faculties of Leiden University.

Do you like running? Then take part in the Leiden Science Run on The Leiden Science Run is a 4.44 km charity run at the Leiden Bio Science Park on 28 september 2019. In 2019 Leiden University will be 444 years old. This special birthday calls for a special celebration. That is why we have adjusted the…

Would you like to learn more about communicating your research with audiences other than the scientific community? The Science Communication and Society department from Leiden University is inviting young researchers (PhD, postdoc, or other early career) to join our Summer School about science communication…

Here you can find information about our next big event!

The concept behind GraspOS is to build the European Federated Open Metrics Infrastructure in a decentralised way, where: different types of data come together to create metrics; tools and services are developed to improve EU or global infrastructures but are also shared with national or institutional…

Explore the unknown in order to be able to innovate in the distant future.

Although science and education have top priority, exploratory projects with companies, governments and NGOs generate ample opportunities in terms of societal challenges, science strategy, valorisation and research collaboration. In the LIACS Applied Data Science Lab, our master's students and graduates…

The aims of research and teaching within the Educational Sciences programme are to understand in how individuals develop and learn and to optimize education for all individuals.

In September 2021 the CWTS open science policy came into effect. This policy deals with open access publishing, open research data, and open source software. All research projects carried out at CWTS are subject to the CWTS open science policy.

The Faculty of Science is located at the Leiden Bio Science Park. It was founded more than two centuries ago and currently, more than 8000 people are working and studying at the eight institutes.

The master’s programme Statistics & Data Science provides students with a thorough introduction to the general philosophy and methodology of statistical modelling and data analysis. The programme has two specialisations: Data Science and Statistical Science.