Despite a lack of specific legislation on this issue, Dutch Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yeşilgöz is allowing the national police force to experiment with facial recognition technology.

You may have noticed this happening more often: your municipality sends you an online questionnaire to find out your opinion on the renovation of a certain area or the design plans for a new district. But how inclusive are these online platforms where citizens can participate in decisions on government…

In the second semester of this academic year (February 2025), the Faculty of the Humanities will switch to Ans for digital exams. Several lecturers have already gained experience with the new platform through pilot exams. Two lecturers from Dutch Studies, Liesbet Winkelmolen and Myra Arends, share their…

An online platform with instructive and social challenges to prepare students for the changing job market. This idea won the Piece of Skill team the Deans’ Challenge on 27 August. In this competition students invent solutions for global issues, selected by deans of Leiden University.

You are one of the almost 3.100 Ph.D.’s and post doc’s among the scientific staff of Leiden University and LUMC. We, Leiden University, are proud of our young researchers and feel a responsibility to help you continue your career.

Academics regularly face threats, intimidation and abuse. The Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) therefore launched the WetenschapVeilig platform on 7 November 2022.

Gianclaudio Malgieri, Associate Professor at eLaw – Centre for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University, was recently interviewed on the Legal 4 Tech (L4T) podcast. The discussion centred on legal vulnerability in digital platforms, including challenges individuals face in asserting their fundamental…

Systematisch geordend naslagwerk voor alle stadsrechten in Nederland

A brief review essay on some of the work that has been recently published in the emergent field of digital ethnography.

De Code voor Kinderrechten op het internet toont makers van apps en games hoe zij de rechten van kinderen kunnen beschermen en meenemen in hun ontwerp. Dat is hard nodig, zeggen de opstellers hoogleraar Recht en Digitale Technologie Simone van der Hof en onderzoeksdirecteur Sander van der Waal van stichting…

On Friday 12 March 2021, the (Dutch) website www.codevoorkinderrechten.nl was launched. This code for children’s rights has been created to help those involved in the development and design of digital services to develop these services with the interests of children in mind.

The new Language Learning Resource Centre was launched today at Leiden University. The LLRC is an initiative to unite all language teaching professionals working at Leiden University, and allow them to share their ideas and resources.

For the first time, students were able to develop their skills using a digital platform in Brightspace. It turned out to be a success: on average students who actively used the platform on achieved higher grades than students who used it less. But above all, the students themselves were pleased with…

The Royal Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Art have a long tradition of stimulating research in the arts. ACPA is currently developing with both institutions a new platform for research in and with the arts, with an emphasis on collaboration.

A new academic year means new courses. And that inevitably requires all sorts of new skills: academic writing, searching for sources, setting up a research project... The Science Skills Platform is packed with useful information. This way, you can easily help your students on their way.

FAIR-ASSESS is supported by a scientific committee comprising internal members connected to Leiden University and external members from outside the university with expertise in the field.

On Monday 9 October 2023, Jelena Belic, Matthew Canfield, Rachel Griffin, Henning Lahmann, and Barrie Sander presented their research on 'The Promise and Perils of Human Rights for Governing Digital Platforms' during a GTGC lunch seminar.

In a column on Mr. Online, Dirk Visser, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, looks at what You Tube is doing or should be doing to counter copyright infringements on the platform in a credible and effective manner.

MetaROR, a new open peer review platform, was launched today at the AIMOS 2024 conference in Canberra, Australia. MetaROR is a joint initiative of AIMOS and RoRI. As a core partner in RoRI, CWTS has been involved in the development of the platform with a couple of colleagues and is proud to contribute…

The Local Chamber of Associations (PKvV) has launched an online media platform that brings together all 24 Leiden student associations. It developed the platform over the past months in conjunction with Leiden University, University of Applied Sciences Leiden and Leiden Marketing.

HERLING (Research Lab for the Study of Heritage Languages of the Netherlands) is a new centre that aims to bridge the gap between scientific research and language communities.

