Leiden University and the LUMC will introduce a new ‘Sustainable Health and Care’ interdisciplinary minor in September. The organisers received support in the form of a Kiem grant. Lead applicant Martijn Sijbom advises new Kiem projects: ‘Work to a deadline.’

How can interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations between psychology and public administration contribute to the development and application of behavioural insights that improve government functioning and its interaction with citizens?

The project explores the impact of the clash between defenders of a rules-based order and international law on global governance and the future of legal systems.

Mariska Jung (FGGA), Looi van Kessel (FGW), and Jasmijn Rana (FSW) have received a KIEM grant together with the Institute for Social Justice (in development) for their project 'Hope springs eternal': Protest and social movements in the Netherlands.

Music and language both communicate through sound, including timing and pitch. While language mainly conveys semantic meaning, instrumental music does not, and is typically seen as expressing emotion. This project investigates how well listeners recognize intended expressive feelings in music, instructed…

Every time we pay for something, our money moves through global technical systems that connect the world economy. These systems are convenient, but they also expose users to Western sanctions, prompting countries like Russia to look for alternative financial infrastructure.

An increasing number of researchers in the social sciences, humanities, and arts (SSH+A) are working with non-traditional research outputs (NTROs), such as films, performances, and sound recordings. However, these forms of research often receive little recognition within the digital scholarly infrastructure,…

How can the combination of sound composition, astrochemistry, and epistemological analysis provide new and unexpected insights into interstellar chemical reactivity?

Medicine in Image and Practice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Japanese Medical History. A new interdisciplinary collaboration between the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Medicine (LUMC), and the Leiden University Libraries (UBL).

How do interest groups in the Netherlands use strategic litigation to bring about political, social or legal change, and how does this strategy compare to other, more classical, ways to influence policy?

How can photorealistic 3D scenes help predict whether interventions in urban public spaces will foster citizens' sense of security?

Human-driven environmental damage is increasingly recognised as a global crisis. Should large-scale destruction of ecosystems be considered a crime? The concept of ecocide has gained renewed attention, particularly following a proposed definition for inclusion in international criminal law, raising…

How can efficient chemical synthesis and clinical microbiology be combined to identify new antibiotics against Clostridioides difficile infections?

Which fungi live in Leiden University’s historic buildings and collections, and how can their impact on heritage and human health be understood and managed?

A KIEM grant was recently awarded to a diverse group of Leiden researchers, aiming to organise an interdisciplinary conference with the title ‘Ancient Religions and the Materiality of Danger’ in 2026. The topic of the conference marks a shift towards the study of the role of objects.

How can we establish a permanent, cross-faculty network that encourages interdisciplinary collaboration among Assistant Professors?

What can we learn from the diverse institutional logics of smart government in East Asia to inform cross-institutional AI governance?

How do lipases in Mycobacterium tuberculosis help the bacteria survive, and can we target them to create new antibiotics?

At a festive gathering, 25 projects were awarded a Kiem grant 2025 - 2026 of 10,000 euros. Interdisciplinary teams from Leiden University will conduct innovative research into horror, international payments and fungi in historical collections, among others.

How can the LEGO® Serious Play® method contribute to improved interdisciplinary collaboration and the development of joint research proposals?

What are best practices for teaching students to engage with 'wicked' problems?

No less than 33 project received a Leiden Kiem grant in 2023. How did they fare? Olga Bogolyubova shares experiences from her project ‘Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Safety and Danger in the Digital World’.

How can the law provide legal safeguards for the save introduction of quantum technology for consumers, and how can these safeguards be examined and interpreted through interdisciplinary collaboration?

The interdisciplinary Kiem project ‘Violence as a Population Health Problem’ has resulted in a plan to apply for a large, yet-to-be-decided research grant. The so-called pressure cooker session at the heart of the project proved very effective.

This project unites these two perspectives by taking a deep dive into the microstructure of historic Dutch bones. We will study human skeletal remains curated at the Faculty of Archaeology by micro-CT scanning them at LUMC facilities. With detailed micro-CT scans, we can examine bone quality in the…

In this project, researchers and lecturers from LUCAS, ICLON and UBL join forces to publish expertise and experience in the field of machine learning and AI as open learning materials for secondary education.

‘Violence as a Population Health Problem’ is one of 33 interdisciplinary projects that have been launched thanks to a Kiem grant. The project team will analyse a large patient database to identify links between violence and other health problems. ‘Violence can also be an expression of other factors,’…

How do pathogenic mycobacteria alter lipid metabolism in human cells and patients, and which disrupted pathways could be targeted for new antibiotics?

How do you set up a successful collaboration between science and practice? That was the main theme of the final meeting of a triptych of symposia on how Leiden University can improve inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration.

How do you set up successful interdisciplinary collaborations? That is the central question of a Leiden symposium. On 6 June, we look at cooperation and decompartmentalisation between public institutions. The language of the symposium will be Dutch.

Can cognitive decline in people with Parkinson’s disease be measured using digital tests at home? According to an interdisciplinary team of researchers, the answer is yes. They investigated this with a Kiem grant from Leiden University.

kiem grant: Investigating the anti-inflammatory potential of the PRG4 protein in preventing and alleviating rheumatoid arthritis

Can small molecule drugs restore the immune system’s ability to fight tuberculosis by boosting autophagy?

How do protein modifications work together to repair DNA, and what can we learn about these interactions to better understand disease?

Which consumer groups post the greatest cost to public health and the planet through their food choices, and how can we use this fine-scale information to accelerate a sustainable dietary transition?

Researchers Rowie Stolk and Caelesta Braun’s ‘Litigation in the name of public interest’ Kiem project included an interdisciplinary workshop on the same topic. For starting PhD candidates in particular, this was the chance to build valuable connections.

The doctor suggests opting for a treatment that is better for the environment. How do patients react to this? Doctors and psychologists together discovered that this has little impact on patient confidence in the doctor.

Kiem project: How can metaphors be used to enhance societal engagement with quantum science and technology, and what factors influence their acceptance or resistance among experts and laypeople?

Lecture

Conference

Conference, workshop