CERA (CErtification of RAw Materials) is a four-year project that will develop a standardized certification scheme ensuring environmental, social and economic sustainability in extraction, processing, trading and manufacturing of all mineral raw materials. It will guarantee traceability of certified…

Where and how are critical materials currently used and how can this information be used to develop scenarios about their future demand.

Over the past century, the world population has grown exponentially, as has our need for energy and raw materials. If we wish to continue to live prosperously in the future, we have to radically restructure our economy and consumption. Scientific research shows us how to do this.

Over the past century, the world population has grown exponentially, as has our need for energy and raw materials. If we wish to continue to live prosperously in the future, we have to radically restructure our economy and consumption. Scientific research shows us how to do this.

A modeling approach with applications to the Bau de l'Aubesier (Southeastern France)

How can Critical Raw Material policies/strategies be enhanced in the EU context?

The electrochemical reduction of a group of organic compounds on platinum is strongly dependent on the arrangement of the atoms in the platinum surface. Christoph Bondue, postdoc in Marc Koper's group, published this in Nature Catalysis on 4 March. The reduction of such compounds is an important process…

Asteroids, pieces of matter orbiting round the sun, have turned out to be extremely valuable. Asteroid Psyche contains a quantity of metals that together are worth more than the entire global economy. NASA is heading for it.

A scenario building web-tool and knowledge package to enable multi-level decision making for the transition to the Circular Economy

Some examples of research questions include: What framework of circular strategies should local practitioners use? How should practitioners organize their monitoring of the circular economy activities in the region of interest? What are the main products that have the most circular potential in the…

Can we develop a platform for raw materials intelligence?

1) Assess the trends in supply and production status of these critical minerals and mineral products worldwide and Europe’s dependence including on intermediate products such as permanent magnets, RE based super alloys, batteries, polishing compounds, phosphors, catalysts etc. 2) Trace the entire value…

Provenance and distribution of raw materials

How can prospective LCA be streamlined in a way that its practical application in research and technology development increases?

This subproject, carried out by post-doctoral researcher Dr. O. Nieuwenhuyse, investigates changes and continuities in the functional, social and symbolic uses of the material culture, c. 6800-5800 BC. A contextually oriented approach is adopted, which pays attention to the local socio-economic and…

The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) reduces vehicle emissions to combat climate change. EVs raise concerns regarding the production of lithium-ion batteries and related emissions; while batteries can also provide energy storage services for the electricity system.

What are the flows of C&DW (e.g. bricks, concrete, gypsum and wood) in the case study countries ? How to define the specification for each material to be quantified? What indicators should be used to identify the pattern of each C&DW management system? How to interpret the MFA results in relation…

Long Island, an islet of Antigua in the northern Lesser Antilles forms the major source for flint in the Lesser Antilles. A survey by Hofman, Hoogland and van Gijn in 1989 has indicated the presence of various raw material sources. Test-excavations at the major flintknapping site of Flinty Bay show…

The project “Digital Materials” is about the conception, exploration and analysis of possibilities to make digital processes directly operative and tangible in physical materials and examines how the fiction of these “Digital Materials” could affect on figures of interaction between human subjects and…

Industrialised countries mine raw materials in areas inhabited by Indigenous Peoples and appropriate the knowledge and culture of these peoples. Leiden anthropologists work to protect their rights.

We live in a world of things and people in the past must have been as closely entangled with their material surroundings as we are now. In the Laboratory for Artefact Studies Van Gijn takes a close look at the biographies of objects: what kind of raw material an object is made off and what is its provenience,…

What happens to the different waste streams?

The economic history of Soviet development practices in Central Asia remains controversial and dominated by the view that Soviet development policy was wasteful and inefficient in the periphery. Challenging the established view of Soviet largesse and largely undirected and untracked “subsidies” to…

All our courses require you to do (background) reading. This may include books, readers and/or materials uploaded to the online learning environment Blackboard. You can find an overview of the literature you need to study in the course description in the online prospectus, under the heading ‘Reading…

All of our courses require you to do (background) reading. This may include books, readers and/or materials uploaded to the online learning environment Blackboard. An overview of the literature you need to study can be found in the course description in the online prospectus, under the heading ‘Reading…

We have recently discovered that there are biological proteins that phase separate out of solution much the way oil will de-mix from water (see movie). These form dense, liquid-like phases called protein condensates.

Researchers within the cluster are committed to the close and expert analysis of the materiality and content of the arts, literature and media they study. Different types of media bring various aspects of this core interest to the fore.

The goal is to develop educational materials for Dâw, Hupd’äh, and Nadëb Indigenous peoples (Naduhup family; Middle and Upper Rio Negro; Brazilian Amazon). In order to achieve this, first of all, the fieldwork data collected during a collaborative project among anthropologists and linguists (2017-2020)…

This project looks at material culture to better understand the character and organization of Roman colonial society in the Republican period, with a focus on the colony of Aesernia (founded 263 BC) in Samnium (modern-day Molise, Italy). What impact did the foundation of the colony have on precolonial…

Material Culture Studies revolves around the analysis of the cultural biographies of all sorts of material objects from flint axes, to pottery, to houses and monumental structures.

The research group of Silke Henkes at Leiden University. Part of the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION). The group studies the physics opf active materials.

Understanding Late Neolithic Ceramic Containers from Upper Mesopotamia

It is not man’s ingenuity, but rather materials that are the source of innovation and progress. This is what archaeologist Maikel Kuijpers concludes based on his research into craftsmanship and material processing in the Early Bronze Age.

What are the mechanics of soft materials (e.g. foam, sand)?

Please find below links to articles / events that might be of interest.

Research on the global field of museums, heritage, commemoration, consumption and material culture

The transition to new and renewable energy sources should be completed by 2050. Researchers in various disciplines at Leiden University are conducting unique research that will help us make this transition and reduce CO2 emissions.

The research involves the application and combination of archaeological and archaeometrical methodologies. Petrographic analysis and isotopic provenance studies of raw materials and exotics, and the study of the distribution patterns of these materials are used to gain insight into the exchange of goods…

A sustainable resource management is an essential aspect to satisfy the current human needs without compromising the needs of future generations.

Proceedings of the International Colloquium Leiden, May 29 and 30, 2008

Research carried out at Leiden University contributes to our knowledge of sustainability. This is essential if we want to work together to find solutions to pressing issues, such as the current climate emergency and the shortage of raw materials.

The programme’s courses deal with current approaches in material culture theory, analytical methods and techniques employed in artefact studies, and experimental archaeology.

RaMa-Scene is a web-application to create and analyse circular economy scenarios using Multi-regional Environmentally Extendend Input-Output Analysis.

Dynamics of material, social and ideological relationships in the pre-Columbian insular Caribbean

Ongoing microwear analysis of the flint artefacts from the Funnelbeaker period suggests that flint had a pivotal role in the representation and structuration of the cosmological order of Funnelbeaker society.

Examining if large scale application of new energy pathways can be constrained by materials and emissions.

The research group of Semonti Bhattacharyya at the Leiden Institute of Physics studies quantum transport measurements in Van der Waals heterostructures.

New Approaches to the Study of Textual Material from the Early Pharaonic to the Late Antique Period