Working for a top faculty? Discover the vacancies at the Faculty of Science and apply immediately.

A warm welcome to the Graduate School of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Leiden University.

The Science for Sustainable Societies bachelor’s programme equips you to address pressing environmental issues through an interdisciplinary approach. By integrating natural sciences, social sciences, and governance, you’ll develop the expertise to analyse and solve complex sustainability challenges…

They were called 'annoying brats', the group of campaigning scientists who in 1978 founded what is now an internationally acclaimed ecological research institute. Their stories and those of the current staff of the Institute of Environmental Sciences are described in the book 'Forty years of Leiden…

The Science for Sustainable Societies bachelor’s programme equips you to address pressing environmental issues through an interdisciplinary approach. By integrating natural sciences, social sciences, and governance, you’ll develop the expertise to analyse and solve complex sustainability challenges…

The aim of the research programme is to provide insight into the cognitive processes and brain mechanisms that underlie reading, arithmetic and learning in general.

The NestWacht project is a Citizen Science collaboration between Science Centre Delft, Naturalis, and the Citizen Science Lab of Leiden University to engage individuals, families and primary schools in Leiden and Delft in scientific research on the impact of climate change on nature in their city, and…

How many stars are there in the Universe? And how can astronauts float in space? These and many other questions about astronomy will be answered at Leiden University on Saturday 9 February.

The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) is a research institute at Leiden University working on improving how science is practiced and governed and how it serves society.

The seminar series on ‘Diversity and Inclusion in Global Science’ aims to foster debate on inequalities in science across the world.

Animal Sciences’ contribution to the Bioactive Molecules research theme includes research on molecules from natural sources, such as plants, insects, and snake venom, with the aim to identify novel anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-diabetic agents.

Animal Sciences’ contributions to the Development & Disease research theme include the mechanisms and evolution of embryonic development, the development of cognitive mechanisms, and animal models for understanding mechanisms of human disease.

Responsible AI for science and a strong and resilient society.

The Educational Sciences programme group of the Institute of Education and Child Studies at Leiden University provides courses in the field of student education and the learning and development of children in the school context.

Microbial Sciences' contribution to the Bioactive Molecules research theme is to discover new bioactive molecules and enzymes and unravel their mechanisms of action, regulatory networks, and the (bio)synthetic pathways required for their production.

Conference

On April 14 we will celebrate the launch of our Faculty action plan ‘diversity and inclusivity’ with a symposium. We will present the action plan and our colleague Professor Tomas Brage will be keynote speaker. He is the Director of Education at the Physics Institute of Lund University in Sweden and…

The Leiden Leadership Centre brings academia and practice together by organising events on public leadership – such as Leiden Leadership Lunches, webinars, (international) conferences, and the Leiden Leadership Podcast.

There are around 300,000 people in the Netherlands who donate blood on a regular basis. Women can give blood up to three times a year and men up to five times, resulting in approximately one million blood donations each year. Patients that receive this donated blood are already in a vulnerable condition,…

Animal Sciences’ contributions to the Biodiversity & Evolution research theme include evo-devo research, the evolution of cognitive and behavioural traits, and the evolutionary mechanisms of stress adaptation. This research involves both indoor and outdoor studies.

What does our faculty stand for and what will we do in the next five years? We are proud to present our new strategic plan that we made together. On this website you will find more information about what our Faculty stands for and what our course is for the coming years

How can party bans be justified? Which parties were banned in post-war Europe – and why? Do militant democracy instruments work? Is an international militant democracy concept in the making?

Animal Sciences’ contributions to the Host-Microbe Interactions research theme focus on the interaction of animal hosts with pathogenic microbes but also the beneficial role of the gut microbiome.

In the future top Dutch speed skaters may skate even faster thanks to a skate full of electronics. This ‘measuring skate’ gives top skaters and coaches information about the skater’s technique and motion. It can measure the dynamics at play between the foot, the ice and the skate.

Promotor: A.H. Meijer, Co-promotor: B.E. Snaar-Jagalska

In this PhD study, I aim to deepen our understanding of the influence of major mycorrhizal types, namely arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) and ectomycorrhizae (EM), on the global soil carbon cycle and their potential distribution changes under future environmental shifts.

This thesis examines enzyme domain architecture and engineering to improve the breakdown of lignocellulose and starch, abundant biopolymers crucial for sustainable biofuel and biochemical production. Carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) facilitate this degradation, but the structural complexity of…

This article examines the effects of introducing proportional representation (PR) in Polish local elections on women’s political representation.

The dissociative chemisorption of methane on metal surfaces is of fundamental and practical interest, being a rate-limiting step in the steam reforming process. The reaction is best modeled with quantum dynamics calculations, but these are currently not guaranteed to produce accurate results because…

PhD defence

Plant Sciences' contribution to the Development & Disease research theme is to unravel the processes that allow plants to adapt to changing abiotic and biotic environmental conditions or stresses, with the aim to contribute to the sustainable production of food, flowers and bio-based products using…

Two organisers at heart. In the background, facilities managers Nick van Asperen and Kees Schoonwater ensure that staff and students have everything they need to work and study well. Recently, the familiar faces started doing so in a new role. Schoonwater is now project manager housing and Van Asperen…

Plant Sciences' contribution to the Host-Microbe Interactions research theme is to dissect how microorganisms and microbiomes interact with the plant host and the insects on those plants, and how these insights may be harnessed to improve plant growth and health, by steering microbiome composition and…

This dissertation reports on the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of science teachers during a professional development program. This research intended to help us understand why and how teachers make their classroom decisions as they teach science.

SAILS aims to forge links between the different disciplines at the University and to initiate new academic partnerships.

Microbial Sciences' contribution to the Host-Microbe Interactions research theme is to investigate how beneficial or disease-causing microbes associate and interact with their host.

The new programme Synoptic Optics, funded by the NWO Domain Applied and Engineering Sciences, will develop new optical techniques. Researcher Frans Snik and Professor of Experimental Astrophysics Christoph Keller from Leiden Observatory will test novel approaches to monitor air pollution and discover…

Read more about the International Network Open Science & Scholarship Communities in our Vision and Mission statements.

Corporate R&D organizations and their relation to academic laboratories.

Working for a top faculty? Discover the vacancies at the Faculty of Science and apply immediately.

More than eighty students of the Honours College track Science & Society completed their thematic courses. Instead of filling out an exam, they presented a documentary or blog series. These new forms of assessments offered a new perspective on topics like homelessness and the use of mobile phones.

Good education is the basis for a fair and sustainable society. To maintain a high level of education, teachers, pupils, lecturers and students need new resources. One of the ways that Leiden University supports them in this is by conducting academic research, largely together with practicing teaching…

It is mostly rainfall and soil acidity that determine which microbes survive in a particular habitat and which do not. This knowledge is important for maintaining biodiversity. Leiden environmentalists contributed to the research. Publication in Nature on 1 August.

The master’s specialisation Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences and Industrial Pharmacy at Leiden University examines safety and quality control in the production of medicinal products, and prepares students for a career in Quality Assurance and Quality Control in the biotechnological and pharmaceutical ind…

The master’s specialisation Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences and Business Studies at Leiden University combines fundamental and applied research with different aspects of business studies.

Last month, Symposion, the study association for Philosophy students, organised this year's student-alumni career event. Four alumni joined the event to share their stories and insights. The alumni panel was held for all BA and MA students of Philosophy, in this thesis-writing and graduation-approaching…