The Faculty of Archaeology is running a funding scheme to assist small-scale projects that contribute to diversifying archaeological practice in all domains, including classrooms, laboratories, museums, and the field. We discuss the grant with two representatives from the Diversity Committee: Tuna Kalaycı…

Dr. Sara Brandellero and Dr. Kamila Krakowska Rodrigues from Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society will lead a collaborative research project funded by Horizon Europe Work Programme on Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society. #DemocracyinAction studies arts and culture-based grassroots…

For over a year now, the James Webb Telescope has been sending stunning images that exceed astronomers’ expectations. The photos are fascinating to see, but what exactly are we looking at? Assistant professor Melissa McClure explains.

When it comes to literature, people mostly talk about what characters see or hear. Rarely is it about what they smell. That’s a shame, thinks university lecturer Jan van Dijkhuizen. He has been awarded an Open Competition grant from NWO to expand academic knowledge about scent in literature, and to…

Bart Barendregt receives a Vici grant of 1.5 million euros from the NWO for his research project 'One between the Zeros, an Anthropology of Artificial Intelligence in Islam'.

Imparting students with a critical attitude and cross-curricular skills. That is what Rawi Ramautar wants to strive for as the new programme director (OD) of the bachelor of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences. 'A programme director has to create a programme of which students say: I find it challenging and…

How do games help shape our perception of the past? Associate Professor Angus Mol receives a Vidi grant to answer this question.

GIFs, memes and videos: anyone who opens a social media platform can be in no doubt that today we live in a visual culture. But the role of images in social communications isn’t new, says Associate Professor Marika Keblusek. She has been awarded a Dutch Research Council (NWO) Open Competition (Large)…

Neeltje Blankenstein receives an LUF grant to conduct research on online risk behaviour among young people. What risks do young people take online and why? 'With this research, we not only want to help prevent serious risk behaviour, but also understand what drives young people to it.'

When are you (sexually) mature? A KNAW grant will enable associate professor Rafal Matuszewski to organise an interdisciplinary workshop on this question.

Today, ESA’s Gaia mission releases its new treasure trove of data about our home galaxy. Astronomers, led by the Leiden astronomer Anthony Brown, describe strange ‘starquakes’, stellar DNA, asymmetric motions and other fascinating insights in this most detailed Milky Way survey to date.

The first full-colour images of the cosmos from ESA's space telescope Euclid were presented today. Never before has a telescope been able to take such crystal-clear astronomical images of such a large part of the sky and so far into the deep universe. The five images illustrate Euclid's full potential;…

Space telescope Euclid is capable of unravelling the secrets of the universe. That is what the images published by ESA today show, according to astronomers working with the telescope's data. The images exceed all expectations. Scientists within the Euclid consortium, including astronomers Henk Hoekstra…

Archaeologist Jason Laffoon was awarded an NWO Vidi grant for an innovative investigation into ancient migrations in the western Caribbean. The innovative character of this research project lies in the wide-scale application of isotope analysis and isotope mapping. ‘We aim at further developing methods…

Thijs Bosker, Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University College (LUC) and the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), has received funding as part of a large consortium to study the impacts of microplastics on agricultural soils. The project will receive 7 million euro of…

Lecture, Unfolding Finitudes

It is one of the most famous moments in Dutch TV history: the twenty-three hour long marathon broadcast of Open het Dorp. But what happened to the commune for people with disabilities after that? Monika Baár and Paul van Trigt received a NWO grant of 750,000 euros to map the development of Het Dorp.

For already two years, Vincent Niochet has been affiliated with the Leiden Faculty of Archaeology as an external PhD candidate. Now, he has been awarded an NWO PhDs in the Humanities grant, allowing him to continue his research as a paid PhD staff member. ‘The past two years have been quite challenging,…

Dr Sarah Schrader, an expert in the study of human remains, received a VIDI grant for a research project on health and inequality. In present day people with a high socio-economic status encounter fewer health risks than those in lower socio-economic strati. ‘Now we will look at this process in the…

A consortium including economists, psychologists and public administration scholars from Leiden University will study public acceptance of the hydrogen transition in the Netherlands. They will look at the labour market impact, public perceptions of hydrogen and businesses’ willingness to invest.

The EU’s programme for research and innovation Horizon Europe is funding the ISGA project ‘NET-ROL: Networks and the Rule of Law: Uncovering Socio-Economic Outcomes’. The funding amounts to 3 million euros, with 760,000 euros going to ISGA. Researchers Antoaneta Dimitrova and Jaroslaw Kantorowicz are…

The two instruments of ESA's space telescope Euclid have taken their first test images. The first images indicate that the space telescope will achieve the scientific goals for which it was designed - and possibly much more. Euclid will create a 3D map of a third of the sky, allowing scientists to study…

An international team of astronomers, including Leiden PhD student Elia Pizzati, has observed several ancient quasars that, surprisingly, appear to be floating alone in the early universe (less than a billion years after the Big Bang). Until now, astronomers, based on models, assumed that quasars are…

The History programme has been working for several years to make the curriculum more diverse and inclusive. With a Comenius grant, university lecturer Kim Beerden wants to take the next step.