We are living through an age in which social media platforms have given way to entirely new forms of politics and politicking. It is no exaggeration to say: there is a before and after social media.

What began as a PhD project has grown into a website with 120,000 unique visitors each year. With the platform OpenML, researcher Jan van Rijn is contributing to open science, aiming to make machine learning more transparent, accessible, and fair.

From the rights of refugee children to the right to a sustainable Earth. The online platform Leiden Children's Rights Observatory makes information on children’s rights accessible and raises the social and scientific debate on this subject worldwide. Ton Liefaard, Professor of Children's Rights and…

Leiden University has a new platform. On 19 September Vice-Rector Hester Bijl officially launched the LGBT+ Network.

Do you want to apply for this master’s programme at Leiden University? Find out how to apply for your programme by following the step-by step guide in the application and admission section.

FAIR-ASSESS brings together researchers from five different Leiden faculties, as well as experts from outside the university. The project has been initiated by Andrei Poama and is being led by Josette Daemen.

On 8 July 2021, The Francophone Association of Ombudspersons (L’Association des Ombudsmans et des Médiateurs de la Francophonie (AOMF)) launched their online course platform (CLOM) and training course 'Faire vivre les droits de l’enfant: des clés pour l’action'.

Students of the Biology minor course Molecular Design have successfully boosted their skills in collaboration, research and writing with the recently developed E-learning Skills Platform. The biology students and their teachers greatly value the initiative. ‘Sometimes I couldn’t believe what progress…

A consortium of knowledge institutes, led by Leiden University launched an online platform for analysis and research of sports and movement data on 7 September: Sport Data Valley. The platform offers coaches and athletes insight into their data and makes research on sports and exercise more efficient,…

After a promising start, also the second pilot of the digital Brightspace skills platform is a success. Third-year bachelor students had thirty new skill modules at their disposal to support them with their research assignment. Despite the additional challenges posed by COVID-19, students that used…

A global outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) caused issues today with our video conferencing software and video management platform. This resulted in: For the video conferencing software: Problems with joining meetings and group chats. For the video management platform: Delays in transcription and…

In 2021, the KABK, KC and ACPA established a joint research platform, called the Platform for Arts Research in Collaboration (PARC). How did PARC move forward the last year?

Last week, our The Hague Diplomacy Platform was awarded a 10.000 euro grant from the KNAW's 'Valued'-fund to help us in our efforts in science communication and spreading knowledge about diplomacy to a wider public.

The Institute of Environmental Sciences of the Leiden University has, together with its European partners, presented the new MULTIPLY platform, during a workshop at the European Space Agency (ESA). This platform makes it for the first time possible to combine different data stream’s of ESA’s newest…

Digital journalism is transforming the way in which information and communication technologies are used by media workers. With this change journalist practices, norms and values are also being reshaped. This is the conclusion of Tomás Dodds PhD research.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the major threats to human health. This week the National Antibiotic Development Platform, NADP, was officially launched via a meeting in Utrecht, with many of the stakeholders in the field present.

LUCIS is directed by Nathal Dessing, who is advised by a steering committee.

Sweetie 2.0 is a research project commissioned by Terre des Hommes on online child sex tourism and criminal law.

What issues arise in the changing landscape of privacy, identity and data protection?

In what ways do matters of cybersecurity affect the relationship between governments and citizens, have a bearing on (fundamental) rights and civil liberties, and alter the role and responsibilities of governments?

-

Digital Media in Human Development is an intensive programme. However, if you are a highly motived student you can consider applying for the Leiden Leadership Programme.

If you have a question, there are various ways to get in touch with us.

The master's programme in Education and Child Studies is an academic programme that focuses on the link between theory, research and practice.

Policy studies and interventions in the field of Youth

On Tuesday 30 September 2025, PhD candidate Jonathan Collins will defend his dissertation A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of the Far-Right Alt-Tech Social Media Movement in Leiden’s Academy Building. His work examines the communication dynamics of far-right communities on alternative…