The specialisation Global Political Economy of the master’s in International Relations at Leiden University provides you with a cutting-edge understanding of the world economy and its social and political foundations.

Are you interested in taking up an extra challenge during your master’s programme? Have you thought about developing your personal leadership style, study abroad or participating in the Erasmus Mundus Circular Economy programme?

Op zoek naar een bacheloropleiding economie met een sterke focus op publiek beleid? Bij de bacheloropleiding Economie & Samenleving leer je in tegenstelling tot traditionele economieopleidingen om slim en strategisch te navigeren binnen de huidige complexe, juridische en politieke context.

A python3 package to create and analyze Circular Economy scenarios.

This volume presents fourteen papers by Roman archaeologists and historians discussing approaches to the economic history of Pompeii, and the role of the Pompeian evidence in debates about the Roman economy.

How the systematic destruction of valuables created value in Bronze Age Europe, c. 2300-500 BC

Are you interested in an economics programme that takes a multidisciplinary approach? The bachelor’s degree Economics and Society combines economics with political science and law, allowing you to understand the most pressing economic and societal challenges from various perspectives.

The emergence of metalwork deposition during the Bronze Age in Northwest Europe, c. 2300-1500 BC

Are you thinking about studying Global Political Economy? Learn more and watch the introduction video.

How do technological systems impact the environment? And can they be designed in a more sustainable way? The Resources and Energy research program studies the importance of resources and energy for our society and aims to guide the shift towards a sustainable circular economy.

Decarbonizing the building stock is critical for realizing the climate-neutral target for the Netherlands.

The province of South Holland is to collaborate with industry, the three LDE universities Leiden Delft and Erasmus, and the University of Wageningen in a knowledge and innovation programme to speed up the transition to a circular economy. The programme, ACCEZ, is expected to generate new knowledge.

This presentation is presented in Dutch

Projects in the department of Industrial Ecology

The Brazilian economy has long been defined by its enormous potential. Over the past 30 years, some of this has at last been realised. Latin America’s largest economy has rapidly risen in global importance while poverty at home has declined. Yet, despite periods of progress, Brazil remains prone to…

Porosity between Politics and the Economy addresses the relationships between politics and the economy in deeply original ways. It is a book motivated by a sense of urgency aroused by both the failure of modern capitalism and the environmental crisis.

Urbanization brings benefits like housing and jobs but also challenges like biodiversity loss. CML's Urban research program uses science to create sustainable cities, focusing on the built environment (circular economy, urban mining) and enhancing urban nature for biodiversity and human benefits.

Are you thinking about studying Philosophical Perspectives on Politics and the Economy? Learn more and watch the introduction video.

The Advisory Board is an external Advisory Council, to advice the Board of Directors of CML about general strategies, research and education activities and evaluation procedures (Dutch: visitatie).

Discover the new MSc in Public Sector Economics at Leiden University, offered entirely in Dutch. This program prepares future policy economists by bridging economic theory, Dutch institutions, and real-world policy challenges. Starting September 2025 in The Hague, it focuses on key issues like inequality,…

This minor is in Dutch.

Material culture and the role of rural communities in exchange systems of the eighth and ninth centuries

The new Master’s programme in Public Sector Economics (MSc Economics) prepares you to become the policy economist of the future. The programme enables you to bridge the gap between economic theories, scientific methods, the functioning of Dutch institutions and policy processes, as well as current societal…

Natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce. If we want to maintain our current standard of living, we will need inventive solutions. The researchers at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) share their thoughts on how to achieve a fully circular economy in which as little use as possible…

Overview of CML software and data

This interdisciplinary minor addresses sustainabilty challenges from a systems perspective, and investigates ways to sustain society within planetary boundaries.

How can we organise society so as to keep our planet habitable for us and for all other life forms around us? To answer this question, Leiden researchers collaborate across disciplines, from biology to data science, and from environmental economy to archaeology.

On 21 January, the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) has released two reports on circular economy and urban mining in the Netherlands. In them, together with Statistics Netherlands, they take stock of part of the Dutch ‘urban mine’: how much raw material can we reuse from the electricity grid,…

Former clients en projects

In the Governance of Sustainability programme students will learn to become a future ‘change agents’ who can develop and inform governance solutions to complex environmental sustainability challenges.

Mission: The department of Industrial Ecology is dealing with research into the development of tools for decision making on sustainable production and consumption.

Your time in Leiden is about more than just studying. Some of your best experiences will come from being part of our vibrant and diverse student community, and from living in the beautiful city of Leiden.

Leiden University offers its students a wide range of bachelor's, master's and minors that explore sustainability or climate. Here, you find an overview of those programmes in the academic year 2020-2021.

The MA in Politics, Society and Economy of Asia takes a social science approach to the study of one or more countries or regions in modern or contemporary Asia.

The documentary invites us to consider the question of what we consider valuable knowledge. “We need to realise that doing and thinking are intertwined in ways we did not comprehend before” argues Maikel Kuijpers, archaeologist and the producer of the documentary. “This will have consequences for the…

On 7 February 2019, Helena Ursic-Vrabec defended her thesis 'Uncontrollable: Data subject rights and the data- driven economy'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. S. van der Hof.

The availability of natural resources, the energy transition, the importance of circularity and our dependence on China. This and more is what Professor of Industrial Ecology René Kleijn's inaugural lecture is about.

Industrial Ecology

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.