Not only dark matter, but also ordinary matter and dark energy are tracked in the largest ever cosmological computer simulation ever. In the FLAMINGO simulations, you can see virtual galaxies and clusters of galaxies emerging over the course of billions of years. This is no easy task: with more than…

Juan Masullo (Leiden University Institute of Political Science) receives a grant from the Elise Mathilde Fund/Leiden University Fund to conduct his research project ‘Forging an Anti-Mafia Culture: Observational and Experimental Evidence from Italy’. Masullo aims to find out what ordinary Italians think…

In brain diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, proteins clump together to form fibres. ‘Chaperone proteins’ unravel those fibres, but in the test tube biochemist Anne Wentink saw that this can also cause new problems. She is going to find out what happens inside cells to determine what a drug…

Bachelor's students Kirsten S. Barink, Milène van der Geest, Claire van den Helder and Pim L. Ruhe are granted the Speckmann award for their Fieldwork NL report 'If it would have been a colour it would be pitch-black', a report on people suffering from the phenomenon of 'Electrohypersensitivity'.

The European Commission awarded the project proposal INSIGHT, a follow-up project on illegal firearms trafficking and gun violence from Professor Social Resilience and Security Marieke Liem and PhD-researcher Katharina Krüsselmann of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA).

A collaboration between linguists, geographers and anthropologists aims to uncover how languages spread across South America over thousands of years. Associate Professor Rik van Gijn is responsible for the linguistic side of this NWO project.

Controlling fire was a turning point in the development of human civilisation. But how did fire become part of the human toolkit? The BBC radio show CrowdScience discusses the topic with Leiden archaeologists Andrew Sorensen and Kathy MacDonald.

She has had the idea for seven years, but now environmental scientist and conservation biologist Kat Stewart finally gets to work on it. She has been awarded a Vidi grant by NWO to find out how DNA from water can be used to shed light on invasive species and their impact on native populations.

For decades, the trade in pocketbooks prescribing how to be a good Muslim flourished in East Africa, but in recent years the number of books in circulation has been declining. University lecturer Annachiara Raia is the recipient of an Impact Explorer grant to revive this tradition, in cooperation with…

The 'deepest and sharpest' image of the Universe to date: the first photos from the new James Webb space telescope yesterday mesmerised astronomers and the public alike. Leiden Professor of Molecular Astrophysics, Ewine van Dishoeck, spoke to various media outlets about the first images, which include…

What does it mean to be in a Dutch prison? What is true about the prejudices about being in jail? Criminologist Marieke Liem has released a podcast on Dutch national broadcaster NPO Radio 1: Hotel met tralies.

Social media are playing a key role in calling for resistance to the corona measures. Online, agreements are made about where and when people will gather to protest. The authorities are not always fully aware of what is happening and cannot just infiltrate, whereas civilians can often easily participate…

Education

Education

Education

The brightness peak of the ring around M87's supermassive black hole has shifted 30 degrees counterclockwise in a year. This is shown by new images released by the Event Horizon Telescope consortium.

Education

An NWO Veni application by Linda Geven, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, has been honoured. She will spend the next three years conducting research into false confessions in police interrogations.

The numbers of asylum seekers and the direct family members hoping to join them were not the problem, says Mark Klaassen. The stumbling block was the housing market. He says the asylum crisis is being used for electoral gain.

A presentation on the latest developments in artificial intelligence and law, several public lectures on Criminal Justice, and a brand new trial in which Leiden female serial killer ‘Goeie Mie’ was acquitted after all. It was all possible during Leiden European City of Science 2022. Below is an overview…

The European Space Agency (ESA) has published an interim data release from Gaia, the space telescope mapping out the Milky Way in 3D. The first scientific papers published today reveal half a million stars in the Omega Centauri globular cluster, nearly 400 candidate gravitational lensers and the positions…

Astronomers have used data from the European Gaia Space Telescope to discover 55 high-speed stars launched from the young star cluster R136 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This increases tenfold the number of known “runaway stars” in this region. The team of astronomers,…

The university finds it important that students and staff are offered a safe environment. Read here about the safety measures in place and what you should do in case of emergencies or other incidents.

The university finds it important that students and staff are offered a safe environment. Read here about the safety measures in place and what you should do in case of emergencies or other incidents.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research has awarded a grant of 750,000 euros to the 'Visualising the Unknown in 17th-century Science and Society' project. Researchers will reconstruct how seventeenth-century scientists recorded and shared their groundbreaking microscopic discoveries. We…

Delve into the depths of black hole imaging as anthropologist Rodrigo Ochigame unveils the human decisions shaping its portrayal. Explore four alternative color choices at the 'Towards the Black Hole' exhibit, now showing at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Leiden.